I managed to accomplish things this week, in spite of a mini heat wave and chores that needed to be done. Window washing, and such, meh.

My biggest accomplishment was the quilting of the Split Nines quilt. I decided to make it a gift for someone who has a birthday at the end of the month. I hope they’ll appreciate it, and use it. I went with the Bayside pantograph, each row was ten minutes, on a huge quilt thats pretty quick. I used a new-to-me thread, Madeira Aeroquilt, it’s okay, a bit linty for polyester wrapped core, but it plays nice with the pre-wound Fil-tec bobbins.

I did a big photo shoot of the finished quilts from last week. I even got a few posted to the store. I am considering opening a new store at GoImagine, as I am becoming less enchanted with Etsy. I have been at Etsy for over five years, and I feel it is becoming an Amazon Clone. There is little to no human interaction available for help with running the store. Automated AI responses are exasperating. Plus the massive influx of POD and drop ship “crap”, way to take the handmade out of crafting Esty. There are over nine million Etsy shops, yeah, nine. So each month I get a note from a very nice AI, congratulating me on the 33 or so visits my shop got this month. GoImagine is small, only US based – but I don’t do overseas sales- and gives all of its profits to children’s charities. Sort of like how the lottery started out, lol. Most importantly it is run by people, actual humans that oversee applications and product submissions. The costs are comparable to the big E, a little less per listing, and they use Stripe credit card processing. They also collect the taxes for you, Etsy does too, but it can be a pain if your provider doesn’t. One thing I would have to start doing is promoting a bit more, probably on Instagram. My LOS account is a bit dusty over there, but occasionally I will post something.

The client quilt I took in is quilted, needs binding, so it’ll be finished next week. I am hoping to get the rest of the clothing disassembled for the memory quilt. I have a few more shirts to do. There is a mix of satin, flannel, and cotton knit, why/how do I get myself into these things? It is supposed to have a minky backing too. Just say no…except to friends and family.

The Treehouse is still being stitched, I can’t seem to make any headway on it. I am spending an hour or two a day on it and still, I don’t think I am half way through it. Maybe once I start the roof, it’ll go faster. The next pattern has been released, but I have not gotten it yet. It’s a Barn, a big red striped barn with cows around it. Thank you designer for the small size of this piece. I’m thinking of importing the barn into Pattern Keeper and seeing how it works on the tablet. The only hard part of that is getting the pattern page (bigger than 8 x 11) to fit on the scanner to make a pdf. Maybe I could take it to the local print shop, hmm – they may not do it because of copyright. PK has a function that uses a photo to convert it, but if you don’t keep the camera still, it messes up the lines and PK can’t do it.

The black backing fabric I ordered for the Halloween themed quilts arrived yesterday. Hoping to get those on the frame Sunday. We are hosting a party Sunday day, but maybe once everyone is gone I’ll be able to do that.

Be Kind.