I have been bust behind the scenes getting things set up for an Etsy shop, and it’s finally live, right here!  I’m pretty happy with it, and my friend Serena of Serena Savage Designs put together the logo for me, after I told her I wanted something that was reminiscent of selvedge, but which was bright and happy.  Serena, you are the best!

In other new, I have also set myself up with business insurance so that I can have a booth at my first art/craft fair here in Saratoga Springs, NY.  While the fair will be every Thursday from 10-4 between June 21 and September 28 at Pavilion Park (where the Farmer’s Market is in the summers), I will be there only 5 of those days: I need time to make my inventory, and since it’s my first time out at a fair, I thought I’d cut myself a break.  I also need to find childcare for those days, since I don’t think hanging out with me is a) fair to the kids or b) fair to me or c) fair to the customers!

In the meantime, here are some things I have finished.  One is for sale, but one is a quilt I made for a dear friend.

Remember a while ago how I said that I loved the anticipation of making lists and getting ready to go?  Well, it occurred to me today that it’s a classic procrastination technique, when used properly.  ”I can’t do X or Y because I need Z tool/class/technique/miracle.”  In my case, I really dislike lacking proficiency, and since I can’t do it right the first time, I must be no good, so I might as well quit, bah humbug, I’m taking my toys and going home!

Except, I need to get over that.  That’s what practice is for.  I’m not oging ot be perfect right away (or even soon!), and I need to be OK with that.  Perhaps I should think of this as a valuable life lesson.

Hmph.

I must. have.  this.

I always thought I was a pretty decent piecer, that things more or less fit together as they should and lay the way they were supposed to.

Then I got my longarm and started practicing on some real quilts.  And that’s when I realized I needed to actually, you know, learn how to piece well.  Now that I was beginning to quilt the real deal, I noticed just how much wonky borders, big seams, and ripply blocks kind of suck.

I’m a self-taught quilter, so to help fix my precision piecing I’ve been reading Sally Collins’ The Art of Machine Piecing (kindle version), and have been rethinking some of my piecing techniques.  I’m going to try using a dry iron from here on out, for starters, and I’m also going to try the cutting technique she discusses, where you line up the black line on your ruler on top of the cut line.  There’s so much there, though, I need to really go slowly and make sure I remember it all.  Her work is all tiny (these blocks range from 3 to 6 inches finished), but I’m considering making some of the blocks for the practice.

Speaking of electronics, I just downloaded an app that helps solve a problem I’ve had.  I’ve been wanting an app that would allow me to draw quilting designs over photos of quilts and blocks I’ve taken so that I could see how it would look, in general.  There are many apps out there that do this in the $10 range for the iPad, but this one, Tracing Paper, is $2.99. and does exactly what I need: traces over pictures, I can put a grid over it if I choose, can change the shades of the pencil line, email the designs, etc.  The “lite” version is free.

After my class with Claudia Pfeil. My first feather attempt, ever!

Looks like I can go ahead and get my online stuff settled now that I’ve I received my Certificate of Authority from the state of New York!  This is really exciting!  Now I just need to set up my etsy store and get some stuff in it.

SO, basically the last few weeks have been really busy, just not with my own businessy stuff.  But it’s quilt related!  I and a few other ladies decided to start a modern quilt guild here in the Saratoga Springs/Capital Region of NY, and after a few weeks of intense emailing and practice, we formed the Saratoga Modern Quilt Guild and had our first meeting last Thursday.  We’ll have sewing meetings twice a month, and hopefully we can sew both times.

This is not legal advice IN ANY WAY.  This was how I started my path to filing as a business in Saratoga County.

I admit it was a little daunting to get up and running (and who am I kidding, I ain’t there yet!), but I was honestly surprised and pleased to see how helpful New York state is to people aiming to get started with a new business.  If you have decent reading comprehension and the time (and you should MAKE the time, if this is what you want to do), then you can work your way through the guidelines for starting up a business at the website for The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.  I particularly paid attention to Publication 750.  Among many others! I pretty much read anything and everything that might remotely be linked to what I am doing, since it’s best to be fully informed. While we’re at it, don’t forget checking out what the IRS has to say about small businesses.

I found the forms to file my DBA on the website of my specific county clerk, filed my DBA with the county clerk (really painless), set up a bank account under my business name, and then I filed for my Certificate of Authority to collect sales tax in NY.  Let me be really clear: no matter where I am, what state I’m in, how I’m planning to sell stuff (locally or online), it is myresponsibility to figure out how I will need to collect sales tax!  I needed to put on the big kid panties and do it, or else I would jeopardize my business and my personal finances.  I filed using another helpful website, the Online Permit Assistance and Licensing.  It’s not always immediately user friendly when you’re trying to find the actual link to the application, but where I thought it really shone was with defining the specific information I would need.  I picked out the general type of business in which I would be participating (Craft/Hobby Vendor) and from there it led me through a series of questions to identify all the documents pertinent to me, and at the end it gave me links to all of them.

NYS sometimes gets a bad rap for being … unhelpful.  The information is out there, and I found it really easy to access as a total n00b.  Well done, people.

(and let me repeat.  THIS IS NOT ADVICE, but simply how I got started on the paperwork path for MYSELF)

So.  I’ve been composing posts in my head as I’ve worked my way through the last, um, two weeks?  Ouch.  And there’s been a great deal going on that I should really have written about.  One of the reasons for the silence in the first week was that the weather here in upstate NY was just *too* gorgeous–a taste of the awesomeness of spring and summer.  There was much playing outdoors with the kiddies, the water toys were brought out for splashing, and, to quote Steinbeck, “the world was spinning in greased grooves.”

Maybe that kiss of warm and dulcet air was the reason that the creative juices really started flowing, because it’s been a whirlwind of activity here.  I’ve been working on my friend’s quilt, and it’s close to completion (pics and story to follow).  Two other ladies and I have begun the Saratoga Modern Quilt Guild, of which I am already thrilled and proud to be a part.  I’m going to MQX for the first time in a little under 2 weeks.  And yesterday, I made it to a quilting estate sale quite by accident, and ended up with the most amazing batik collection (about 87 yards), some great Japanese prints, a full 1930s fat quarter collection, and a bunch of other stuff for approximately a buck a yard.

All of which is awesome, but is part of the reason I haven’t posted, much as I wanted to.  Posting means less time sewing and quilting!  Something to ponder moving forward, because I think posting is important and I like to do it.

So, after the tornadoes in OK, someone found this quilt in a field and is trying to find its owner(s).  You never know–the internet is a crazy place and someone just might know something or someone to get this back to its owners.

Bit by bit.