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First, Thank You!
 The "Christmas Rush" is over - and we rose to the challenge!
It's obvious that I'm not talking about Christmas sales or dinners with the extended family! I'm talking about getting out the Christmas Longarming, thanks largely to Ruth, "Little" Ruth, and Donna. We got the last of the items out the week before Christmas. We were able to get those last few items that always come in at the last minute out, too.
A special "shout-out" of thanks goes to our wonderful clients who graciously noted that the longarming of their treasures could be postponed until after the holidays. This year we had several dozen of those kind-hearted souls.
Again: Thank You!
A General Lowering Of Longarm Pricing
 This has been the first time in 11 years that we have been fortunate to be able to really focus in on our longarming business. The results have been encouraging to us. During the last 7 months our throughput [the number of quilts that we can longarm in a period of time] has increased 20%. We are now longarming 600 quilts per year, up from the previous 500.This has been accomplished by reducing distractions and operating the two longarm machines as a team effort.
This, in turn, has allowed us to assess our production over the past 7 months to provide insight into our operations. For example, a few years ago to eliminate our old "minimum charge" we instituted a loading charge to cover the cost of loading and unloading quilts. We had originally estimated the time involved to be an entire hour, but our latest observations show that items can normally be loaded and unloaded in a half hour.
Having the "bosses" involved also meant that we could observe some of the assumptions we had made in regard to our operation. This results in efficiency and cost savings to us that we can pass on to you!
Continued High Quality
 While we are lowering prices, we are not lowering our service level. It is our belief that our reputation stands behind every quilt we longarm. Because of this belief we have found that we are often unwilling to take options that produce less than professional results. Therefore, we always include the following, unless requested otherwise by you:
- We bury the knots when stitching begins or ends on a top. This gives a much more professional and pleasing appearance than having knots on the top of the quilt.
- If fullness, pinching, or puckering possibilities appear that we believe may not be "quilted out" once the quilt is loaded onto the quilting frame, we call you to discuss whether you should fix it, we should fix it, or simply continue.
- We rotate the quilt when doing borders. Although the automated longarms allow vertical borders to be added without rotation, the result is definitely less pleasing or professional than if the quilt is rotated and the border done as one continuous design.
- We inspect the backs to assure that there are no batting punches, pinches, puckers, pleats, crows' feet, spider webs, or other such avoidable problems.
- We assist you in choosing thread colors and batting.
- We guide you in choosing quilting designs that augment the appearance of your top.
- We check to assure that the stitching on the back of your quilt is beautiful. Check any of our sample quilts, of which there are over 120, and see the quality of our stitching. You will note that we use muslin or plain backs to highlight the quality of the stitching. After all, you can not hide bad stitching on plain backing!
Lower Prices
 Let me give you some examples of our lowering of prices:
Simple Edge-To-Edge [E2E]:
These patterns have been lowered to 1.3¢ from 1.4¢ per square inch. These patterns are simple, tall patterns that reduce the operator's time in running the machines. There are three patterns in this group.
Detailed E2E:
These patterns have been lowered to 1.55¢ from 1.65¢ per square inch. There are patterns 5,000 patterns in this group.
Complex E2E:
These patterns have been included in the detailed E2E. As a result, their cost has been lowered from 2.4¢ to 1.55¢ per square inch.
Basting:
This stabilizing service for hand and home machine quilters remains at 0.4¢ per square inch. Even though this price has not changed, the cost of basting is lowered by the lower Loading Fee.
Loading Fee:
This fee has been lowered to $10.00 from $20.00 because we have found that our loading and unloading process is much faster than originally planned for quilts that are properly prepared. This 50% reduction affects all quilts.
Custom Stitching Design:
This fee for the creation of specific requested patterns was a flat $45 fee. It now is quoted.
Other Pricing Considerations
Other prices have not changed. However, we will be acting on the advice of many of our clients by applying "Non-Longarming Sewing Charges" for quilt tops that have not been properly prepared as specified in our Longarming Brochure.
Guaranteeing You "Dog Gone Good Service!"
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