Moving Daze

It's official. I am moving the shop from a converted garage space (440 square feet) to an office space (app. 400 square feet) attached to storage units. I keep downsizing but as long as I have room for the Gammil longarm and a space for my friends to stop by and sew, I am satisfied.

I didn't choose to move; my current landlord wants to expand his "used stuff" business into the space I currently occupy. When informed that I would have to move, for a few brief moments, I thought about closing the shop and taking all my marbles and going home. Then sanity returned and I started checking into places to move the business. Before I became sane, I emailed my two daughters and my friend Denise, describing the situation and laying out the two options. Both girls simply emailed me back "Are you crazy?" and encouraged me to move by offering to help. Denise's reaction was a bit more emphatic: a phone call which when I answered all I heard was "Nooooooo!" So I am moving. I have the rest of the month of October to compress and discard and box up and walk across the street. Right -- across the street. I am moving from 101 North Street on the east side of High street to 106 North Street on the west side of High Street, still in Hebron, of course.

The new space has some definite advantages: private bathroom not shared with other occupants, no stairs, immaculate walls and floors, excellent lighting with a promise of a window to be put in by the front door.

The disadvantage is all the work of moving! Fortunately, I have many friends who are willing to help and it will all be fine. So as of November 1st, I will be settled in my new shop. And then the next weekend, I am going on a quilt retreat to Lakeside (a beautiful community on Lake Erie), and the retreat should heal all wounds and reinvigorate me for the Christmas rush. I usually quilt twice as many tops as normal during November and the first three weeks of December.

Some of those quilts are even my own. Recently I completed a full size quilt for the Heart of Ohio Auction and two baby quilts. I have at least fifteen quilt tops and probably ten additional wallhangings that are my own unquilted projects since it's difficult to find time for myself when other people are willing to pay me to quilt theirs. My love of piecing and creating quilt tops will undoubtedly continue to create this imbalance. There's always room for another quilt top, no matter how small the space.