PM keys, Cord and packing day!

No long blog post today as I have a really busy day ahead. Thirty or so quilts will be packed and taped up today.  I won't be working alone as the awesome ladies who come and work at my home will be here to help, could not do it without them. It is 840am and you won't read this till later today/tonight, but in that time we will have hand sewn labels and patches of various kinds, written covering letters and printed off address labels, packed up Timtams, Minties and Fantails, filled out customs forms and taped and taped and taped.... hope I have enough tape.  When I finish this I will be printing letters and labels and trying to get everything squared away before the ladies come so we can get to work.

Let's just say, we have set ourselves a PUNISHING schedule. 

Bit of an in-joke there, some of you will know what I mean.  :-)

Just two items of business before I go. One of them will make my life easier and one of them will, I hope make life easier for some of you.

........

First up... when you post off a quilt or a laundry bag I need you to send me an email with the name and number (PM Keys number) of the person you are sending it to. I deal with hundreds of names and many, many quilters.  I have a huge list.  I need to be able to find that person on my list as quickly as possible to mark them off.   The longer it takes me to do that with every email I get the less time I have to do other stuff. 

PM Keys number, for those who do not know, is the 7 digit number starting with 8 that accompanies every address I give you. If you don't have one, check with me. 

Please could you TYPE it into the body of your email or, even better, into the subject line of your email.  PLEASE do not send me a photo or screen shot of the address. Sure I can read that when I receive it. but if something happens and I forget to mark that person's quilt or laundry bag as sent them I cannot search on their PM keys and find your email quickly again. 

Working from my office at home, especially with two teenage boys, means I am often being interrupted.   Whilst I try to keep everything as organised as possible, inevitably  I will forget a little step here or there and I regularly double check what I am doing to make sure I dot all the I's and cross all the T's. There are loads of reasons why I might want to search for information on a particular recipient. If you write their PM keys in the correspondence you send me than a quick search on that number will bring up the email with the photo of the quilt/bag you have sent them and that date it went.  

Similarly, when you are ready to post your quilt or LB email is always best. If you have to rely on texting photos to me or sending them via Facebook Private Messages that is absolutely fine but please always follow up with the email with the PM Keys etc. If I need to check on it later, again I can not search on Texts or Private Messages.

I do try to explain this to everyone individually but as a few of you have raised it I figured it was time to get it out there for everyone...it is often the little things that help AHQ to run smoothly and your help is much appreciated.

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Okay so a great source for the humble laundry bag cord might not be everyone's find of the day but when you make as many laundry bags as we do this is great news....

We have discovered a great source for cord in Moorabbin Victoria that we just had to share with you all. The name of the company is Windsor Trading Co.   They sell 100m rolls of cord for $17.  I don't think you will find it much cheaper than that anywhere. 

Here are the details 

Windsor Trading

Email        info@windsortrading.com.au

Phone       03 95531122 

Fax           039553 2338

Address    PO Box 774 Moorabbin  VIC 3189

We phoned them and ordered over the phone and they were extremely helpful and efficient! 
I won't be getting cord from anyone else again, unless they donate it!

Okay, off to write some letters and customs forms.

Til next time...................keep spreading the word and happy stitching!
Jan-Maree xxx