OK, business stuff. First of all, I loaded three more quilt photos on Society 6 here…if there’s something you see on my Gallery or Recent Work page that you want on a poster or a cutting board (really?), let me know. I’ll see if I have the right resolution photo for it. There’s also a link in my sidebar to Society 6 (or you can just search for my name). Wall art is 30% off until midnight tonight and I think your first order is also 20-30% off, if you’ve never used Society6. Just to be straight up, I don’t make a lot of money on the stuff on there, but it is a cheap and easy way for y’all to be able to own my work without being fabulously wealthy. I’m OK with that. When you win the lottery, you can come back and buy the original. You can tell your rich friends to go buy one. Seriously, I just had a phone conversation with a financial planner about my future retirement plans, and I’m panicking (it will be FIIINNNEEE).

Second, I’ve had a couple of commission requests in the last few days. I do commissions, usually small ones, and I’m usually pretty up front with the fact that I’m not cheap. I can’t be. My time is worth something, whether I’m copyediting, teaching, going to conferences (yes, I’m getting paid for some of my time there), or making art. I’m going to respect that and charge for my time. So if you came to me and said, “Hey I’d like one of your quilts, about this size, with these kinds of things in it, and I have this much money”, I’d suggest you go look at my Gallery and Recent Work pages, because sizes and prices are on there. I keep track of my time using an app, so even if a quilt is small, if it’s super complicated with a lot of pieces, it won’t be cheap. This one, And Then There Was One, is smallish…only 16 x 24″, and it’s priced at $2760 because it has 819 pieces and took over 56 hours to make…

Fussy stuff. It was not a commission. But this one was…

It’s only 8×10″ and was a simplified detail from my Mammogram quilt…

Which is 39“ w x 52“ h and $2900…relatively big, but not a whole lot of pieces.

If you’re still interested in a commission, know that my schedule is tight on a good month…right now, I’m running out into November sometime I think. Maybe longer. So I’d put you on the schedule, and then I’d do a drawing for you, usually for a drawing fee. That kind of depends on whether we have a past working relationship…some of my commission people are repeat users. I trust them to pay me. They trust me to hit the range they asked for. The drawing fee is just because once I’ve done that, you might decide, nah, I don’t wanna do this, and I don’t want to be out my time.

If you’re OK with the drawing (and I’ve edited before at that stage for the client), then I will start on the piece, usually with 50% down payment on the estimated total (includes the drawing fee; also depends on previous working relationship). I make the quilt, finish it so you can hang it, and then send it to you. You have a period of time to decide whether you really want it or not. If you don’t, you send it back, and we’re done. I’m partially paid for my time, you didn’t have to pay for all of it, I still own the quilt and can do something with it…maybe…depending on what it is. It is a bit of a risk for both of us, but that’s the wonder of commissions. If you like it, you pay me off and hang the quilt on your wall. Fini! Anyway, feel free to ask me about commissions. I’ve done a few that are pieces of larger quilts…one owl that someone really liked (actually all of my bird quilts are from larger quilts and can be remade) and then that part of the Mammogram quilt.

All that affects my ability to make my own art quilts, so that’s what I’m working on next. I’m debating how to handle it. There’s a show I was planning on entering that has one theme, but I could subvert it to this other theme in my head, but I probably wouldn’t get in. Probably wouldn’t get in anyway, just because I’d already changed it up and away from probably what the juror/curator are thinking. And I want to work with the ideas anyway. So let’s do it! I had started a drawing last week that I really didn’t like, but it was a way to play with the ideas…so last night, I taped big paper together (dangerous…I usually draw too detailed full size and that’s why it’s better to draw it smaller in the sketchbook and then enlarge it) and started sketching stuff out.

So the original unliked drawing is on the left, the larger paper and the revised drawing on the right (they don’t have a lot in common), and then my journal with all the words I had floating around when I was trying to think about all the ideas I wanted to corral in this space. It’s a start. I’ll hopefully work on it tonight some more. I’m gone a good chunk of next week, but if I’m going to get a quilt done by the end of the August, I need to get a significant bit of it done in the next month…before school rears its ugly head. Plus I have a copyediting job coming up.

Meanwhile I’m financial planning and trying to refi the house plus dealing with a road redo and dogs and appointments and all that. I don’t feel relaxed. Nope.

That’s on me.

Dogs. Stitches out Wednesday, then we can bathe her. She’s doing OK, but is definitely recovering slowly. He’s fine. Just a dick.

Well, we’re trying to keep him from licking his leg. She’s not licking anything, so she gets to be cone-free. Ironic, because he has no stitches and she has two batches of them plus shaved legs and side.

This thing is taking so long! I spent another 2 hours last night and did NOT run out of the blue (oh yes, I almost did)…I’m always closer to done but not actually done.

I’ll be stuck in a car for 2+ hours on Sunday and again on Tuesday. Please let it be done. Please let me get a couple more drawn before I leave. I rescheduled one of tomorrow’s events and I’m blowing off one tonight. I need time to get stuff done.

See my neighbor? He’s kind of a dick too.

But cute. Didn’t seem to care that I was out there. He wanted a drink of water. OK cool. You do you.

Today has gone by very quickly. We’re going to walk one of the dogs later, when it cools down a bit. I’m unapologetically ordering pizza for dinner. Cannot deal. I’m going to do some computer stuff that needs doing, try to draw for embroidery, and hopefully get some of the big drawing done. I should probably look at that hellacious to-do list as well. Damn thing. Rules my life.

Again. That’s on me. I can admit it. I can’t fix it.