Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Ups and Downs and all around


Life is busy and here at Richard and Tanya Quilts we are behind on what we are doing.  This quilt above was quilted on Jan 9 2014 and almost 3 weeks later it is still sitting in a pile ready to wash and still waiting for its shot at fame here on our blog.   Part of the reason that I am so behind on posting what I am working on is that I have a bad knee.  I don't believe that I have mentioned this and its about time to do such.

About 2 and a half months ago I was taking 2 plates of food from our kitchen to my computer room and while exiting the kitchen I stepped over our baby gate that we had up to keep little Julia out of the kitchen.  Sadly to say I caught the toe of my shoe on the gate and fell directly on my knee (this is Richard speaking by the way).  I though at first that I had just bruised my ego and I sat there on the floor and had a good cry.  I took the next day off from work and just took it easy.


Well 2 months later and the knee has been killing me.  Last week I went to a specialist and I am told that I tore a little of this and a little of that and that I will need to have surgery to fix it.  This has been stressing me out and of course stressing Tanya out.  Well the day of the surgery is now only a couple days off.  I will be having Arthroscopic Knee Surgery Thursday of this week.  I am nervous and as such a little antsy and have not been doing as much sewing as I should be (Just ask my task master Tanya I am getting behind).


Not all things in our life is down, we have many things going up.  For example our little Julia is growing and she thinks that she gets to help mom make rolls.  Here she is getting into the food.  She really liked the idea of helping and you can see she really got into her work.


It was interesting tonight going though the camera looking for pictures for this post.  I found all kinds of fun pictures.  This is another quilt I quilted some time over the last 3 weeks that also has yet to be blogged about (I could be wrong about this as Tanya, I think posted this one already on our Etsy Store) and may have made a post about it though I don't think it has gone live yet.   These HST quilts I stared last year shortly before wounding myself I planned on making 3 new patterns and wanted to make 3 quilts of each of the 3 patterns for pictures.  This quilt is one of those made out of Reunion one of my most favorite lines.


Today while at work I decided it was about time to finally comment on my blog about the real distraction in my life.  I at the time could only think of negative things to talk about.  I hate to have posts that are bad news.  And my knee is bad news.  When I got home from work though Craftsy made up my mind for me on what could be my good news for today.  About 5:30 pm tonight I had a couple emails from sells of patterns on Craftsy.  Then a few minutes later I had a couple more.  Then a few minutes latter a couple more.  It was really a weird thing our Windows Quilt pattern (which we really thing is extremely cute has never really sold).  Within a 10 minute time span we sold 8 of them.  Wow was I excited.  I logged into Craftsy to figure out what was going on and on there Top 20 Patterns list as the above image shows I was there #1 best seller.  I think this is the first time I have ever been #1.


A couple weeks ago I grabbed this screen shot of my Easy Table Runners patter at #4 which generated 5-6 sells while on the Best Seller list (it quickly went away by the way). While the Windows Quilt pattern is now selling and blowing me away.  Talk about making my entire day today I have sold over 100 copies of this pattern in the last 6 hours.  Tanya and I starting this year made a commitment to each other that we are going to be in control and not spend even 1 penny this year on fabric or sewing sewing supplies  more then what we make this year on quilts or and patterns (Quilting Income).


(this by the way is the back of my diagonal quilt.  Tanya gives me grief about doing things on a angle but I think it turned out amazing and almost like it more then I like the front, which I will show off at another time)

So I am sitting here at 11pm writing this post and my poor phone is still making noise over each email about a pattern sale.  Poking around on Craftsy I found yet another neat little item.

  On the side bar of many pages is a neat "Featured Pattern Designer" and I have always wondered what you had to do to get your name listed there (Well I still am wondering and its my name there).  Wow to my shock and surprise I see my picture and my quilt and my story in big bold print.

With out taking any credit for the great pattern (since Tanya wrote it) I do have to admit it is my favorite quilt pattern (I created the idea of this quilt) as it has its roots in one of the first and worst quilt disasters that I ever did.  This pattern is based on a quilt named Train Wrek.  This quilt was quilted for Julia before she was born way back in January of 2012 over 2 years ago.

Reading that post is entertaining.  For one my style of writing and making posts has greatly changed, as well as the fabric I use to make my quilts.  Train Wrek for example was made out of  a Fat Quarter bundle that I bought at Walmart of all places (I don't generally look there for fabric any more).  Its funny I am reading the post and I did not even know that a fat quarter was called such.

Any way for those that are the praying type out there please keep me and my knee (oh and our family) in your prayers this week as I am still a little freaked out about this surgery.  But good thing is after it is done, I can afford to go buy a new bundle of material.  Wonder what other lines out there like Reunion will spark my interest.






9 comments:

Gene Black said...

Take a deep breath and relax Richard. All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
Praying for you and yours, buddy.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

You will recover fine - a scope is much easier to bounce back from. Sometimes it is just meant to be to slow down - stop and smell the roses.

Karens Quilts, Crows and Cardinals said...

Hi Richard... Just wanted to say that your projects are fantastic and that you're in thoughts and prayers here. No need to be nervous - just another day in the neighborhood. All will be well - stay positive. Take care now and get well. Karen

Laurie said...

Richard, I don't remember how I got the link to your pattern yesterday, but I put the link on Pinterest and it was repinned very soon after. I see that the second pin got pinned 4 more times ... and that's how things grow!! I love it.
I really like that your pattern is so inexpensive so we regular folk can buy it. Often I really like a pattern but $9-12 is pretty steep for me.
I hope your surgery goes well. My husband had that done over 20 years ago and it was a pretty quick recovery even back then.
Good luck to you!

Christine M said...

I hope all goes well for you with the surgery. My husband had arthroscopic knee surgery a couple of years ago and says it was the best thing he did. Congratulations on the best seller!

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine had this knee surgery, and it was a snap. He had to stay off the knee for a few days, and go to therapy for quite a while, walk with a cane for a bit, but it all worked out great, and I know yours will, too. I like this post. You have grown a lot as a quilter and a blogger. Congratulations on being #1, being a designer feature, and making so many sales with your pattern!

Unknown said...

Richard, don't worry about the knee surgery. I had a torn minescus (sorry about spelling)over 10 years ago, went for surgery in the morning, back home once I woke up with a week using crutches and I think a month of physical therapy and have never had any more trouble with it. I waited over 3 months (until my DH found me unable to get out of bed because of the pain) So get it done, all will go well and you will feel so much better in a short time.

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Hope your knee surgery goes well. It's so much better now, what they can do, with tiny cuts, than what they could do a few years ago. Obey the doctors orders so that you can heal quickly.

Lindsey said...

Oh my goodness--I can't imagine how bad that hurt when you fell! I have a lot of baby gates around and know how hard they are to get over sometimes! I hope your knee surgery goes well! Your quilts are lovely, and I am so glad to hear that you are selling your patterns on Craftsy! That is exciting! Thanks for linking up to Fabric Frenzy Friday!

--Lindsey

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...