Irritated with myself

I’ve written here about my inability to get organized, so it’s no secret that I have problems with that. Fortunately for me, however, most of the time I am able to lay my hands on whatever it is that I might need when I decide I need it. In that respect, I am happy to say that my lack of organization does not usually affect me in a detrimental manner.

Usually, anyway.

Bored with the same old tired quilt patterns, and with an idea in mind of something I want to do, I decided to install my copy of Electric Quilt 5 on my new computer. I had uninstalled it off the old laptop before giving it to my daughter, but never got around to putting it on my new computer. I figured I would play around with it a little bit and try to decide what I wanted to do with the charms I bought a couple of weeks ago. I knew exactly where the software was, so I figured this would be a five or ten minute install then I could get on with designing my new quilt.

I inserted the CD into my machine and waited eagerly, but after just one minute the Registration screen popped up. It requested the usual things – my name, my address, the serial number.

Uhhhhhh … the serial number? I thought about this for a couple of minutes and quickly turned to the trusty internet for information on where I could find it. Their website told me that I could find the serial number on the Getting Started book. Great, I thought, I saw that book recently. This shouldn’t be too difficult.

That was around noon yesterday and the book is STILL missing. I have practically torn my house apart and it is nowhere to be found. Have you ever seen a 40 year old woman throw a fit and act like a child who’s been denied her favorite treat in the candy store? I made that look innocent. Furious with myself for losing the book, I stormed about the house muttering to myself about the unfairness of it all and how much I suck for not being more organized. I believe there may have been a few naughty words and some very unkind thoughts involved as well.

To be fair, I moved into my house two and a half years ago, and there are still a few boxes hanging around. I went through what I think was all of them but I still may have missed the book. And I don’t know many people who would take a hundred dollar bill and run it through a shredder or set it on fire and watch it burn, which is essentially what I have done by not being able to find that serial number. This would be the second piece of sewing software that would be useless to me without the serial number.

Fortunately for me, the folks at Electric Quilt are extremely nice and helpful. They were able to look up my serial number for me, despite not remembering what name it was registered under (I often use my first name for stuff like this, or my first initial and middle name or just my initials), or even what address I lived at when I bought the software. I was, however, able to narrow down the city and they found it within just a few seconds. Tonight I’ll go home and install it on my new computer and play around with it.

In fact, my birthday is coming up in August, and I’m toying with the idea of asking for the Electric Quilt 6 upgrade … I just wish I knew where that Getting Started book was hiding for EQ5! It might help with remembering how this thing works …

 

My Momma Told Me …

You better shop around!

Yesterday, my mother and I went shopping together. No boring, crowded malls or shopping centers for us – our shopping trips are almost always exclusively centered around quilting. I consider myself really lucky to have a mom who quilts – and no, she didn’t get me into quilting. In fact, it was quite the other way around. It was because I enjoyed quilting so much that she became involved in it. Fortunate for me, because now I have a shopping buddy who understands color, pattern and fabric.

Anyway, we always browse everything in a shop, from fabrics to books to thread to sewing machines, if they carry them. Yesterday was no different. My mom had come to my side of town to check out our new quilt shop QuiltWorks. I’ve already been in there several times, but each time they have added more fabric. I already had a quilt in mind to make and I had the instruction book in the car so I could refer to it if needed.

We were checking out the books when we found a new Turning Twenty book, which features sashed blocks. It was absolutely beautiful – the front cover looked like stained glass. I turned it over to check out the price and was appalled to find that it was $24.95. You see, these are very small books – no more than 25 to 30 pages each. For $24.95, I would expect something more … substantial. I looked at my mom, a look of doubt in my eyes. “It doesn’t seem worth that much money,” she said.

I thought about it for a minute and decided to go check the price of the book I had in the car. I had bought it a couple of years ago at The Painted Pony. Knowing me, I reasoned, I wouldn’t have spent that much money on a book that small. So I went out and looked and sure enough, I had paid $10.95 for that book. I went back and told my mother, and we decided that neither of us would be willing to pay $25 for the book. We left the store without buying anything, hungry and ready to check out the next store.

When we got back in the car, I made a decision to call The Painted Pony and just ask if they had the book, how much it cost. They had it and it was $14.95. A difference of $10 between the two stores! And trust me, it would be worth it to drive across town for the difference, even with today’s gas prices – I would go to The Painted Pony even if there wasn’t a book involved! We didn’t go there, but my mother will be stopping by there to pick up two copies of the book – one for each of us.

So my mother was right … it really does pay to shop around.

Later, I will post about what we DID buy and what I plan to do with it. Until then, happy quilting!

 

Organizing the Studio – Take 1

I got all my pictures printed that I took of my studio the way it is now, measured my room, and headed to The Container Store on Wednesday night after work. My wonderful husband agreed to accompany me, so after stopping for a quick dinner, we found ourselves talking to a pleasant, if not terribly adept, gentleman about what I wanted for my space.

Let me just say that the first time I visited The Container Store and got excited about this project, I went to the store in the Houston Galleria area. The man there was very knowledgeable, he listened to me, and understood what I wanted. Unfortunately it’s also a pain to get there so I decided to go to the one that’s closer to me in the Champions area of Houston. I think that was my first mistake.

While the guy I dealt with at the Champions store was very nice, he was short on listening skills. I showed him pictures, I explained exactly what I wanted to do. He acted like he understood, so I let him work on the “plan” while my husband and I wandered around looking at things in the store. Finally, the plan was done, and I couldn’t wait to see it – it took about an hour from the time we walked into the store until the preliminary plan was completed.

But I was disappointed when I actually saw it. He kept telling me it could be changed, but I felt like he didn’t listen to what I’d said. I had given him three parameters …

1. I needed a table top for my serger and computer. I already have a very nice table for my sewing machine, but I did ask if they could do drawer-type storage under it (I could buy a cabinet from the manufacturer of the table, but it’s $1,000 just for seven drawers!)

2. On the same wall as the tabletop I wanted storage/shelving for craft books, threads, scissors – many things that, when I need them now, I almost always have to get up and walk across the room to retrieve them.

3. Nothing in the closet. I have quite a bit stored there now but I can’t see it and I want my fabric on shelves so I can easily find what I’m looking for. I want the closet to be a closet again, even if no clothes are hung in there for the time being.

First of all, he outfitted the closet with a “system” that would cost over $600 – all shelving, baskets and shoe boxes. There would be NO place to hang clothes at all, if I so desired. It was completely unnecessary and a total waste of time for him to even design it.

Secondly, I showed him pictures of my craft books and magazines. He designed the shelves to store them to be 12 inches apart. A lot of my books are at least that tall and would barely fit! Also, I showed him pictures of the plastic storage drawers I intend to continue to use, that would need to be placed on these shelves. I would much prefer the shelving to be 18 to 24 inches apart – which would eliminate at least half of the shelves he designed.

And he failed miserably when it came to the cabinet to go under my sewing machine table – I told him I only had 23 inches under the table. The “basket system” he designed for that area stands at nearly 30 inches tall.

There were other problems as well … he didn’t take into account that I already had one set of baskets that could be used in the room. He put shelving for my fabric on another wall that was spaced too closely together – he could have lost half the shelves and the design would have been better. And because he put all the baskets in the closet, he didn’t have nearly enough on the fabric wall.

They did email the plan to me, though, and I went through it and made some modifications – however, there is not a parts list or an individual listing of cost for each component. I ended up building a spreadsheet and taking the prices off their website to figure out a price. I brought the desk/book storage wall down from nearly $800 to just $450 – still quite an expenditure, but then I paid over $700 for my sewing machine table, and it has no storage at all. My redesign really would work better for me all around, too. The only thing I might add to it eventually would be some sort of storage baskets under the table top.

My mom and husband have both suggested I take my pictures and go back to the store in the Galleria and see if I get better results with them. I may do that …

I am very disappointed that the planning process did not include a list of parts that would be needed and a price list. I don’t like secrecy and I don’t like “package pricing”.

Still, I am pretty sure that this system can meet my needs … I just need to perfect the layout and then start working on buying it, a little at a time.