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Fingers and toes...

Fingers and toes...

Written by: 
cnelson

The good news is that calculators were provided.  The bad news is that we were inside the warehouse and the solar-powered devices weren't quite sure they wanted to work... or maybe that was just mine.

If you've ever worked in a business that involves selling stuff, you know that one of the annual rituals is Inventory.  With a capital "I" - it's that important.

That started today - with all hands on deck - sometimes literally - counting.

CT-Inventory-People

Clockwise from top-left:  Lissa Alexander - the Director of Marketing and @modalissa / Debbie Outlaw - Chief pattern and book buyer / Doyle Parker - the V.P. of United Notions / Tammy Vonderschmitt - Marketing Dept. and @nithaystack.

Since I was supposed to be counting, I didn't get around much to take more pictures.

Everything is ready beforehand - Brian Dunn and Bob Wallner run a very smooth operation, though Mr. Wallner says he ages about five years every Inventory.  (I think he was just trying to make sure I would pay attention to the procedures.)

But they really did make it easy - we just pick up a stack of sheets - pink in the Moda warehouse, blue in the United Notions warehouse - with a list of stock numbers, that's our starting point.  Then it's finding those shelves and start adding up the yards of fabric on hand for that stock number.  Some are easy - 10 bolts that are 10 yards each.  Others... not so much.

I don't have enough fingers and toes to keep up, though my "skills" - relative term - at adding numbers in my head did get a little practice.  The calculator helps but adding 9 + 11 + 12 + 11 + 13 + 15 + 15 + 15 and so on without a calculator tape... it's easy to question your results when you get past oh... maybe 150.  Never mind the fractions.

A few of the folks here were concerned about whether I'd get distracted and the plan was to relegate me to counting only the beige and tan fabric.  And if I was fast - black.  I could do black Bella Solid.

CT-Inventory-Bolts

I might have started in the Bellas but I found my way to Gardenvale by Jen Kingwell and Farmhouse by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree & Co.   There's not much Farmhouse left - many of the pieces are sold out, and Gardenvale isn't far behind.  One of my favorite pieces in that collection are the multi-color stripes, they make terrific bindings.  They're almost gone.  (Okay, so I got a little bit distracted.)

CT-MaryAnn's-Quilt

This is a "Random Quilt Picture" - just because.  It hangs in MaryAnn's office, it's an antique she found many years ago.  It's quite wonderful - faded, soft and the colors are still beautiful.

I'm not sure when Inventory is finished but the warehouses are closed this week - partly for Inventory and then for the holidays. Can you believe that it's this week?  And can you believe that this year is almost over?

This year has flown by - I moved to Dallas a year ago last week, and as of today, I've been here 50 weeks.  But I'm not going to think about that today - there's still too much to do.

One last thing - everyone here hopes that you and yours have a wonderful Holiday season - safe, happy and very merry.

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