Well the last two months have been a whirlwind. From working a large quilt show here in Jacksonville FL for 3 days, to a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean, to coming back to work and couple of weeks later finding out that my hours at work will be cut to 24 from 40 hours. The plus side of fewer hours, maybe I can get reorganized to start putting some more quilting and piecing classes together in the local area. I also want to put into place a business plan to start my own business. Just not sure if I want to go into the direction of teaching quilting on a large scale or do my second love of computers. Starting a computer consulting business is very risky in that the field is flooded with everyone thinking they can give help about computers. I would love to combine the two fields together, teaching quilting and how to use the computer to the best advantage. So many things can make quilting easier if you can use the computer, from software programs, such as EQ, to drawing quilting designs on the computer first. Just the use of taking a picture and looking at the fabric in a different media will give you a different perceptive to fabric choices.
The one thing that I do know is that I will have to work on my computer certifications, bring them up to date. I finished school 4 years ago, and have not done anything with getting a job in the field or keeping my certifications up to date. So some of my extra time will be hitting the books again. The cut in hours will only be a short lived thing, the next step will be finding a new job in March when this job, ( with the cut hours) will lose the contract money completely.
On the teaching front I started teaching a beginners class from the Quilters' Academy book again. This time I have 4 students. The first night is a really fast and whirlwind of a time. Trying to get the terminology covered and try to start cutting on fabric, within a two hour time frame, is almost impossible. Last night was the second class and things went good, a couple of things about sewing the strip sets together and learning to rip is always the at the top of the things happening in the beginners class. With the extra time I will be able to post more about the classes and things from the Quilters' Academy book that I discover as I do the project myself.
