Quilting for me...

Today, I have been working on one of my quilts.  It is nice getting one of my own done.  I was thinking about 6 years ago about this time when I was staring at my first customer quilt wondering if I could really do this.  Luckily for me, my first 5 quilts went really well, it wasn't until my 3 customer quilt that I had my first issue.  I think I did 3-4 of mine and my mom's before that first customer quilt.  I will be loading another quilt for that same customer this month.  I am always excited to hear from her, she seems like such a big part of who I am as a quilter!

Before purchasing my Millennium, I spent almost 2 years finishing every UFO I could.  I had 25 tops ready to practice on.  My mom also helped out by sending 50 of hers with me when I came home from visiting her.  My business took off and while I did quilt for both of us those number stayed pretty steady.  We both kept adding new tops as I got the ones in my closest quilted.

Last year this time, I had given up any hope of ever catching up.  It just wasn't possible for me to quilt any more then I was already quilting.  And more importantly, my customer quilting kept me busy.

In April I had a choice to make, upgrade my beloved Millie or purchase Quilt Path.  I can't believe how that decision has changed my world.  Not only did I quilt more customer quilts in 2013 then any year previous, I also quilted some of the "family" quilts in my closet.  I did not realize how many until today.  Today was "clean the studio while my quilt was quilting" day.  I decide to do a quick inventory of my "family" quilts.  Here is what I have left...

10 of mine
30 of Moms (not counting the 3 that are quilting and waiting on her next visit)
1 for my Sister
1 for my Mother in Law (it was actually pieced by Matt's grandmother)
2 Quilt of Valor

Before you get too excited for me, Mom is bringing another load of tops with her when she comes to visit.  As long as she is able to quilt, I will happily store any tops she produces.  If she wants one back right away, I put it on my customer list and get it done.  Otherwise they hang waiting for me to be a little ahead of schedule.

8 of mine will be allovers, the other 2 of them I want to do high end custom on.  I was hoping to get at least one of them done to enter into the CQG/CLA show in March.  It still might happen, but I don't want to rush either of them.  There are also a couple of my Mom's that need to be custom quilted.  My sister's quilt, my mother-in-law's quilt and both QOV are all custom.

This year I am going to set a goal of getting 2 "family" quilts done per month.