There is a quilting group in Los Angeles. It consists of women who work in a law firm in LA. Their normal quilter was unable to do their quilt for them in time to get it ready for their annual quilt raffle. The group found me on Rosie's Calico Cupboard Longarm Volunteer list and gave me a call. We worked out the details and I made a commitment to have the quilt back to them by Thursday Oct 26th. That was October of last year, 2007.
We decided on a design and I started quilting it. It was on my frame when we got the call that my husband's mother had passed away. We flew up north to make the arrangements. My husband and his brother, an attorney, could handle things without me so I flew back to San Diego the next day. I had committed to have a booth at the Back Country Quilt Show starting the Thursday I returned and running through Saturday. The show went well and on Sunday, I was finally able to get busy on that quilt for the LA law firm.
I was more than half done when I noticed the smoke. The Witch Creek fire started about 3 miles from my home. Since the Cedar Creek fire of 2003, San Diego has put some lessons learned policies in place. One of those lessons is called 'reverse 911'. A voice tells you that there is a fire in xyz place and to prepare for evacuation. Of course, my husband is still hundreds of miles away in the bay area. I would have to do this evacuation on my own.
I stopped, packed the car with my customer quilts and other vital stuff. A friend who refused to evacuate agreed to feed my cat. I could drop the dog at my son's house and find a hotel to camp out until I could return. Sounds like a great plan, except there was the LA Law firm's quilt with a deadline 4 days hence.
After the initial "prepare to evacuate" call, I got 3 more increasingly strident-voiced calls that evacuation was mandatory. Yeah, but I have this quilt to finish.....
I finished that quilt. I pulled it off the frame, grabbed the dog and got out of there. The TV news later told me that I just beat the big rush on one of the two roads out of my neighborhood. The state of emergency meant that once we evac'd, we were supposed to stay off the roads to allow emergency vehicles to get around. Most businesses were closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I found an UPS store and mailed that quilt on Wednesday. They recieved it one day late.
So back to current time: LA LAW, (it's what I started calling them last year) has been good to me. I have 4 new customers from that group. They found out that I keep my commitments and can turn around a quilt faster than their previous quilter.
So this year, they sent another raffle quilt. This one is a scrambled 9-Patch which I have not heard of.
They used the most wonderful Alexander Henry Michi Kanji fabric collection rish with black and reds and wonderful Kanji-looking names. I made a note that the back was pieced when I did intake on the quilt writing down the size, horizontal and vertical (side) seams. The back is black with red Kanji on it. They sent a black poly batting.
I drew up the design plan and was getting ready to email the group with my biz blog with the design ideas when I noticed that there was something "not right" about the back. The back, though rather open with just the kanji symbols, had been pieced opposite. On one side the Kanji went up-down and on the other side, the Kanji went down-up. I pointed it out to them and they are Ok with me changing it.
I used Summa Blowing Pampas Grass in the field and Julie Mullin Eathlines Bamboo for the borders. Signature Black cotton thread and black batting.
I want them to make a ton of $$ on this quilt, too.
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