Square Up

This is my iPhone's newest playmate--the Square.  I have recently published an article in the SAQA Journal about my experience with a smartphone app called GoPayment.  It is a credit card processor that makes your phone a terminal.  I knew about the $20 a month charge for GoPayment, but missed the additional $20 in minimum fees, so I had to quickly suspend my connection.  


Then a couple of weeks ago a friend told me about Square Up.  It is also makes your smartphone a credit card machine, but this one is free!  The only fees are a transaction fee of $.15 and a percentage fee based if the card holder is present or not--2.5%-3.5%.  Not the cheapest, but certainly not the the most expensive fees I've seen either.


Its intended user is personal and low-volume small business users.  The story around how it got started was the guy that invented it was always getting stuck with the bill at restaurants with his fellow diners saying they would square up with him later.  So, he invented a tool where it was cost-effective for people to square up with cashless people right then and there.


One of the reasons it is for a low volume business is there are currently limits on the amount of money you can get back--$1000 per week.  If you go over that, you have to wait 30 days to get your money.  They are still working out the kinks to avoid fraudulent use of the device.


But for my art quilt business, it seems like the perfect match.  It is available for the casual studio visitor as well as major open studio events like the one planned for December 11, 2010 from noon to 8 pm.

Studio Progress - Blinds

With some design help of my friend, Jill Becker, I created a very functional solution for my windows in the new studio.  This is a minimal sewing project--only a tube to hold the upper slat of wood.  I used two layers acrylic felt to make blinds that block the intensity of the afternoon sun, but not all of the light.  

I drilled holes in each end of the slat and the middle.  I strung twine through each end and then the middle, knotted it and ran it through the loop on the window and another loop handily provided in my wall or a pipe before tieing it off on a hook to the side.  

The bottom is stapled to a little heftier piece of wood and gravity keeps it in place.

The blinds look like sails on a ship when they are being raised!  And even though they are attached to the handy loops at the top of the windows, I can have them up with the windows open, too.

New Studio Neighbor

This weekend I had the pleasure to meet my newest neighbor in the Studios at 1100 Broadway--Anna Luna.  


She is a the owner of Crafty Girls Workshop and will soon be offering fun classes in the 1400 square foott Suite 311.  


She has a lot of ideas and enthusiasm plus great fabrics.  

Anna is also very technology savvy--I hope to learn a thing or two from her.

Two textile people in the same building!  How wonderful is that?!