A New Transition

Many of you know that for the last six months my husband, Josh, has been expecting to lose his job in January. Because we were alerted to the fact very early, we’ve spent the last several months working together to build my quilting business big enough to support our family.

This transition was never going to be easy, but with time and planning, we were both confident everything would work out fine.

But sometimes reality decides to throw wrenches in the mix!

For a combination of reasons, Josh has decided to leave his job four months early, effective as of today.

Why this sudden break from “the plan?”

Well, to be perfectly honest, we were all at our breaking point. Josh could only do so much to help me without shorting tasks for his job. He was packing all the orders from our site, but the cross over from two different businesses on one computer was a real headache.

Even though Josh was taking care of orders, I was still processing hours of email, video editing, website maintenance, and then squeezing in writing on top of it all, usually some time after midnight.

Now you must understand that I absolutely, positively love this business. This has been my goal to own my own business since I was about 12, and it’s normally like a dream come true.

But lately it’s been like an extended stay in purgatory. Too much stress, too much responsibility, and the most important thing: this project and my writing – has been the thing to suffer the most.

So yesterday after a lot of number crunching, debating, and finally decision making, Josh and I decided to make his break come early.

Is this the smartest decision? It’s hard to say, but at this point it’s the ONLY decision that make the most sense and will benefit everyone involved.

Already Josh has been working to make changes that will take loads of pressure off my shoulders. He has created a new email address and will be taking over all customer service emails for the sites, as well as be able to pack and ship orders much more efficiently.

Even this small change has lightened my load and today plan to get back into my studio for the first time in several days!

Working with Josh will also allow us to make many necessary changes to our Quilt Shop.

Currently we’re phasing out several old products in order to have room for many new items coming in the next few months.

Josh and I are both really looking forward to working together to build this business as a family with the responsibility being equally shared between us.

So now what can you look forward to in the coming months?!

Well, I’ve finally decided that it’s time to discontinue the Free Motion Fillers Volume 1 and Volume 2 digital workbooks. These only will be available until September 15th.

Of course I will be finishing off the How Do I Quilt This?! Series with Section Quilting starting next week and Show Quilting starting the next week.

The new book From Daisy to Paisley and the new DVD Beginner Free Motion Quilting Fillers will both roll out (crossing my fingers) on September 25th. UPDATE: Both products are now available in our shop at http://leahday.com/shop/.

Make sure you’re a member of the project newsletter (sign up in the upper right hand corner of this page) to get the most current news on when the book will be ready to preorder.

Of course, we’ll always have new filler designs coming each week, and I’m hoping around the end of September I can share a few awesome videos on fun holiday projects I’m planning to make for family and friends this fall.

Whew! It’s a busy month, but I feel so positive about this transition!

Josh is psyched to be on board full time and together we will both work even better to bring you more awesome quilting videos, inspiration, and information every day.

Let’s go quilt!

Leah Day