Happy July 1. It's officially time to start closing in on all the Christmas gifts you plan to make this year. I thought I would take a minute to explain how Christmas quilting works at Finish Line Quilting. It's probably very similar for all longarm quilters.
This year, I have built hurricane power outages into my plan so won't have the situation I had last year. If we don't need them, I will just accept some additional quilts but not until November when hurricane season is officially over. No one can recover from 20+ days without power and Christmas quilts piling up!
With that said, as of today, I have 43 more spots for delivery before December 15. I try to never turn away work but I've got to accept that it's just not possible at Christmas. I'm going to turn away a lot of quilts. If I don't, I'll work myself to death and still not meet all the deadlines.
After September, it will be very difficult to find a quilter that can fit you in. If you have projects that will not be ready by September 1, here are the best ways to make sure you will get all your Christmas gifts done before Christmas.
1) Determine a realistic date when you will have each project ready for quilting.
2) Make a reservation. You can do this by phone at 318-233-8905. You could miss the date by a week and not loose your spot but having a deadline helps most folks to stay on track.
3) Pin an intake sheet or a paper with your name, phone number and when you need it returned by, even if you have a reservation. Allow time for binding, unless I'm doing that also. Allow time for mailing. 2-3 day post can take 2 weeks as Christmas nears.
4) If I'm mailing the quilt to you, make sure you include that post time in your requirements, too.
5) Plan on a quilt being in my studio for 2 weeks even if you have a reservation. I'm going to be making less trips to Aunt Nell's to drop them off so I can spend more days quilting.
I hope this helps you to get motivated to start early! There is nothing worse than rushing to get something done late in the season and then find that you can't get it quilted anywhere. Together we can make sure that doesn't happen.
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