Welcome!
I'm new to blogging, but not necessarily new to rambling on, so this will be both a learning experience and hopefully lots of fun! The plan is to add something new each week and keep you informed about what I am working on in my fabric design, pattern writing and quilting world. My store, The Quilt Company in Allison Park PA, my fabric line for Timeless Treasures and my kids (3), husband (1) and staff (11) are an inseparable part of my life, so you can plan on hearing about all of them.
I've been counseled by more experienced bloggers to avoid topics like politics and religion. That's not going to be easy. My husband is an elected official in our township and hearing about stupid political decisions is part of my daily life. In the religion area, it just so happens that I have a Catholic Store Manager. Debby calls on St. Anthony (the patron saint of lost items) so often at work that we now call him "Tony". As in "Have you seen the shipping log?", "No, ask Debby to check with Tony". I have to say, Tony has never let us down. I've never been one to avoid controversy and I certainly don't intend to offend, but sometimes politically incorrect topics are part of my life.
Hopefully you will find the fabric design process interesting. I am lucky to work for a wonderful company that allows me the freedom to work as I please, designing the pieces I want to work with and be as creative as time allows. Right now I am correcting the strike-offs for my "Lindsay" fabric line that will be introduced at Quilt Market in the spring. Lindsay is also the name of my youngest child. She is 16 and thinks these fabrics are the best thing I've ever done, so I named them after her.
Things tend to overlap in the fabric world, so I am also working on the projects for my Christmas of '08 line, The Pines. I need to have these projects done ASAP so that the Sales Reps can show them to Shop Owners when they show the fabric line right after the first of the year. I can tell you from a shop owner perspective, the LAST thing you want to see in mid January is more Christmas fabric, but that is the way this industry works.
At the same time I am also busy creating the samples for our January, February, March class schedule here in the store. For the first time in several years we are introducing not one, not two, but THREE new Block of the Month projects. One of them is Maggie Walkers new sea shell pattern, so the work is done, all we need to to is prepare the kits. The other two are my original design. Therefore I need to have the entire project finished before I can offer it to the rest of the world, piece-by-piece. Normally that isn't a problem, but I am having so much fun working on the Crazy Patch blocks that I don't want to stop and call them done! Debby is starting to hyperventelate, because she orders everything for the kits in the future and the ribbons and beads that I am including today will have to be available to include in the kits that we will be shipping 9 months from now. The more I add, the more she has to track! I'll post photos of the blocks as soon as they are ready.
Now it's time for me to get to work! Thanks for stopping by my blog, feel free to bookmark me and check back often!
Karen
1 comment:
Hi Karen,
I saw your blog announced in the newsletter. Great idea! I can't wait for the "Lindsay" line - I just have to make something out of it for my Lindsay. By the way, St. Tony and I are good friends, too, so I know exactly what you mean! And last, but not least - I saw that your first post was at 5 thirty something IN THE MORNING! I can't even think, much less figure out how to post comments on a blog that early in the morning. At our house, anything before sunrise is known as 0h-dark-hundred! Love the blog, keep up the good work!
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