It’s Friday! For some that is a day to celebrate the end of a long and busy week. However I am finding that when one works for oneself there really aren’t any defined days off. Even when I don’t have client quilts waiting in the wings I am still working at something for the business whether it’s designing quilts, or learning some new quilting designs.
This week was even busier than normal although I am excited at the new possibilities this will bring. I started working part time at a local quilt shop, The Cloth Castle . I only had a few short shifts this week however I loved it. I love helping people pick out fabrics and working with colour and seeing what they will create with their purchases.
The Cloth Castle is where I purchased my Handi Quilter Avante and the store usually has both an Avante and a HQ Simply Sixteen on the floor. These models are available to rent and you can either purchase the floor model or of course order a brand new one.
Yesterday I got to play with the Simply Sixteen and it’s a really nice little machine, I really liked it and it would be perfect for people who don’t have the space for a larger machine.
This morning I taught my first class on how to load and use the HQ Avante to some woman who were interested in maybe renting the machine.
Now some would think, but hey Janice, don’t you have your own longarm business, aren’t you taking business away from yourself? The opposite of that is won’t the store think you will steal all of their customers for yourself? Well, here is the thing. Angela Walters has her own store, does amazing longarm quilting for people and yet she also teaches, writes books and helps people quilt their own quilts.
There will always be people, like me, that love to quilt. We love the whole process from designing our quilts, piecing them and designing the quilting itself and then actually quilting the quilt. We don’t want to give up control of the design process to someone else.
There are still others who love to piece the quilts, they love working with the fabric, playing with colour but when it comes to basting the quilt and quilting it themselves, they just don’t want it, it simply doesn’t interest them. Those types would rather hand the quilt off to someone like me! Someone who can do that part of the process for them.
Next you have people who love the whole process but simply don’t have the space or money for a longarm and maybe just don’t have the time to complete everything themselves. For these people renting a longarm for an afternoon is an excellent alternative or maybe taking some machine quilting classes so they can quilt on their domestic machines. People in this category quite often utilize the services of a longarm quilter for their larger quilt tops or quilt tops that may require quilting that is beyond their capabilities or time allowances.
So, you see there is something here for everyone. I am excited to see where this leads and am looking forward to the journey.
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