7 years ago, I purchased a brand new APQS Millennium longarm, intending to start a longarming business from my home. "Millie," which I called her, and I had many adventures of quilting several customers' and my own quilts.
While waiting for a few customers to come in, I added a T-shirt and custom quilt making in the midst of my longarming business. For several of my customers' quilts, they would be custom-designed, then quilted on the longarm. It was about this time, I discovered I really enjoyed designing quilts for people.
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| Crossing Swords (First Quilt Pattern) |
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| GetAway |
Over the last couple of years, "Millie" had become very lonely sitting idle in her room, due to I was spending more time on new pattern designs. The only time she would be used was for finishing a display quilt. Also, I was starting to discover that the quilting was eating up my time and taking away from the designing process.
This past year, I had to hire other longarm quilters to do my quilting for me, because I was short on time with all my deadlines to meet. Which led to my husband and me to have a heart to heart about what we should do to free up more time for developing my patterns. First I want to talk with a good friend who has quilted a couple of my quilts in the past, to make sure that she could do my quilts for me, I made my decision to sell "Millie."
Two weeks ago, she went on the market, and we had several people come and look at her, but no real reasonable offers. Then, yesterday we had a lady come who really want to start a longarming business, and "Millie" went home with her a couple hours later.
I wish the new owner the best and hope she has great success in her new business.
After "Millie" left, I had really mixed emotions, and it was almost overwhelming to see the machine that got my business started to go. Moving forward, I know I will have more time to develop quilt patterns and hopefully more personal time which has been missing for a while.
GoodBye, Millie, you will be missed, but I hope you will not be as lonely in your new home!
Tina,
Designing to Inspire
The personal time is important and we have to figure out our balance. I hope that you remain happy with your decision - it sounds as though you have it figured out and that is a good thing. Best of luck as you clear space and rearrange to fit your new plans.
ReplyDeleteAwww. Millie was an important part of your journey; you might never have discovered your love of design had it not been for the longarming experience. So now she can go help someone else achieve their dreams. I call that a win!
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