My colleagues, my friends - Part One

This weekend, I am ending my 10-year career in undergraduate admissions at Washington and Lee University.  I've been packing up my office, creating checklists for my successor, and saying goodbye to friends and colleagues across the University.  There's nothing like saying goodbye to make you realize how much someone means to you.

This morning, my fellow Admissions staff gathered around me to give me a gift.  Now, I've received many gifts in my life, but not many, if any, as meaningful as this.  This gift is so special, so perfect, that I'm not going to try to squeeze it all into one post.  Thus, this is Part One of a series of posts that will follow, highlighting my gift and the wonderful people who gave it to me.

(If you are a new reader to my blog, important context for this gift is that I am leaving this job to pursue a creative dream of mine - I'm opening a creative space for fiber artists here in town.)

It was tough to decide where to start, but I decided to start with Scotty, our receptionist.  I'm fairly certain that this gift was her idea, and it was a brilliant one.  I'm not surprised, though.  Scotty is an incredibly compassionate and insightful person, someone who listens to you with her whole being so that you KNOW that she is not just listening, but actually hearing what you are saying.  Her attention makes you feel like the most important and interesting person in the room.  It is what makes her a phenomenal receptionist, being the first smiling, welcoming face that prospective students see when they arrive at our office, and it is what makes her such a treasured friend.  She recommends books that are perfect for me.  She brings in delicious baked goods from her healthy kitchen.  She pays attention to what is happening in the lives of all of us here in the office, and makes little accommodations, unasked but so appreciated, to make our schedules better fit our frame of mind for that day.  She is one of those people that always seems to put others first.  She has been so wonderful to work with.

So apparently, she coordinated for everyone to receive a square of canvas, blank canvas, and they were each to create a block for me.  Can you think of a better gift for a quilter?  Personal - the personality of each person really comes out in their block; practical - I'm opening a fiber arts shop, so this gift will fit right into my scheme, especially since one of the things I want to offer is opportunities for people to come together to make occasion quilts for friends and family; and above all, creative - it is what I value most about quilting, the ability to express myself creatively.

Scotty made two blocks:

Yo-yos and beads, precisely aligned, and bursting with color.  Orange is my favorite color, what I consider my power color, the color I put on when I'm worried about having the strength to make it through the day.  I love that she used orange as well as the colors that make up orange - the combination makes me feel so happy and energized.  And the precision - folks, that's just Scotty.  She organizes our schedules down to the last detail and is always on top of what is going on.  This block is such a wonderful depiction of her personality.

How fun is this second block??  I love ric rac, and buy it up every chance I get.  And the jingle bells - what a wonderful detail.  She probably didn't know this, but I plan to have a strap of sleigh bells on the front door of my shop to alert me to when people arrive.  But what I love most about this block is how different it is from the first.  Where the first is orderly and precise, this one is so free and exuberant.  The two blocks together tell such a neat story of a woman that I am so honored to call friend.  Thank you, Scotty!

Stay tuned for more about my wonderful colleagues and their beautiful blocks in the coming days.

Last days

I have 5 days left working my current job, including today.  There are a lot of "lasts" taking place.  Last weekend was my last work trip - I presented at a conference at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.  It was bittersweet - even though I miss my family when I am gone, I enjoy traveling for work.  I tried to really relish this trip - after lunch the first day, I took a 3-mile walk around the neighborhood.  I was very excited when I saw a shop sign that read "Forget Me Knot".  Doesn't that make you think of thread of yarn or something fiber related?  I rushed over.

OK, a consignment shop of women's clothing, not what I was hoping for, but not a complete loss, either.  They actually had some really neat stuff in there, and I left with a dress and a pair of shoes, but I left behind several things that the me who hadn't just quit her job and decided to start her own business would have snapped up in a heartbeat.  Gotta be more frugal now that my income isn't going to be as stable.  But if you are ever visiting Chicago and like consignment shops, this one was tops, as far as I'm concerned!

On the plane, I got nearly all the hand quilting done in the rainbow chevron baby quilt.  I bet I have less than an hour of quilting left.  I should get it done so I can get it to the baby before she gets too big!  But instead of quilting, I've been painting.  They put a new bathroom floor down in my new shop, and so they pulled out the toilet and sink.  That was the perfect time to paint, right?  So even though I had to do it after work and after karate, I spent the last two evenings first priming and then painting.  Can you say "sore"?  But no more painting until my lease starts on August 1.  At that time, I plan to have lots of help to get the store prettied up in no time.

Here's what I was covering up - I've never painted over wallpaper before, but the landlady encouraged me to try it, rather than take the wallpaper off.  That's why I really had to prime first.  No after photo yet, but I painted the room Sherwood Green, one of the colors that will be on the exterior.

I also stitched up a storm so I could present Adam with his quilt top, made from his mother's shirts, on Father's Day.  It was 11:30 PM when I finished, but it was still Sunday and he was still awake, so that counts, right?  When he realized what the material was, he brought it up to his face to inhale, to see if her scent still lingered there.  The lump that formed in my throat is still there.  I think he likes it.  Now to get it finished!

There's a lot coming down the pipe for me.  As soon as I am finished here on Sunday, we are headed north to spend time with family for 2 weeks.  As soon as I get back, I'll be teaching at the summer art camp.  I have so much prep work to do that it makes my head hurt!  But I'll get it done.  And I'll enjoy doing it.

SO exciting!

It seems like everything in my life is exciting to me these days!

Here I am making my first deposit into my business checking account - my first summer camper's deposit!  I have 2 of 12 spots filled so far, and 2 months left to fill up the rest.

Yes, I gave the teller my phone and asked her to take my photo!

I've been much busier than I'd like, what with finishing up at my current job, planning a new business, a karate test (today!), a new puppy, etc, but I am still making progress on my hubby's quilt made from his mom's shirts, and I haven't given up hope of having the top pieced to present to him on Father's Day this Sunday.  I also think I want this one to be my entry into the County Fair Quilt Show this year.

The bottom left is already sewn together, that row through the middle is sewn together but not sewn to the bottom right section yet.  Playing with border ideas, trying to use up every scrap of the shirt sleeves and fronts for the front of the quilt and piece the shirt backs together for the back of the quilt.  The white is from 3 white oxford style shirts of hers, so it is all up-cycled shirt fabric.

And back to the puppy...we found the puppy's owners :(

But they are willing to let us have her since she's been gone over 2 weeks and they thought she was gone for good and since we've already invested in her by taking her to the vet. :)

Turns out her name is Belle.  I think that goes much more nicely with Biscuit than Jumpy.  Besides, she responds to Belle already.  Biscuit and Belle, my canine buddies!

What's exciting in YOUR life these days?

Too much going on!

I'm making progress on my hubby's quilt, piecing the center together and adding setting triangles, but not as much as I would like.  There's just too much going on!

This Saturday, I made an admissions presentation to my husband's Elite Basketball Camp, went to the quilt guild meeting, then spent several hours at Family Safety Day sponsored by our karate studio.  The smoke house that the firefighters brought was a big hit - I've never been in one before, but it was cool!  I think Donald thought it was his clubhouse - they couldn't even smoke him out of there with the fake smoke!

That evening, I invited my friend's 3 kids over for a sleepover.  They played basketball, and cooled off with popsicles.

They caught firelies, then took a break to bake sugar cookies for their mom/my friend

(her birthday was Sunday - maybe this is a new tradition, I had her kids for a sleepover the night before her birthday last year, too!), and then went back out to play kick the can under cover of darkness.  Luckily, they all slept in until 9 AM the next day after staying outside playing until 10:30.  That's what summer vacation is supposed to be like, right?

The next afternoon, we had a get-together out at her cabin, a combination birthday party for her/graduation party for all the scouts moving up to the middle school next year.  We ate, and the kids played in the creek while the adults talked and I stitched down one edge of binding for a Hurricane Sandy Relief quilt.

When we got home Sunday evening, I though, "OK, I'll prepare dinner, then go sew for a few hours."  Nope.  Donald was out in the woods building a fort, and look what followed him home.

The kids are calling her Jumpy.  I see why, since she is always jumping on people, but I imagine they might come to regret it 8 years from now when they are introducing her to their friends.

I will say, she wasn't nearly this cute when she followed him home - she was FILTHY!  Her hair was matted with burrs and twigs and who knows what else.  We gave her food and water, then after we ate, took her down to the creek at 9 PM to give her a bath with flea and tick shampoo, at which point, I discovered she was COVERED in ticks.  Ugh!  We set up the crate for her with a clean sheet for bedding, and it was after 10 PM before she and the kids were settled - no sewing that night.

Yesterday, I took her to the vet in the morning to find out if someone had reported her missing, what she is, how old she is, if they would do the tick removal for me, and if she's healthy.  When I picked her up in the evening, I learned that:

1) the vet put her photo on their website, and notified the SPCA and other area vets, but so far, no one has claimed her.  I'll be putting flyers in mailboxes in our area this afternoon.
2) She is likely an Australian Shepherd and is somewhere between 3 and 4 months old
3) She appears healthy, but they did remove a ton of ticks, one of which had the telltale bulls-eye mark around it, indicating Lyme exposure.  We started her on antibiotics - at this stage, it can be caught and cured, is my understanding.
4) We also started her on some vaccines, since we don't know if she's had any yet.

They were really good about doing some of the work for free since she isn't really my dog, although if no one claims her, she will be.  She's a sweetie!

And the best ting is, she's a GIRL!  She came right when I needed her, too.  My husband has a basketball camp all this week, and his 27 year old nephew and a college friend who now coaches basketball in Ohio are both here for the week working his camp and staying with us.  I'm surrounded by testosterone!  She is my ally in my male dominated world!

Can you tell?

The shirt stripe box quilt made from my MIL's quilt is getting bigger every day, so I needed to clear my design wall to make room.  An inner border, a pieced border and an outer border later, and this Spiral Log Cabin quilt was ready to come off the wall and into the "to be quilted" pile.

I LOVE IT!  It is 51" square.  Why did it take me so long to finish it, you ask?  Ah, the usual lament of the scrap quilter - I ran out of my background fabric.  I searched locally for more, but to no avail.  But I found another fabric that was close enough for me.  Can you tell that the background in the borders is different than the background in the blocks?  Take a closer look...

But you know what?  I don't care.  I've said it before, but the first quilting book I read, and the one that has had the greatest impact on me, is Roberta Horton's Scrap Quilts: The Art of Making Do. 

Do you have a book that has helped you to define your approach to quilting?

And back to the shirt stripe box quilt - it wasn't quite speaking to me until I turned the blocks on point.  BINGO!  This, I love!

As if that weren't enough sewing, I also sewed the binding onto the front of the last of the Hurricane Sandy Quilts that I have quilted.  Now to just have some waiting time to sew down the back.

The other thing I did this weekend was set up a website for the Quilt Camp for kids that I'll be running this summer just before my shop opens its doors to the public.  I put the link out on an announcement email at the University today and already got 4 emails from interested parties.  After work today, I printed out my corresponding brochure with the little tear off slips at the bottom and posted them in 8 or 9 places around town.  I am SO EXCITED about all this!  Can you tell?

Getting it done!

It was one of those days, one of those rare days, when I seemed to just be on the ball, getting done everything I set out to get done.  Some of that was sewing:

I finally finished the pillows for the READY afterschool program students who didn't finish during our classes.  I love that they went scrappy like I did.

I also like the fun fabrics they picked out for the pillow backs.

I'll get these to the students on Monday - just in time, since the last day of school is Tuesday!

I finally made that bifold fabric wallet I wanted to make for myself.  I used this tutorial and here's what I came up with.

Sewing through those thick seams was a challenge, but what I loved about this tutorial is that she had us sew with a 1/2" seam allowance and then trim down to 1/4".  I felt more confident about catching all layers that way.  I can't wait to fill it with my cards and cash and start using it tomorrow.  I've had that brown outside fabric for ages and could never decide what to do with it.  I love brown!

While working on these two things, I managed a couple more blocks for my hubby's quilt from his mother's shirts.

I'm thrilled at how closely these stripes are lining up without me having to work too hard to match them.

I wonder if I can have the top pieced in time to present that to him on Father's Day?  Hmmm.  I might need to make that my goal.  As far as quilting, I saved all the buttons I cut off the shirts, and I hope to tie it with those buttons.  Can you sew buttons on with a sewing machine?  I love the idea of the buttons, but the thought of sewing them all on by hand doesn't excite me.

Some of what I got done was business related.  I got my federal employer ID number and my VA retail sales tax certificate.  I got my local business license and paid my estimated business taxes for the year (strange to pay taxes BEFORE I even open!).  I opened my business bank accounts.  I figure if I just tackle one step at a time, this seemingly huge undertaking will seem less overwhelming.  Oh, and yesterday, I visit a Baby Lock dealer and decided on the Grace for my classroom sewing machines.  They are over 4 lbs lighter than the Janomes, and there was a pricing special going on that saved me over $400 on the set of 6 machines.

Finally, I got our summer pool pass, and visiting the pool with the boys.  While there, I swam 10 lengths (gotta ease my way back into my summer lap swimming) and disassembled two more of my MIL's shirts.  But while there, a woman saw me cutting and said, " Are you the quilt lady?  The one I read about in the newspaper?"

How flattering! (But this is a small town - anyone know that country song that tells how EVERYONE is famous in a small town?  That's us.)

But what was more flattering is that she works for our local newspaper and told me she's been wanting to do a story on me.  Could the timing be any better with me opening my shop later this summer?  The trip to the pool turned out to be even better than I had hoped!

It's Official!

I met with the attorney to set up the LLC and I signed my lease - it's official, folks, I'm opening a business!

The Stitchin' Post, a creative space for fiber artists to sell their products, teach their craft, share their resources and engage with a supportive and collaborative community of other fiber artists, will open at 117 S Main Street, Lexington, VA in late August.  Can you believe it???

Google Maps will show you the storefront, but the image is old.
View Larger Map There is a new striped awning where it now says Rockbridge Interiors - that will be me!  We took those "Envision Your Business Here" signs out of the window yesterday.  Aren't those display windows GREAT!  The owner is painting the exterior, and she consulted with me on colors.  We decided on two historic greens (the building was built in 1913 and has to conform with historic norms) with a lavender door for POP!
)

I'll be starting with 6 sewing machines for classes, and right now, I am debating between the Janome Magnolia 7330 and the Baby Lock Grace.  Does anyone have an opinion of either of those?  I'm looking for something simple enough for children to use, but sophisticated enough for an experienced sewist to appreciate, a hard working, reliable machine that won't give me trouble when multiple users operate it.  I'm limiting my machine search to those with dealers within 50 miles so I can have reliable service.  I'm also keeping costs in mind (sorry, Bernina and Viking - I just can't afford you!).  If anyone has any input about either of these machines or something else I should be considering, please comment!  I've also made an inquiry about Pfaff, but I haven't heard back from the dealer yet.  The dealers have been wonderful about working with me to get a volume discount on the machines.

Ack!  I can't believe it!  Big thanks to all of you for believing in me and encouraging me.  Please know that I'll be needing even more of that encouraging support in the months to come.

My husband called the other day and asked to speak with "my entrepreneurial wife."  Earlier this week he told me how proud he was of me, and last night he explained to my son how fearless I am, how brave you have to be to walk away from a perfectly good job to start something new on your own.  I love seeing myself through his eyes.  I couldn't have asked for a better husband and friend!