Caution: Vacation Ahead

Some days I wonder why I even make plans to leave my house.

I've already decided that my tombstone should read "It was a good idea at the time". I've been stranded in Washington DC because my seat was given away, had my luggage lost in Philadelphia (numerous times), been grounded by hail in Denver, sat on the tarmac in New Jersey for hours, driven home instead of flying because of ice in Florida. I've been searched, patted and swabbed in the best and the worst airports in our country and abroad. Why won't I learn to just stay home?

Earlier this summer I was pouting because we hadn't made plans for a "real" vacation. Not the visit the kids, kiss the grand babies, give a lecture while you are their kind of trip, a REAL vacation. The kind where you go for nothing but relaxation and enjoyment. My husband had pretty much told me to put my big girl panties on and deal with it when I received a very enticing offer in my email box. Oh that wicked email. Norwegian Cruise Lines was offering a ridiculously low rate on a cruise out of New Orleans starting on Labor Day weekend. It would have been an absolute sin to pass up the balcony rate. Seven days, 4 ports and 3 dive sites that we have never been to.

My husband is an avid scuba diver and he talked me into joining him about 10 years ago. I really do love to dive, but the absolute best part is that all I have to do is suggest a diving trip and he is immediately agreeable. I found some cheap flights, booked a balcony and relaxed knowing that I had a "real" vacation to look forward to.

Then Lee showed up.

We lived in Florida for almost 8 years. I know when hurricane season starts and I know when it ends. I also know that cruise lines make adjustments to their itinerary when necessary to avoid storms. I'm OK with that. I honestly have to say that when Lee showed up, much earlier this week, I thought we had dodged a bullet. Then it was as if Lee realized that moving at the pace it was it would blow through New Orleans before Saturday and that wouldn't interrupt my plans. The travel gods couldn't have that, so Lee immediately SLOWED DOWN. It has been pummeling those poor people in southern Louisiana with rain for days.

This map shows the current conditions in New Orleans. 24 hours before our ship is set to sail. NCL decided not too long ago and notified their future passengers that it is too dangerous to bring the ship into port so those passengers currently on the ship get an extra day at sea, well south of the storm. Those of us that are set to board the ship.... we loose a day. Oh, and they suggest that we change our travel plans to arrive at the port no earlier than Monday evening. WHAT? Change travel plans to fly into a tropical storm a day later? Are they kidding? Setting aside the fact that making a change with the airlines weeks or months, let alone hours before your planned flight requires a credit line and willingness to strap yourself to the wing, what makes them think those planes won't be grounded? I realize they make their living on the water, but do they not know that they gauge these storms by SUSTAINED WINDS?

We are sticking to our original travel plans. Our flight on Sunday is from Pittsburgh to Houston and Houston to New Orleans. There is an excellent chance that the Houston to New Orleans segment will be canceled. No problem. I know Houston well. I attend Quilt Market there every year. Better yet, this month is the Texas Shop Hop. Almost every shop in Texas is participating. With 24 + hours to kill we will rent a car and hit as many Houston area shops as possible. I guess this vacation just turned into a business trip.

I Heart Ohio

I spent the better part of last week traveling the Ohio countryside with my husband. If you ever feel that the whole world has gone "you know where" in a hand basket, pack your bag and head for rural Ohio on a summer day. It will do wonders for your outlook on life.
This was not a vacation trip, it was work related. We probably would never have found our way to Greenville Ohio unless I had been invited to speak, but it was well worth the trip. We began the week in Maumee, Ohio, home of Checker Distributors and Creative Grids Rulers. I was one of the featured speakers for their annual Open House - my absolute favorite summer event. This is a wholesale show for shop owners, long armers and quilting professionals. The event is fabulous and the dinners each evening where the vendors and demonstrators have the chance to catch up with friends and network with other people in the industry are an absolute highlight. It was at this event last year that I learned from Sue Hausmann that my husbands official position in our company is as CEO. Which really stands for Carry Everything Out. I'm sure that he agrees because that is what he did for most of the week!

Finishing up after the Creative Grids designer meeting on Tuesday and having to be in Greenville, near Dayton on Thursday made the trip home to Pittsburgh silly, so we headed south to visit the grandbabies! Wednesday also happened to be my birthday and I don't think that I could have found a better way to celebrate than holding, hugging, snuggling, feeding and changing these two, especially when it was capped of with an all you could eat crab leg dinner on the kids deck!
Thursday we headed for Greenville and the Great Darke County Fair. I was the featured speaker on Friday afternoon and offered a class on Saturday morning at Smiths Merchants in nearby Arcanum. That left plenty of time to explore Greenville and the Great Darke County Fair. This isn't your average county fair, this is the largest county fair in the country and they have everything you think they should and more.

There were chickens - beautiful chickens - an entire barn full of rabbits, a swine barn and a Cow Palace. The Domestic Arts building was filled with quilting, crocheting, cross stitch and needlepoint. I was wondering why cooking wasn't represented in the Domestic Arts category until we found an entire room full of entries for the best pies, cakes and cookies, jellies, jams, etc. in a different building with flowers and vegetables.

My husband found his own way of enjoying the fair offerings.

This is him enjoying Greek food:

Sweet Potato Fries

Rootbeer Float

Bourbon Chicken

Fried Ice Cream

Hot Sausage

Fruit on a Stick

Foot Long Hot Dog

Burger

Pie

And then he picked out the tractor of his dreams.

I had to break the bad news to him that he couldn't bring it home. But the fair was so much fun that we might just go back and visit it again next year.

Isn't this a great looking quilt?

You can see it in person if you stop by the shop. The 60" by 80" sample is on loan from the pattern designer, Blue Underground. The name of the pattern is "A Bit Askew". I was immediately drawn to it the first time I saw it at Quilt Market and I'm thrilled that my customers will have the opportunity to see it in person.

I think everyone that looks at this type of quilt sees something different. Some people take one look and all they see is a hot mess. Others see creative possibilities. What if I used that pattern and all of my blue scraps with only red accents? What if I made it larger by adding solid black sashing between the blocks? Hmmm. Imagine the possibilities.

Do you want to know what I thought the first time I saw the quilt?

Remember the old commercial with the cracked egg in the frying pan? "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs" immediately came to mind. I thought "This is your brain, this is your brain in a quilt"!

Follow me here. To me, all of the black and white areas represent the mundane things I have to remember that clutter my brain everyday, grocery lists, when to pick up the dry cleaning, what size underwear my husband wears, etc. Those bright colored strips are the bursts of creativity! They are the fun, the excitement, the new quilts, fabric shopping trips, new patterns and new designs - the things that make you happy! I know for a fact that all of the stuff in my head is "A Bit Askew" and I love that there are "bursts of creativity" in every square.

I wonder what would happen if I made my own version of this quilt and reverse the fabrics? Every strip would be exciting, bold and beautiful with a few black and whites tossed in for accent. I would not straighten the strips, because to be honest, I like my life "A Bit Askew". With a brighter more exciting pallet and room for fewer mundane things, I wonder if it would be overwhelming? One thing is for sure, my husband would have to buy his own underwear.

Pavement Hell

Let's start with the assumption that inhaling the fumes from hot asphalt year after year destroys brain cells. At least that would provide some plausible explanation as to why my 4 DAY paving project took 4 WEEKS to complete.

Yes, I've been living in blacktop hell and I think of Phil as the Devil himself.

Phil is the person that we contracted to dig up our front parking lot, add several inches of new limestone for drainage and repave... IN APRIL!

We had a very wet spring. That put Phil behind. I understood. Mother Nature is not to be messed with. Phil assured us that he would be here in May. I understood, shuffled classes, made adjustments. No Phil. June 1st, Phil was still behind. More shuffling, more adjusting. I suggested that Phil wait until the first week of August to do our job. We are closed the first week of August and he could have the whole place to himself for an entire week. Phil laughed. He would be long gone by August 1st. Ours was a "little" 4 day job - if that! Probably wouldn't take more than 3 days. He would be here next week at the latest... he recited that exact statement to me each week for 4 consecutive weeks.

July 1st, just 4 months behind schedule, Phil delivered equipment to our parking lot. Then Phil got sick. He sent his "crew" to do the job. "The Plan" was for the men to dig up 1/2 of the lot, stone it and put down the base. Customers would have half of the lot to use. The next day they would repeat the process for the other half of the lot while customers parked on the base. Day three was "planned" to be a Sunday when we are closed, the top coat would go on the entire lot.

That would have been nice.

That isn't how it happened.

Phil's guys didn't understand "The Plan"

Phil's guys tore up the pavement and delivered crushed concrete. Crushed concrete isn't limestone. Limestone drains, crushed concrete doesn't. That explains the giant puddle in the photo. The whole reason for doing the job was to provide drainage and prevent heaving in the winter. We paid for limestone - We wanted limestone. We made them rip several ton of crushed concrete out and do it again. That took a week. Phil's guys weren't happy. Phil understood, but he still couldn't make them understand "The Plan".

Then the hydraulics broke on the paving machine and I left town for a week. My darling husband promised me that he would do his best to have Phil out of our life by the time I got back. I still love him anyway.

While I was away the Stooges managed to dig a trench and fill it in, forgetting that it was to be filled with the rock that was in the truck just 3 feet away. Do over #2.

They also managed to dig up our entrance drive (thank heaven we also have an exit drive at the opposite end of the lot) park their equipment and leave for the weekend. I was not happy when I returned and neither was Mother Nature. She stormed and dumped 18 inches of mud in our catch basin. Phil's guys had to clean it out.

I have a friend that keeps threatening to make t-shirts that say "Life is hard. It's even harder when you are stupid". I would like to buy them for Phil's Stooges.

Yesterday was the virtual straw that broke the camels back. Paving day. They were finally ready to put the top coat on the entire lot. Remembering "The Plan", they were to pave one half at a time. I remembered the plan - they didn't. I began to eye the steamroller and plot evil deeds.

All of our customers were forced to use the back parking lot - where the workmen stashed all of their equipment and trucks eating up more than half of the parking spaces. Then they had to enter through the back door and climb down a flight of stairs! We also had to receive UPS, FedEx and a tractor trailer delivery of a sewing center and cabinet down that same flight of stairs. Phil had to go. What ever it takes, Phil needed to be gone by the end of the day!!! I had had ENOUGH!

At 6pm I returned to the lot to find this. They ran out of asphalt with 3 feet left to go!

Just shoot me now....

Today they returned to "finish" the job, get out of my life, and they are done....

Except that they have to come back "later" to paint the lines for the parking spaces. I said "Great, you can do that next week while we are closed". Phil looked at me with his best Customer Service smile and replied "Can't. I'm on vacation next week."

I hope my $24,000 has a good time at the beach.

And the Winner is........

DPUTiger!

Your comment was selected by the random number generator to receive the free fat quarters! I also want to thank everyone that participated. We received some wonderful feedback and we will look closely at your requests as we do our future planning.

Judging from the comments that we received, most of you will be happy to see the new website when it goes live in the near future (keep in mind that "near" is relative - I think the first of September is really, really, near - but plan is to have it ready for the first week of August!) I agree whole heartily that it should have been done much sooner, but it is extremely time consuming and tedious work. Once we are up to speed, maintaining it will be easy, but doing all of the background work isn't my idea of a fun job. Let's face it, we here at The Quilt Company are all about the fun. It is why we come to work each day.

Then there is that little matter of ever changing technology. Our suppliers have been preaching "Social Media" as the way to go for over a year now. I have a website that is getting a total overhaul, I am repeatedly told I don't blog enough, I have to create yet another Facebook page for the store so that you can "like" us (ignore the current page - it isn't a business page and the new rules require a specific business page, it will go live with the new website)

Industry big wigs can't believe I don't tweet on Twitter. Really? Do all of you really want to know the details of my world? Because I can pretty much guarantee that the tweet I would be sending this morning would read something like "Of course it is RAINING! Now the fricken asphalt guy has yet ANOTHER reason that he won't be finishing the parking lot today". Later I might have to tweet that you should "Ignore the lump in the parking lot paving - I realize it is shaped like a body that has been flattened with a steamroller but that is a coincident. For the record I haven't seen Phil". That would probably get me into trouble and I would end up residing in a place that won't allow you to have pins, needles, scissors or other sharp impliments. Then where would we be?

The whole reason for the survey was to get a good idea of what my customers really want. I hear you - Sunday hours. Every now and then Sunday hours might be possible, but 7 days a week? Not happening. I have a life outside the shop too. More evening hours? We are already open on Monday and Thursday until 9pm. That is more hours than any other quilt shop in our area. You love Brandon - I can understand why. We have award winning customer service when it comes to our BERNINA Tech. Fast, reliable, and reasonably priced. What more could you want? How about 3 years of FREE Cleaning and a fabric discount? That is what is in the works for our those that purchase their BERNINA from us and we still have the absolute best prices on machines. Events - we are planning even more! Trunk shows for October and January. Handmade for the Holidays is planned for the Community Center so that everyone that wants to can attend.

If you are sorry that you didn't take the opportunity to voice your opinion, it isn't too late. You won't be in the running for the free fat quarters, but you can still speak your mind. Email me directly: mailto: Karen@thequiltcompany.com. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Don't Forget!!

The Quilt Company will be CLOSED FOR VACATION

from August 1-6.

On The Road Again

Hello from sunny and sweltering hot San Antonio, Texas

I'm off again on another business trip. This time to south Texas in the middle of July for BERNINA University. I lead such a glamorous life. Why a company would book a convention in south Texas when the average daily temperature is in triple digits is beyond me, but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

I do have to admit that the River Walk here is absolutely beautiful. Anyone that has the opportunity to visit would have to be jealous that their hometown doesn't have one. Wait - I live in the Pittsburgh area and we have three rivers! How hard would it be to dig a few canals, line them with fabulous shops and restaurants and beautiful landscaping? Someone should get right on that.

If you follow my blog, you already know that some of my travel woes are legendary. This trip started out a bit rocky when I attempted to print my boarding passes the evening before we left. A process that should be no big deal. Three hours and six phone calls later and I will admit to heaping some serious verbal a** kicking on the customer "service" operator, I had the required boarding passes. It took that long because the discount ticket agent that I used (Cheap-O Air - which should have been my first clue) "adjusted" our flights way back in April and "forgot" to "push the change thought the system" - for three months. Despite the phone conversation I had with them just three days earlier.

On the first flight I had the opportunity to catch up on some serious business reading. On the second flight I had the joy of sitting next to Quinn, an 8 year old traveling alone on his way home from his Grandma's and a trip to Disneyland. His very thoughtful Grandma packed him an entire backpack of sugary treats to keep him occupied on the trip. - gee thanks Grandma. I can attest to the fact that a zip lock bag of Oreo's, Sweedish Fish, Starburst Fruit Chews and a Slim Jim topped off with a can of Sprite are a volatile combination. - special thanks to the flight attendant that offered me a free glass of wine, but that even I don't drink at 10:30am. But I digress.

One of the business articles that I read was on Customer Service - or the lack of it, which I was experiencing first hand. In this article the business Guru's make a point that in order to provide excellent customer service, you should ask your customers what they want. Good idea.

So while I am sweltering on the River Walk here in south Texas, I have chores for you. Respond with a comment to this message and answer the following questions. I know that many of you are located in other states so you don't shop in my store, but you may order from us online. You can respond to my questions with answers that would apply to your own local quilt shop. Take part, participate, I will make it worthwhile. You have until July 24th to leave a comment, on the 25th I will use a random number generator to select a comment to receive a beautiful 8 piece fat quarter bundle. - that 2 yards of fabric for doing a little homework! Here are your questions:

What ONE thing could we do to improve customer service?

What ONE service could we add to make it more convenient to shop with us?

What ONE class or event could we add that you would like to attend?

More from Shipshewana

This is my second year attending the Shipshewana Festival. Last year I was there to teach Schoolhouse sessions, that event happens on Thursday. This year we also had a booth at the Vendor Mall in the Quilt Show.

It is a wonderful festival in an Amish town in northern Indiana. The drive there is totally relaxing as you watch the cities disappear and the corn fields roll by. Every business in town participates in the multi day event that starts on Wednesday and runs through Saturday and it also corresponds with the local Shop Hop.

This year the featured speaker was Kaye England. If you don't know Kaye, you should! She is one of the funniest quilters I know with tons of stories to share. She was a shop owner for years, but she has sold the stores to travel, teach, write and design fabrics. Kaye's personal collection of quilts were displayed in the automobile museum - sorry, I didn't have time to take photos there, but I can tell you that my husband thoroughly enjoyed his visit to see the cars!

The photo above was another of the impressive quilts in the quilt show and vendor mall. Beautiful piecing and lots and lots of quilting to show it off!

This ribbon winning quilt absolutely knocked my socks off! The applique was trapunto, the quilting was done by hand and the over all effect was absolutely beautiful. Look at all those stitches!


What made it even more impressive was the size. This photo shows that quilt hanging next to another ribbon winner.

From a distance I couldn't imagine why this Mariners compass wall hanging didn't have a ribbon on it. The colors are beautiful, the points are precise and the information indicated that it had been hand pieced. Upon closer inspection I could see that the quilting was done by machine. For some reason the quilter decided to quilt each point using a blanket stitch, making it appear that the points had been fused in place. All that handwork and no ribbon!

This Ohio Star quilt has 221 stars that measure THREE inches each! They were all set on point with three inch solid squares between them. Look at the amount of machine quilting there is in each square.

The blue border points were micro stippled and the white ones had these beautiful feathers.

I thought this large bed sized quilt was impressive! Bargello quilts have always been one of my husbands favorites and this multi directional one had him thinking that I should make one for our bed. It had me thinking that he should learn to quilt!

Why not put the Shipshewana Quilt Festival on your list of things to do in June 2012?