Help, I Need Some Answers to Questions

I am taking a business class through my church. I need help asking about customers needs and why people buy certain products. It is difficult to do since the majority of our business is online with an occasional craft fair setting. I also have a set of questions for other small business owners.  I could really use some help answering questions if you have time. Feel free to email me at thealey101 @gmail.com to answer questions, if you don't want to comment on blog.  Either would be really appreciated.  

Customer buying needs:
Why do you buy patterns or quilts from a certain business?
What would change about a product?
What would make you want to buy more?
Is a price right?  Would you buy more at a lower price?
Would you still buy more if they raised the price?


Business owner
What do your customers buy most?
Why do you think people buy what you sell?
Who are your competitors? What is unique about your business?
Where do you get your product?  Are there other suppliers?
Do you think you could get a lower cost if you buy more at a time?
How did you decide on a price?  Are you profitable?
How do you find new customers?
What have been some of your keys to success? Biggest headache?

Batik's and Birthday's

Last year some time my wife bought me this huge stack of Batik's and as my wife said I did not seem excited or care.  I dont know how I went almost a year with out being excited about these but for my Birthday I decided to treat my self and cut into this stack.  I started last night (My B-Day Eve) and I finished this morning.  And will share in Pictures.

I really enjoyed visually how this stack was put together it had the lighter on one side and the darker on the other side.  So I had to get a picture of both sides of this bundle to show it all off.

The way my wife cuts material is so much different then my style of cutting.  Many or most I would assume cuts 1-2 layers of material at a time.  For me that is way too slow and not as efficient.

It might be hard to tell but the stacks that I am cutting are about 12-15 layers thick.  The cutting blade I use is the larger of the 2 standard size blades and I always make sure my blades are sharp as I like to cut thick stacks.

Here is more of a close up.  Please note these are 2 stacks thick each but gives you an idea of how many layers are in the stacks.

So you may ask what in the world am I doing with all of these.  My plans are too make 3 quilts (yes I cant ever seem to make a single quilt at a time, though Tanya is trying to convince me to make 4 rather then 3 quilts go figure)  To explain the material at the top of the above picture is what is left of my Fat Quarter Bundle which is about 1/3 of the fabric left.  The long strips will be a diagonal lap quilt and maybe a 2nd baby quilt if Tanya gets her way.  The 2 1/2 inch squares in the 3 bags will make 2 different quilts one will be one of my 25 squared patterns and the other will be a granny square quilt which I have made many times but never made a pattern for but will make a pattern this time while making it.

Well I still had a little time before having to leave for work so I started to sew my strips together.  At the point I took this picture the strips each had about 6 strips sewed together so the weight of it was dragging them off the side of the table.

The funny thing about Batik's are that my wife hates them and complains and the longer I play with them and sew them together the more she starts telling me how much she likes them and wants me to make more and more.  She just cant make up her mind.  

What I love most is the contrast in the colors.  Any way this is the pile that I had when all the strips were sewed and there is only 5 long strips left.

While I am finally at work and they thought to celebrate and since it also shows off the quilt on the wall in my office I took a picture sorry for the poor quality and poor editing I was at work after all but Happy B-Day to me.  And for those that are curious I turn 47 today.  I was born in the summer of 1969.

Last and not least Google had to get in on the B-Day Action and I seem to be getting a B-Day google celebration page.  If you click it it goes to my profile so good job Google and thanks.

Duck, Duck, Goose, and a Pillar of Nature completed.

I have been attempting to get more steps in walking and so today getting up early I started to walk from my house to the Jordan River Walkway and then down it to North Temple.

One of the things I see a lot of is ducks.  They are always on the north end of my walk and tons of them.  The few I got in the 2 pictures above is just a drop in the bucket compared to what there is along the trail.

What I do not see often is Goose (while I guess I dont know that is what they are but that is my guess and works well with the post title so I am going with that)  Just above North temple I found these 4 adult Gooses (hum Geese I think is the proper term)?  And a gaggle of baby Geese.  Any way once I saw the Geese I had to take their picture and share it with you.  And then of coarse tossed in a couple ducks for good measure.

Any way to some quilting news.  I finally got the Pillar of Nature (my sons name) completed quilting a couple days ago and its bound as of last night my wife should get it in the wash today.  This is from a pattern and a quilt I called Pillar of Fire as sold on Craftsy.  I also sell the pattern on Etsy here.

I started this quilt back in Jan of 2014 and posted about it here.  It took me clear tell Feb of 2015 to finish the top and posted about it here.   But better yet here is the finished Orange version of it and its blog post.  Oh and the Orange version of it is hanging on my office wall at work.

Any way my walk is over so more musing about quilting later.

Richard Healey

A Little of This and Some of That

I think all my recent quilting has inspired Tanya some.  Yesterday she commented that we needed to make a quilt for the daughter of a couple that liven a couple block away from us and I figured that was a hint that I needed to make another quilt.

When I next walked into the room my wife was cutting up and then started to sew together the quilt so I am guessing that she is now in the mood to do some piecing.  She let me know that I will quilt it, but she will make the top.

I have had this quilt above done for over a year in a box. Most of that time pinned together ready to quilt.  I finally got it quilted this last week and made my wife go shopping for binding as we had nothing that she said matched it.

So this morning, before work, I cut the bindings above for my purple quilt and green bindings for my sons quilt below.  So I guess I need to bind some quilts tonight I think I have 3 quilts quilted and just need bindings which were made this morning so yeah more quilts done.  I like being out of the non quilting rut that I was in.

Thanks for visiting Richard Healey

Mothers Day

This is a old picture but Happy Mother's Day Tanya From the Kids and Me.  Also Happy Mother's day to all the other mothers out there.  

And 

Happy Quilting