I won!

Katie, from Katie’s Quilting Corner, celebrated her 50th podcast with a giveaway…and I won!  Check out her website and podcast, she’s a busy gal with lots going on, and willing to share her ideas.

My copy of Quilt Design Wizard arrived in the mail yesterday, and I was able to install it this morning.

I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, though, as I’m off to finish the border on my customer’s hexagon quilt (this is just a sneak preview), then run a quick errand before the home opener for Boise State football…Go Broncos!! 

After that, I need to move my exercise machine into my office, as my stepdaughter is coming for a week long visit and I’m just beginning to get into a routine again.

What a day that’s planned, huh!?!  And that only covers half the list!

I hope you all enjoy your weekend too.

Keeping Busy

Where does the time go???  I thought it was just a few days ago that I last posted!

Where to begin?

I completed my customers’ three lap quilts, which you can see in my quilt gallery

and this *darling* pink and white 9 patch baby quilt, which she is giving to her new grand-niece.  I quilted it with the Valentine Hearts panto by Gali Design.

 

She promptly brought me two more quilts when she picked those up!  I was thrilled!  It sure is nice when someone likes your work and has confidence in your ability.

I was also able to get another customer’s first lap quilt completed, all in freehand feathers.  I really like how you can see them on the back of the quilt.

I’ve also been working on wrapping up a project to create a website for a law firm in Helena, Jackson, Murdo, & Grant P.C  Disclaimer here, my mom is a partner in the firm, so yes, I do have some affiliation!  It’s been a great learning experience and I am even more interested in the prospect of taking on other customers.

I’ve also been playing with the possibility of a website re-design of my own.  I like a lot of the features I currently have, but the current site design just doesn’t *grab* me!  I have been adding new items to the photo gallery, including my pantograph library, and making the thumbnail images larger, and I want to put my own store back online.

I’ve been investigating additional software packages, too, so I can add more features and take advantage of some new ideas I have…you might say I’m on a software binge!

Most people don’t see any correlation to software, programming, databases or computers to quilting, but I really think they have similar traits.  Some of it is science and some of it’s art, and you take the basic building blocks of what you need and you can come up with some of the most interesting, varied, and unexpected outcomes all starting out with the same pieces.  It’s amazing, it’s creative, and it’s powerful.

No wonder I like them both!

Busy, busy, busy!

I knew it had been awhile since I’d posted anything…my mind, and my fingers, have been racing around!

So, what have I been working on?

DH and I have signed up for a series of Community Education classes on Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights.  It’s taught by one of the local patent attorneys in town and has been very enlightening.  I have some ideas for patterns and I want to make sure I have an idea of what I might be getting myself into!

Homework, of course.  Two weeks ago the teacher assigned FOUR chapters for one week’s worth of homework!  AARGGHH!   I read 1 1/2 chapters, but have not turned in the assignment; this was the week that my middle stepdaughter went into the hospital unexpectedly and had abdominal surgery for an infection, and my DH flew to Seattle to be with her for a few days.  You know the saying “when the wife is happy, the husband is happy”?  Well, same for the reverse, and he was understandably stressed.  I didn’t expect it to affect me quite so strongly, but it did, even messing up my diet for the past 3 weeks.

I also got the tax information in to the accountant; now I have to work on this year’s information, because I messed up my inventory file by trying to adjust it to a new method.

I finished my customer’s quilt this weekend, it’s a simple meander on a purple and white gingham top.  I’ll post pictures soon, just haven’t taken any yet.

I haven’t installed the Pre-Design Studio software yet; I want to be able to spend some time with it and I know I will not get anything else done once I look at it.  I also would like to get some specs for a new computer; of course, then I have to build it and install my OS….

I’ve also been working on my mom’s Grizzly quilt, so I have lots of pieces and partially finished blocks done.  I figured out a really fun, easy way to put it together and it’s going to look so much more difficult than how I actually get it made!

And, I think I’ve finally narrowed the other Bronco quilt selection down for my customer, I just need to send her the photos to choose from.  That means I have another one, maybe two, quilts in progress.  I got some great ideas at my longarm networking group last week on where to show them off for sale, so need to work on that next.

Guild meeting on Thursday…

CueCat arrived!

My CueCat arrived this week and I was able to successfully “de-claw” it!  That means that the barcode is no longer encrypted to a proprietary format and I can scan all my books into the DataCrow open source media cataloger software I found.  So far I’ve got 51 books entered!

One thing leads to another, right?  Well, because I needed to pull the books off the shelf to scan them, I decided to reorganize the shelf entirely.  And that led to unscrewing one of the boards from the shelf holder in order to cut a semicircle into the board so I could run cords through it.  Now that everything is back up it doesn't look much different!

I did however get to work again with the audio cables and the mounted TV now plays audio through the stereo radio speakers, so that’s sort of cool.  It makes me want to figure out how to mount the speakers and/or get an all-in-one receiver of some sort, as I used a three way switch for all of the components.  I need to call the cable company to see if they have a smaller cable box; yes, we still use one as the other cable services that don't require it cost more money!  I still haven't gotten the sound from the Linux box connected to the computer; that wouldn’t work for me for some reason and it sure bugs me!  No matter, when I get a new computer my old XP box will get moved upstairs and then it will be a moot point.

I was able to load the customers quilt this week so it's already to get quilted, and I have to work on my QuickBooks today, too.  My back is sore from sitting at the computer all week and not moving around enough so I'd better go stretch and see what else I can get accomplished today.

Pre-Design Studio software!

Yesterday, I ordered a software package called Pre-Design Studio II!  It's a software package that allows you to create and print your own pantographs.  I saw it demonstrated at Innovations and was really impressed with it.

As wonderful as Adobe’s Creative Suite is, I've been struggling with it for this type of task.  I's simply been frustrating because there are so many options in each of the individual applications of that suite, I don't have enough training, and I don't even have the entire suite, further impeding my progress.

I'm hoping that because Pre-Design Studio is designed specifically for doing what I want to do, it will be a lot more straightforward and I'll get more accomplished.  I'll report back my findings when I get the software and hopefully I'll have a free design to offer my readers.  Hmmm…. maybe even a contest...?

Its big sister, Art & Stitch, is another package I've had my eye on but decided that I couldn't afford at this time.  Not only will it allow you to create and print pantograph's, you can digitize the designs for all current computerized quilting machines and embroidery machines.  So cool!!

Eventually, I'd like to become a certified teacher for both of these software packages so now I have another project on my hands!  One complaint I'll never have is being bored, eh?

Upcoming plans

I wish I were home today, as it is raining and gray outside, the perfect sewing weather!  I need to make up some time, as I did not quilt this weekend, as planned.  Instead, I updated both my husband’s and my websites, www.GriffinDrywall.com and www.ArtisanAtHeart.com

I am excited that I conquered the challenge of a new piece of software, as well as how the new FAQs now display in an accordion style!  There is still a lot of work left to do for my site, specifically getting the store back up and running and configuring it to use PayPal, but that is the nature of the beast!

I am also looking at submitting an application for one of the local farmer's markets to sell my quilts.  The table fee is quite reasonable, and I don't have to commit for the full season up front, which is a concern since I don’t have a large inventory of quilts to sell yet.

One reason I haven’t posted much lately is that  I have been working on testing a particular pattern to see if I can make some quilts in a production style method, while still maintaining quality, and I have been very pleased so far.  I think I can have several lap/baby sized quilts completed in 2-3 weeks, which will make having a table at the market feasible, as well as showing some larger quilts for customers to order in their own colors.

So, I have lots of quilting plans, not to mention normal “life” plans.  I feel very blessed to have so much to look forward to.  I hope to also achieve balance in my approach, enjoying the entire journey and appreciating the experiences with the busy-ness that can be so all-consuming.

Geek alert…

Today I literally spent the entire day on the computer.  For some people that might not be too amazing but since I do computer support all week, I tend to avoid the computer in my free time as much as possible.  However, I just got “in the zone” and ended up knocking off a couple of items from my To Do List.  Not only did I try out new shopping cart software for my site, I also needed to update my husband's website with a photo gallery.

Let me tell you, if you use Joomla for your website and need a a photo gallery component, you've got to try JoomGallery!  I was astounded at  how extremely easy it was to install and how many configuration options were available.  It offered the integrated, full featured, photo gallery I was looking for.

Some configurations took more time to figure out what they affected than others, and, being completely new to the software, it seemed to me that a couple of settings had to be changed in two places and I wasn't sure why, although they were not hard to find.

One item that was not obvious, and undocumented, was how to change the display name of the Gallery page, which needs to be edited in the global Joomla language file.  That information was gleaned from the forum pages, and is new with the introduction of Joomla 1.5.

I'm ecstatic about this component, and highly recommend it!

I’ll reserve my judgment on the shopping cart software until I’ve had time to populate it with data and test it.  So, more to come…