Month: April 2011

Posted on

Part 8: Construction…yes, MORE construction!

No doubt we needed to expand!  Again. {the poor men in our family!!}  It wasn’t long and they were back to the drawing board/sheet rocking/sanding/painting/exhaustion. {started January 2010}  With this addition we knew we had to put in a new bathroom and a heating and air conditioning system.  Did I mention that this old building we were in was a car dealership?  It only had one, yucky-very old-nasty-super gross ‘Men’s only’ bathroom!!  EW!  That in itself, was so embarrassing!  We hated to let anyone use it.

So off we went, expanding again.

We didn’t have money for carpet so we painted the floor green.  What can I say, I love color…and they didn’t have PINK floor paint or I would have used that! LOL  {seriously}

The boys installed a drop ceiling, air ducts, and plumbing {for the bathroom} mudded, taped and sanded everything.  It was looking great and we were THRILLED!!!!

Is it crazy that this whole experience is still so surreal to us all?  I still can hardly believe it myself looking back, how quickly things have progressed.  Sometimes it feels like we’ve been doing this forever, some days I still feel like a total newbie!

One thing for sure, we were/ ARE  living the DREAM! Excited {and sometimes un-organized} through it all!

More to come….

~Sarah

Ps.  This is a series I am writing to take you through our experience.

Here are some links to the the other parts if you missed them.

Part 1, 2,  3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Posted on

A few things…

This week has been wonderful.  The kids are swimming twice a week and we have taken nightly family walks!  {how much more perfect can it get, right?}

This morning we woke up to rain and dare I say it is beautiful?  I know.  I can hardly believe my OWN self, saying that!  Hah!  However, I will use it as a good excuse to start on a few projects that have taken a backseat.  {I’ve only gotten the 2 1/2 inch squares cut, as you can see above}

I have some organinzing of my ‘home-office’ to do as well.

I am super excited about the weekend.  We have some fun family stuff planned and boy do we need that!  {cleaning the garage!! YIPPEE!}

Also on the agenda is getting my trip to Spring Market planned.  (I mean, technically it is planned, I just have to buy the plane ticket)

What is your weekend shaping up to be?  Do you have anything fun planned?  Or productive?

Also:

Have you wanted one of these? Get it now, it’s on sale!

Vanessa has a cute tutorial for a ruffled pillow here.

Have you seen those Union Jack Quilt blocks in Blog land?  Amy is making some and they are so cool!

These are seriously the cutest things EVER!  {and they look so yummy!!}

Here is a bunch of new products JUST IN at MSQC!  Cute, cute, cute!

I hope you all have a wonderful, HAPPY and oh-so-productive weekend!

See you Monday!

Sarah

Posted on

Quilts made by:YOU!

I  got this email from Carol of TWO of the quilts she’s just finished!  {I love getting pics in my email}  It makes me happy to see your finished projects and see what your working on!

Carol made this quilt one using this tutorial for the idea {then she made five sections of braid and decided from there how she wanted it to look}, a Prayer Flag Jelly roll and a binding tool.  {for her shashing, she used Bella solid golden wheat)

Isn’t it lovely?  I just love how that Wheat color makes all the other colors in the quilt POP!

This next one she used one charm pack {Sweethearts from Benartex} and a Kona Classic Jelly roll to sash around each 5″ square!

I love it!

Thanks so much for sharing your finished quilts with us Carol!

We love them!

~Sarah

More to come on our ‘Progress’

Have a great Wednesday!

Posted on

Part7: Growing some more!

A new room, we decided was a must.  We had moved around the tables-shelves-and displays enough!  We had a great group of women that sewed with us for our Friday night sew and we just needed more space!

Remember, that while all this shop stuff was going on, my Dad and husband both work regular full time jobs and have been the labor force behind 99% of the remodeling.

We were thrilled to finally be able to open the doors to our new room, NEVER imagining we would be able to fill it with fabric.  Really, I thought that there was NO way, we would ever have enough fabric to fill that space!! Ever.  { do I sound like a broken record yet? }

Well, as you can see BOOM the first night we used it, it was full!  Not with fabric but with people!  What a blessing.  I did look at Dad {that very night} and say that we were gonna have to get started on the other room.  Really, in utter disbelief.  It was still pretty empty as far as product went, but that didn’t take long to fill up either.

Friday night sews for us have always been a blast!  We get to really visit with each other and hear and share hilarious stories that frankly, bring us closer together!  We are just like one big family.  We tease each other {remind each other to boil the manicotti before filling them}, laugh together and yes, we even cry together.  Each one of our customers mean so much to me, and I realized that we wouldn’t be here without them.

Can you believe that it ONLY gets BETTER!?!?!?  This was only July-August 2009  We hadn’t even been open a whole year.

Posted on

Part 6: Our ‘new’ normal…and growth.

April 2009 Poor Mom was miserable. {and grumpy and needy and miserable} Hehe

Well, we were trucking along trying to figure this adventure out with Mom still in a  lot of pain.  We decided to go ahead with our plans for classes and just see where we went.    ***If I don’t sound very sympathetic please forgive me.  It was just the way I was raised.  Mom herself will tell you that sympathy was never her strong point.  And really, I am just teasing.  I figure since I’m writing it I can say whatever I want to, right?!  Hahah!***

One of the classes we offered was called ‘Stitchin’ Chicks’ and it was for the 10-15yr old crowd.  Boy did we have a blast with those girls!  We made pillow cases, pajama shorts, notebook covers, aprons and so much more.  They were the sweetest group ever and I am so glad we did that!  We also held a class for the local 4H group and that was a blast as well.

I want you to really take notice of the pictures:  We only have ONE room open.  We only have a few shelves of fabric, and we have room for our sewing tables in the middle of our one room shop!  We were still moving everything to the edges of the room when we’d have our Friday night sews and classes and it was working fine!  We knew though, that we would have to expand…we just thought we had a bit more time!  LOL.

By June we had volunteered to do a Booth and a Quilt Show at our County (Caldwell County, MO)  Civil War Reenactment.  {the first one, ever}

We were really excited to be a part of it, and be able to help showcase some of the Counties best quilts!!  What a blast we had!  We have the BEST customers/friends ever and we couldn’t have done the Quilt Show without all of them!  It was a very exciting time for us and for our County!  {I hope we do something like that again, it was such a great event!}

Things were still very touch and go with Mom.  She would think she was feeling better, then she would be up to much on her leg and boom, she’d be back in bed.  Finally the doctor decided she needed surgery.  At least now we had a plan and hoped that plan included her being able to heal. {fingers were crossed}

In spite of everything, business was still good.  Our Machine Quilting {thank you Natalie} was picking up a lot of steam, and quite frankly, paid the bills.  {I said bills, not wages.}  But we had a plan, and it was working….and we were happy!