Chicago, Chicago

My husband, our son and I arrived home late last night after six full days in Chicago. Cary and Brandon were in training to become certified Bernina Sewing Machine Technicians. As a new Bernina dealer we want to provide top notch service. Even though it is a well known fact around here that my husband is capable of doing anything I ask of him, certified training is the only way to go.

A great tec person is worth their weight in gold and the only way "good" becomes "great" is through experience and training. After all, nobody wants to trust their sewing machine "baby" to unqualified hands. I am happy to report that I feel very confident that once my customers meet Brandon, they will be willing to trust their "baby" to MY baby.

Little did I know that years ago when Brandon was using my scrap basket to make ponytail scrunchies as a way to meet girls, I actually had a Tec in training! I should have seen the clues, especially because he developed an interested in exactly what my machines could do much earlier than his sisters.

To prep Brandon for his repair class, I insisted that he actually sew several things starting with Christmas gifts for his sisters. He learn to embroider and experienced several successes as well as a few failures before attending training. I think it is important that he understand YOUR level of frustration when something is wrong with your machine.

His experience certainly helped him understand what to look for in training. It also helped build his confidence along with the fact that he has unlimited access to this amazing Chicago Tec department that is staffed by Swiss Technician if he ever feels he is in over his head.

While my Tecs spent long days ripping apart and reassembling thousand dollar sewing machines I spent the week in new dealer training classes.

Six days is a long time to spend on a business trip. It means 5 nights of sleeping in a Holiday Inn while the work at home keeps piling up. In my case it also meant spending from 8am until 6pm each and every day in a hotel conference room with the same people. That could have been a recipe for disaster. Thankfully, it was a very enjoyable group! I think that we would all agree that our tour of the home office was the highlight of the week.

You can see us in their spotless warehouse ohhhing and awhing over carton after carton of sewing machine accessories. LOOK AT THAT STACK OF MACHINES! They would fill several tractor trailer trucks. With the top of the line selling for around $12,000, can you imagine what that pile of goodies is worth? The Bernina warehouse also houses Brewer, a book pattern and notions distributor. I would have gladly skipped lunch if they would have allowed me to roam these aisles and peek inside all of those bins of goodies! - maybe next time.

Now I have to get back to work and catch up on my quilt shop responsibilities.

Travel

I have a suggestion for those of you that plan to travel by air in these uncertain times. If you have a desire to get to your destination in a timely fashion I suggest that you follow the TSA rules (although they don't seem to follow their own rules) and I have one extra special tip for you. Check to make sure that there are no Montgomerys on your flight. I am referring specifically to any Montgomery that would be directly related to me.

The airlines can be a tad cranky about showing you the passenger list, so I suggest that you proceed directly to your gate, take a look around and see if you can see me or any members of my immediate family. For those of you that aren't familiar with my immediate family and still have a desire to arrive at your destination on time, it would be well worth your while to just stand up and announce "Is anyone here related to Karen Montgomery"? Members of my family will then fess up and you can immediately rebook yourself on a different flight.

It won't matter if your flight was direct from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and re booking means that you now have a layover in Bangladesh, you are going to get there faster if you don't travel with us.

My travel woes are legendary. I have missed 3 days of a Scandinavian cruise because of a truck accident in Philadelphia. It makes for a great story, but I missed the white cliffs of Dover. I have spent 5 days touring the Mediterranean without my luggage courtesy of USAirways. We even left an entire day early for that trip, just to make sure that everything would go well. I have spent countless nights in odd cities because my connecting flight was late or the last flight out was canceled. I avoid Philadelphia like it has a plague and I would rather travel to Atlanta to get home from New York than be the last flight out of Washington/Dulles. For years I thought that it was only I that traveled under a black cloud, but as it turns out, it is genetic.

Our daughter Lindsay flew back to college in Jacksonville Florida on the same day that some nut in Newark decided to walk the wrong way through security. You might think that a jerk in Newark wouldn't have any effect on travel from Pittsburgh to Jacksonville, but you would be wrong. Nothing flys direct to Jacksonville. Lindsay had a layover in Charlotte. Her connecting flight originated in ... you guessed it, Newark.

To make a long story short (and traveling with us is always a long story) our attempt to get Lindsay back on campus, in to her new room, and ready for class the next day failed miserably. She was rerouted to Gainesville where a friend agreed to make the 70 mile drive to pick her up and help her get back to school. Meanwhile, USAirways managed to loose her bag. The very same bag that they charged us $25 to put on the plane. After a ridiculous runaround, they found her bag - in Jacksonville. They delivered the kid to the wrong city and the bag to the right one! Oh, that TSA "rule" that says they won't put a bag on a plane unless you are traveling with it.... they lie.

I've been busy putting my calendar back together after the upgrade to Windows 7, confirming hotel reservations and flight info for speaking engagements and training classes. I may be the only person that makes travel arrangements based on where I would like to be stranded. Next week three of us are traveling to Chicago. Three Montgomerys on the same plane? .... we decided to drive!

Back In The Swing

Inventory is finally over, the new POS system is running pretty smoothly, the shop is put back together and I finally feel like things are getting back to normal around here.

I snapped a few shots of the store because it is always fun to look back and see where we have been and how things have changed. This year the big difference is the new opening in the far wall that leads to our new batik room. The Bernina sewing machines live in our old batik space in front of the big arched window. Those photos didn't turn out - too much glare from the snow outside!

The second reason that I was busy snapping photos is that we have been selected to be featured in a special issue of McCalls Quilting. As a "Hometown Favorite" quilt shop, I had to design a quilt exclusively for them and provide photos of the shop and myself. The issue is set to hit the newsstands this spring, so I am going to have to figure out how to take more photos that don't show the snow outside. Not showing the snow in the shop photos will be easier than not showing the wrinkles in the photo of myself. Is it just me or is the image you have of yourself a lot younger than the image you see in the mirror?

One thing I know for sure, the older you get the better friends you have. In addition to my BFF Bernie, I "hang" with a wonderful group of shop owners. We trade ideas, work together on special events, support each other through thick and thin and laugh a lot. Most of us have blogs and I think that when you are finished here, you should click on over to read what Debbie has to say about what you are worth. Scroll down to her December 31st entry. While my favorites differ from Debs, the idea is the same, check it out.

http://quiltingpossibilitiestimes.blogspot.com/

Just because things were running so smoothly, I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 this week. Technology and I don't get along too well on a normal basis, making changes always tosses me a curve. The upgrade erased my contact list and calendar, that means I have lost the dates for the speaking engagements I have scheduled this year. That's going to make my life interesting.......

What Holiday?

Here I am in blog detention again.

I feel like I missed the holidays and much of the whoopla that goes along with them. Thankfully I think things are getting back to our normal level of wackiness.

Do you want to hazard a guess what I have been doing that has kept me so busy?

A. Stitching up hand-made items for everyone on my gift list?

B. Decorating my house, baking cookies and hosting holiday parties?

C. Starring as the Ghost of Christmas Past in the local production of "A Christmas Carol"?

D. None of the above.

Yep, you guessed it, the answer is "D" none of the above.

I've been working harder than ever before. Our store is now an official Bernina Dealership and the preparation for that has been all consuming. I have barely taken a stitch on a sewing machine since Thanksgiving. I did manage to festoon our house with exactly 2 garland swags and my cookie baking was limited to melting a few dozen Hershey kisses over pretzels and squishing a nut on top, no mixer required. I did make me feel a little like the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Being a Bernina Dealer isn't the hard part. Moving a ton of fabric to make room for the cabinets that I ordered to display the machines is another story. Cleaning out files, cabinets, nooks and crannies to make room for the machines, the accessories, the instruction books, etc, etc, etc, isn't nearly as much fun as the look on a customer's face when they make the decision and say "I'll take it"! - that makes it all worthwhile! It is fun to see happy and excited customers walk out the door with their new machines.

Naturally we don't want to be just another dealer. We want to be the kind of dealer that our customers rave about. That requires lots of training, lots attention to detail and lots of hours. To handle all of the details, Santa brought our shop an early Christmas present in the form of a Point Of Sale system, otherwise known as a POS. For those of you that don't speak "retail", a POS system is the light beam that scans the black and white barcode on your merchandise. That little "beep" that you hear means that your purchase has been rung into the register.

It is absolutely amazing that through the "magic" of technology a red beam of light pointed at a group of black and white lines can identify exactly what is being sold, know the price, the color, the manufacturer, tell you when to reorder and keep a record of customer purchases. It CAN do all of that IF someone tells it which little black lines are which. Basically a POS system is an enormous, brilliant brain that when new, is completely empty. Filling it up is a full time job. In lieu of "Jingle Bells" I've been listening to beep, beep, beep, beep, beep as we entered about a half a million items into the new brain.

Now the brain is full, the system is smart and the only thing left to do is to train the brains that work at the shop how to use it!

Anyone feel like celebrating?

I'm Old

There are times in your life, as you get older, that the outside world sneaks up on you and lets you know that you are not as young as you think. In my world this usually happens when I least expect it.

I was having a completely enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend with my family. I was thrilled to have the "big" kids home. We were laughing and talking when someone brought up the subject of old TV programs. The boys were arguing which police/detective show was the best ever and my husband and I were telling them that most of the classics happened before they were born. The subject of "The Man From Uncle" came up. I mentioned that as a young kid (I was 10 when the show went off the air) I had a horrible crush on Illya Kuryakin.

I know that I am not alone here, after all, he was young, handsome, was an exotic Russian, and when you spent the day in a classroom of boys with crew cuts, you couldn't help but love that gorgeous blond hair. Napoleon Solo may have been smart, but Illya Kuryakin always got the girl.

My husband laughed at my childhood crush and asked me if I had any idea what my long lost love was doing now.

I hadn't a clue.

He told me that I see him at least once a week.

Huh?

I'm terrible at remembering actors real names (I was informed that Illya's real name is David McCallum). I rarely remember what they have played in. After much taunting, they finally informed me that Illya is now a member of the N.C.I.S team. Really? Hmm. Not Gibs. Couldn't be one of the younger officers......

DUCKY???

The "hunk" from my childhood is DUCKY???

Say it ain't so!

This is the same man that couldn't walk down the street in New York without being mobbed by teenage girls? This is the guy that always got the girl. This is the guy that at the age of 8 I wanted to grow up and marry?

To quote Dick and Jane "Change, change change".

Changes

My BBF, who I normally exchange emails with almost everyday, sent me a message that said "If you can't find time to write back, at least update the blog"! I'm afraid I have been pretty lax about keeping in touch electronically with the outside world.

I've been totally consumed for the last few weeks playing dominoes with my husband. Not the normal game, we are playing the grown up version of Construction Dominoes. I'm sure that you all have played this popular game where one project effects another, and another, and another... Our current game board is my quilt shop. We will be making a "big" announcement very soon and we have decided to do some "sprucing up". In preparation we plan to shift some merchandise to make more effective use of our space.

Over the years, as our business has grown, we have stretched and squeezed our building to suit our needs, but the interior walls have remained in place. For this spin on the merchandise roulette wheel, I decided that a section of wall had to go. It would open our main selling space to a nice size room that currently served as my office/wholesale/storage/ junk room. It would improve our traffic flow into the classroom space and give us room for more fabric shelves. That is the good news.

The bad news is that I would have to clean out that room to make it happen. Not an easy task. We have hundreds of copies of the patterns that we produce in that room. It also contains - or contained- a large color printer and all the paper and ink supplies, my work table, shipping supplies, seasonal merchandise, design files, as well as every other item that nobody knew what to do with. If it didn't have a home, it was tossed into that room. You know what a hard time quilters have throwing even the teeny tiny scraps away.

My idea was to spend the next several weeks (or longer) moving and rearranging as I sorted through "stuff" that cluttered the room, which I have to admit was long overdue for a good cleaning. My HUSBAND'S idea was to take the wall down this past weekend while I was away on retreat. We had an obvious conflict in timing. He won.

Ours is a mixed marriage. He is neat and organized, I'm not. If he is having a really bad day, nothing makes him happier than being able to clean something out and throw something away. I on the other hand am a quilter. I don't throw anything away if I plan to use it at some point in this lifetime. I might NEED it for a project. That scrap of fabric might be THE piece I need to complete an award winning project someday. Thirty + years of explaining this concept to him has made him a bit more understanding, but he still gives me "that look" when I try to justify my piles of pieces that are threatening to take over our lives. After all, who in their right mind would toss out 41 perfectly cut triangles or 28 half square triangle blocks that were left from a project that is not yet quilted?

My husband thinks I need an intervention. Although I think he should mind his own business, I have to admit that he might, possibly, but I am not saying he is, ... right.

If I am completely honest with myself, I have to admit that I am never going to do anything with those corners I clipped off of the 200 flying geese units that I made for the quilt I finished 8 years ago. But they are so nicely pressed, and squared up, and stacked in neat little piles. There must be enough to make....... a small table runner? I could add borders! I don't really want or need a 200 piece table runner that matches a quilt that I have given away, which explains why the neatly stacked triangles are still in the drawer. They sit right next to the neatly paired triangles that were left from a project that I can't even remember making. Those are on top of the T-shirt squares that I cut from my son's grade school shirts. My son is 28.

Ok, ok, I have to go shopping today, I guess I will add a box of extra large garbage bags to the list!

Only in New York

Tuesday and Wednesday were travel days for me. I was in New York City working with Timeless Treasures on my "next" and "next after that" fabric lines. Now that I have officially named the line that will be released at Spring Quilt Market we can eliminate some confusion and start to call to that one "Lauren".

Part of the joy of working with Timeless Treasures is that they have absolutely no restrictions on what I want my fabric lines to look like. I truly appreciate the latitude they extend to me because I love working with different styles, so why should all of my fabric lines have to look the same? They did suggest that for the new line a girls name seemed appropriate.

Several seasons ago I did a collection named "Lindsay". It was so named because my youngest daughter thought it was the "coolest stuff" I had ever done. The new line is named after my married daughter who is now Lauren Olson. The line was based on an antique floral piece that I fell in love with. It has beautiful shaded roses, lilacs and morning glory vines on a really great background. The coordinates are soft and bedroom like in a classic Ralph Lauren style. The line has a lot more in common with Ralph than it does with my 29 year old urban chic, sophisticated daughter. Unfortunately if I design an urban chic sophisticated fabric line, it wouldn't make sense to name it Lauren. I actually called my daughter to make sure that it was OK to put her name on a fabric line that isn't her taste. She graciously agreed and now I want to make a public commitment that if I ever design an urban chic and sophisticated fabric collection, I will name it "Olson".

My time in New York is always fun and frequently eventful. There is always something strange happening in that town. This time the weather was wonderful with only a slight chill in the air - until I left the office and started to walk around SoHo to do a little shopping. I was on the phone with my daughter when I literally ran right into a pile of snow!

A film crew was getting ready to shoot something right outside of the Old Navy store on Broadway. I finished my conversation with Lauren and used my phone to snap a few photos to share with you.

This one is of the crew setting up the lights and equipment on the opposite side of the street. Those are normal people walking by and lots of traffic on the street like nothing strange was happening!

I assumed that the filming was an Old Navy commercial, because the "snow" was limited to the sidewalk just outside the store, but the next day I found out that they have been filming a movie all around the area.

What you are looking at in this photo is one of the several Arctic Glacier trucks that were filled with giant blocks of ice. The crew was sliding the blocks of ice down a ramp into a tree chipper and using a hose to spread the "snow" around the sidewalk.

If those crazy Old Navy mannequins show up in a commercial standing outside in the snow, you can say you saw the "before" photos here. Come to think of it, if this is an Old Navy commercial they are filming, isn't it a bit weird that they are using real snow and fake people?

And for those of you that were wondering, I got back to the hotel too late, too hungry and much too tired to request a goldfish to keep company!