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I broke the side of my fingernail on my middle finger, left hand, while sewing. It was a deep break. I didn't even think about it. I picked up the scissors and cut it as deep as I could. I went on sewing.

I'm left handed. When cutting my left hand finger nails, I rotate my left hand fingers, not the scissors.

gene

Quickbooks: Biggest time saver I own.
Sewing machine: Just like a Timex watch, except I don't lick it.
Refrigerator: it keeps my pop cold in the summer, and it keeps my pop from freezing in the winter.
gene

The grass always "looks" greener on the other side. Sometimes, though, it turns out to be astroturf.

How tuff life must be when the best next step is suicide?

The older we get the more folks die around us.

I loved the comedian George Burns. He's 97 years old being interviewed on a TV show. They are taking questions from the audience. A woman, very sarcastically, asked him "What does your doctor say about you smoking all those cigars?" George Burns takes a big puff on his cigar, and then says, "My doctor is dead."

The glass is half empty, and it is half full. We get to choose which half we want to focus on.

gene

I got a new customer recently (third one from the same upholsterer) who got tired of their upholsterer smoking cigarettes. I don't think it bothered the designer but she had a customer complain, again, about the smell.

No one smokes in my shop.

Iruthb: Is the cigarette smell getting into your bottom layer where you have your shop? Light an insense stick in the kitchen and see if the smell from one stick makes it to your shop. How about lighting an insense stick everytime someone lights a cigarette? Do you think the smell would make it all the way down? You may not smell the cigarette smoke in your bottom layer because you are used to it.

Fabreeze maskes smells. Someone on this forum said they smoke and they spray all their furniture with Fabreeze before it leaves their shop. As a non smoker, I think this is gross. (Please, no offense intended, it's just an honest comment on how I feel as a non smoker. Oh, I do enjoy a few fine cigars when I'm wilderness canoeing, so I am not a total !@$!@$ on this non smoking thing).

I sometimes wonder what might be more harmful to us, cigarette smoke or chemicals like Fabreeze?

Ozone makes the smoke molicules leave the air and stick to surfaces. It can be expensive.

One option might be to better ventilate the kitchen when the person smokes. Have them lean over the stove with the exhaust vent turned on. Make sure the stove is off first.

This is an important issue, especially if it could cause you to loose business.
gene

A guy near where I live put together one of these a few years ago. I don't know if he was the first, but he has been the most popular.

He broadcast the music over a radio frequency also so cars could listen on their radios as they drove down, or stopped, on his street.

He ran it for a few years and it got so popular that the fired department said they were concerned that they would not be able to get down his street in the even of an emergency. I think the neighbors were happy to see it go.

This guy is a computer programmer and he had written the software that syncs the lights to the music. He put it on the internet for free. What a "holiday spirit" thing to do.

He quit his job and last I heard he was doing light shows like this all around the country, mainly for businesses.

Yep, my turkey left overs are finally gone and it's time for Christmas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vxhgo8ZUP0
gene

What influences the taking of more or less time:

Matching the fabric on the front of the cushion. I match it perfectly. I have seen other's who obviously took a lot less time. No matching is quicker than having to match the pattern.

Type of fabric: Big time stretchiness, and/or loose weave takes more time than a microfiber, for example. Vinyl takes more time than a nice, tight weave, made for upholstery, fabric.

If the fabric is really, really streatchy, I will put a zipper pocket on both sides. This gives me some wiggle room when sewing on the top panel.

One stitch for the top panel, welt cord, and boxing, instead of two. I try to do one stitch but sometimes the fabric, or the pattern match, requires me to sew the welt cord onto the panel, then sew on the boxing.

Making a new pattern takes only 2 or 3 minutes. I trace the pattern onto the fabric and then onto the new foam.

I always put poly batting over foam.

I insert the foam with silk film.

A narrow top ends of the T takes more time than nice, big fat top ends of the T.

If I cut my welt cord Vertical or Horizontal, instead of on the bias, this takes less time, because I cut it as I am cutting out the other furniture pieces or at the beginning.

I serge all my welt cord. This gives me a perfect 1/2' lip. I don't need to do this. I do not do it with vinyl or leather. It is how I was taught and I just like doing it. This is an extra step that takes more time than not doing it.

Zipper: if I have a 4" boxing and I want a zipper that is 30" long, I cut out two strips of fabric that are 4" x 30". I then, usually, iron them in half. When I sew my zipper together, the zipper is now 4" wide. This is faster for me because I cut the zipper fabric the same size as the boxing fabric and I do not need to measure the zipper to make sure it is 4".

I use nylon zippers and mono thread so I do not need to sew a piece of fabric over the zipper ends to keep the metal zipper teeth from cutting the thread.

When I started I spent 6 hours on a T cushion once. I was teaching myself and there are so many variable involved. This is why folks talk about a 10 year apprenticship for upholstery.

Today my goal is to do T cushions in 2 hours max.

gene

She called Friday and wanted the cushion on Tues at noon instead of Wednesday.

She came in to pick it up and gave me a check from her customer, who I do not know, with someone elses' name as the 'Pay to the Order of' on the check.

She wrote me a personal check that had her name and her husbands' name on it, along with their address. They live only a mile of so from my shop. (The check did clear the bank.)

She called and left an answer later that day saying that the customer loved her cushion.

One 65 year old lady, four totally different personalities:
1. The professional Interior Designer who first called me on the phone.
2. The 3 year old child throwing a temper tantrum in my shop. (I'm still creeped out about that.)
3. The "woe is me I'm always causing trouble and I'm so sorry that I can't do anything right" martyr who came to pick up the cushion.
4. The really happy, life is good, I'm glad to have you as my friend, person who left a message on my voice mail.

The bottom line is that she got everything that she wanted, and I had to fight with her to get what I wanted. This is not the kind of customer I want.

I am thankfull that I only had to deal with her for a few hours. She has to deal with herself everyday!

gene

The Onion can put out some really funny stuff.

Occasionally a congressperson will quote from the Onion and then spout their self righteous indignation at how wrong this is and how we need to fix the problem (i.e., raise taxes). LOL.

gene

Twas the day of Thanksgiving, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Except for my wife who loves to cook Thanksgiving dinner. She started cooking yesterday and will cook all day today until dinner time.

Me, the two dogs, the two cats, and any mice that might be hiding out, are sitting here staring at the turkey oven wondering when will it ever be done!

Happy Thanksgiving to you, also, June, and everyone else.

gene

I got very busy these last 6 weeks. I finished at 6:00 p.m. yesterday, Wed.

I almost brought in some help but managed to get it all done myself.

I did have to turn down several request for getting it done before Thanksgiving.

One item I squeezed in was a very large bay window boxed cushion cover. I stayed late one day and came in early the next day to get it done.

I got the same message two or three days ago, only once, then everything was OK.

Without making any connection here, I had noticed that I have gotten a lot more junk email in the last few days. I had thought it was due to the holiday season. I wonder if those Russians are picking up our email addresses???

I may have mentioned this before: I was talking to a guy ealier this year who works with computer security. He said the Rusian mafia has hired a lot of computer experts who can't work anywhere else and the majority of hacking and email fraud is coming from there. He said when Windows came out with their last OS was on line for only 3 minutes before hackers were working on it.

Am I still paranoid if people really are following me?

gene

We had 70 degrees here in the mid west.

As the world continue to heat up, bringing us ever so closer to total death of all living creatures on this planet, except for roaches and that lady I dated in college, we will be able to save on electricity soon by simply putting our turkeys outside to cook.

gene

That's a good one.

I knew a lady who would say, when it was raining or snowing outside, "Tickle your ass with a feather." The other person would be shocked and say, "What did you say???" This lady would then say, "Particularly nasty weather." She would then look confused and say, "What did you think I said?" The person would then be embarrassed because of what they had thought they heard this lady say, which in fact, was exactly what she had said. I saw her do this several times. She was good at it.

gene

JoAnn Fabrics or any other fabric store.

Rowley Co. online.

Many uphosltery supply companies also sell soft window treatment supplies.

Good luck.

Gene

The answer should be found in your marketing plan.

I do not do "down and dirty". I provide a level of service and a level of quality that is second to no one. One primary reason that my shop is not open to the public is that the general public does not want a level of service and a level of quality that is second to no one.

I finished a job for a new customer and they then asked me to give them a "down and dirty" price on a sofa that they wanted to show in their store to let customers know that they provide upholstery work (through me, of course). I did not give her a quote. I don't do "down and dirty". I also have not heard from them since.

I have a marketing plan that so far is working well for me. There could come a time when I choose to add a line of "down and dirty" upholstery. I'd certainly want to keep it separate from what I am doing now.

It's kind of like KC Barbeque Sause and Clorox Bleach. You would not know that they were owned by the same company by reading what was on their labels. By the way, (this was a few years ago), they were actually being filled on the same filler line in Philadelphia. I always wondered if that's what gave KC that unique twang to their taste.

Remember Zino, that alcoholic beverage that more women liked than men? It tasted like a cross between booze and wine.  That was made by Coors, and Coors did not want to tarnish their beer reputation so they used another bottling name on the bottles.

gene