A new quilt design in the works - blues and greens
Wow. It has been a rather slow month. A slow month that happens to coincide with I&S signing a new commercial lease for 5 more years at 30% higher rent. Don't get me started. Yes they can do that (our old lease had no 'options') and no there's not much we can do about it. But we do get to stay in our beloved Younghusband building which we've worked hard to preserve as a creative hub, and provided the increased rent doesn't see our fellow artisans being replaced with accountants who want "funky" office space, we're grateful to be staying here.
But back to things being slow. It's funny, if you ask other small business owners how things are they'll mostly say "fine, fine" until you tell them you're going through a slow patch and then they'll confess "oh me too!". Not everybody wants to admit when times are a bit tough, but sometimes they are! The peaks and troughs are just part of small business. The tricky part is not letting it get you down, and maintaining the confidence that all will be fine in a few weeks. There's an art to that, I reckon. One that I haven't quite finessed, but I am trying to stay a bit zen about it all. The other tricky thing to balance is how much you talk about these kind of things. On one hand there feels like immense pressure to maintain a facade of confidence and all-is-well-ness, but on the other hand I really hate the pretence and not being able to be myself. There's enough lofty standards splashed all over blog-land at the moment. I think I'd rather be the one saying "hey it's not always great"... I'm not always very good at doing that.
Anyway, the good side of a protracted slow patch is the opportunity to get things done. There's the long list of to-do's that I've been putting off, but there's also a host of things I haven't had the quiet brain space to even conceptualize. I've finally managed to find a bit of that calm, quiet head space, and am now feeling quite inspired & full of new ideas. Silver lining and all that.
Above and below are some pics of a little something I'm working on. A design and instructions for a new quilt, that looks quite random but actually has an easy to follow pattern & instructions. AND, it can be made with whatever combination of printed and plain fabrics you like. More on that soon!
But back to things being slow. It's funny, if you ask other small business owners how things are they'll mostly say "fine, fine" until you tell them you're going through a slow patch and then they'll confess "oh me too!". Not everybody wants to admit when times are a bit tough, but sometimes they are! The peaks and troughs are just part of small business. The tricky part is not letting it get you down, and maintaining the confidence that all will be fine in a few weeks. There's an art to that, I reckon. One that I haven't quite finessed, but I am trying to stay a bit zen about it all. The other tricky thing to balance is how much you talk about these kind of things. On one hand there feels like immense pressure to maintain a facade of confidence and all-is-well-ness, but on the other hand I really hate the pretence and not being able to be myself. There's enough lofty standards splashed all over blog-land at the moment. I think I'd rather be the one saying "hey it's not always great"... I'm not always very good at doing that.
Anyway, the good side of a protracted slow patch is the opportunity to get things done. There's the long list of to-do's that I've been putting off, but there's also a host of things I haven't had the quiet brain space to even conceptualize. I've finally managed to find a bit of that calm, quiet head space, and am now feeling quite inspired & full of new ideas. Silver lining and all that.
Above and below are some pics of a little something I'm working on. A design and instructions for a new quilt, that looks quite random but actually has an easy to follow pattern & instructions. AND, it can be made with whatever combination of printed and plain fabrics you like. More on that soon!
Pressing those seams...
Quilt top complete - mustards and neutralsxx
