My wife and I have been designing and building quilts for some time now, mostly for family and loved ones. Recently, with all the comments from these people, we've decided to go public with our works and thus Quilts By Lady Zoe, an online business was designed and initiated to offer our services to others.

Zona and I are just your everyday, average couple that have been through the ringer of today's jobless society, that's not to say we were ever really jobless, just that the jobs we've held were not making us rich, although we've done fairly well at raising several kids throughout each of our previous marriages. There are ten kids between us, one girl from my first marriage, two girls from my second and four girls from my third, which is Zona and myself. Zona and I had a boy a few years back, a first for both of us.A couple years ago, Zona's daughter died in an auto accident a few months after her husband died in another auto accident leaving Zona and I with two beautiful grand kids to raise. Our son is now 10 years old and his niece and nephew are now 4 and 5.

After a fluke injury of ripping my plantar fascia, I was forced into an operation that resulted me into retirement from my nursing job. Between the babysitting fees and the after school programs, the finances we are saving for me to be a full time 'Mom' and my wife to be the bread winner, are stifling. We don't have the extra monies that we became accustom to, but the rewards far exceed the downfalls.

 Anyway, back to the quilt building business. Zona has been sewing clothes together for her four girls for years. In the past ten years, since our son was born, Zona has changed her ideas of dress making to building keepsakes for friends, family and other peoples that have crossed her path. Quilt building has far exceeded most of the requests over the years, most of which were done by hand, taking weeks to complete.

Recently, with all the changes that have taken place in our lives, Zona and I have invested in a quilting frame and semi professional sewing machine. The pool table was sold and the back garage was transformed into a quilting studio. The quilting frame takes up over 10 foot of space in the area and is about 3 foot deep. I built us a table on wheels that takes up 9 foot by 40 inches of space and because it's on wheels, allows us to move it up against to storage shelves, allowing the quilter to access the quilting frame. The garage is about 10 foot wide, which after we put in shelving on both sides, leaves us about 10 foot width of space. The garage door has to be opened to allow ventilation and movement. Luckily, back when money wasn't an issue, the slab for the rear garage was professionally poured, so all that's needed in the near future is tiling. For now, sweeping and mopping on a daily basis is adequate. The space actually measures about 10 foot by 12 foot of actual working area.
  
Numerous lights were installed, by myself and a few tips from experienced electrician friends. A window had to be installed for ventilation purposes and a doorway from the front garage to the rear garage had to be cut. Over the years, I have become sort of a 'jack of all trades' and now, with this new quilting machine, I've had to take online classes on how to operate a quilting apparatus. Thank god for YouTube applications, the instructions that accompanied the frame said nothing about how to load a quilt or even how to operate the blasted thing. Zona has taught me how to properly cut out patterns and how to sew them together, but she still does most of that herself. I'm kind of a 'all thumbs' kind of guy and she's been doing it for years. I can dismantle a Harley-Davidson in a matter of a couple hours, but this stuff is growling. 

Operating the quilting machine is another thing entirely. I've become pretty good at loading a quilt, setting up the sewing machine with extra bobbins for the quick 'change out' when one runs out of thread and taping stencils together to perform the quilting operation. I've been an artist most of my life, but this stenciling a quilt pattern is the way to go. I don't even have to think about it, all I have to do is follow the pattern with a laser beam. How easy is that? Of course, if it were really that easy, a lot more people would be doing it, right? I've learned to not be so much in a hurry and follow the plan of operation. Don't try to cut corners, that only got me in trouble and the time it took to straighten out the goof, far exceeded doing it right the first time. I wouldn't say I'm a pro at any of this, but I'm sure learning how to make a little extra cash on the side and I'm feeling like I'm quilting like a pro.

 Several of the quilts Zona and i have designed and sold can be seen on our site at: http://www.quiltsbyladyzoe.com. You can find numerous patterns and picture patterns for wall quilts and bedspreads in our patterns pages of the site. We offer options of infant size quilts to California King size quilts and nearly any size in between. Our prices are reasonable, which means we're not out to rape the public and make a killing off of you, but we're not giving them away either. If you have any questions and/or would like to order a custom homemade personalized quilt from us, contact Zona at: ladyzoe2@yahoo.com

Search: The Web    http://www.quiltsbyladyzoe.com