A Lovely Pile of Paper

Today, as I was filing the repair paperwork from the two quilts I recently finished, I was struck by the size of my "completed repairs" folder.  Just look how thick!  These are all the quilts that have received TLC at my house! 

The earliest pages are from 1984.  There are just a few from the 80s, as I was still mostly working through a shop (The Wild Goose Chase, now closed), and in the 90s, my full time job became parenting and homeschooling.  I really started publicizing myself when I started up my website around 2003 I think, and then started blogging in 2011.  It's really been just the last 5 or so years that my work load has really taken off.

The pile on the right are the papers from the beginning of 2014 until this very day.

Here's what my quilt repair form looks like.

On the back, I take notes as I scan the quilt to make the estimate.  I make hashmark counts of the various kinds of damage and think about how long everything might take. 

These are the notes for the Complete Makeover job. 

This then becomes my checklist as I do the work.  This page was for the wonderful 1930s sampler quilt.

I also keep two online worklists.  Ever since starting to blog,  I've had several quilts here at a time and a pretty decent waiting list.  I'd be lost without my lists!

One list is organized according to the status of the job: next to send - in the mail - estimating - sewing - job complete, waiting for payment - completed jobs.  The other is organized according to the date I promised to take each quilt in.  Each entry includes quilt pattern, customer name, email and/or phone, dates of contact emails.  Yes, it is double bookkeeping, but I find that both are useful, depending on what overview I want at any given point.  Plus, doing it twice somehow helps keep my head screwed on somewhat straight.  Hee, hee.