K2’s Got the Conn
Anyone with a naval or nautical background is probably familiar with the term "Conn". In case you aren’t, it is one of the most important principles of ship handling to ensure there is no ambiguity as to who is controlling the movements of the ship. According to my usual source, the internet, this person is said to have the "Conn."
I can’t remember when or why we started saying this, but we did, and once we had the shop, we said it often. Well, with John gone, K2 has the Conn.
When John was training me in November of 2022, he said I had to “make this my own” which was the last thing I wanted to do, but this was John. When he was at Boeing, his goal was training the next level below him to take his place. He said this is how people knew you trusted them, it’s how they got recognized and chosen for his or other positions. He also told me not to be afraid to say no. Now that one is hard for me. I have always tried to please people. John turned down only two jobs. One was too thick and ornate with layers of embellishment on the quilt top and he knew our machine couldn’t accommodate that. He really wanted to do that one for Charlene, too, but knew his Statler’s limits. The second was a beautifully pieced quilt that really called for custom quilting. He could see what it needed, but it was not his style and because Annette had made this for their bed and did the window treatments, etc to match, he said no and advised she find a custom quilter to do the work.
Now it’s 54 weeks after the Gentleman left and I’ve decided I’m ready to say I’ve got the Conn. Quilting was a little like learning tennis from John. Once he felt I was ready, he served like he did when he played on his tennis teams. I had no time to think, I’d see him put that spin on his serve and just had to react! When I started mountain biking with John, I was timid on the trails and he said, “You have to trust your bike and keep going” and I found when I did, I enjoyed mountain biking! As many of you know, we had quilts in the queue last November when things started unraveling. These needed to be quilted. As he was dying, quilts were still coming in despite the situation. Folks were willing to wait, so I had to quilt, no time to think about it. Plus, it kept me busy. I got through those quilts and quilts kept coming. I recall Joyce calling in the midst of this with a baby quilt, and you know babies, THEY COME! I thought to myself, “Just like the world keeps turning even though someone you love has died, quilters keep piecing”. The beauty of this is it kept me going. I’d told John I thought I’d process much of losing him at the shop. Quilters knew him, knew us, and as you know from prior posts, quilters, old and new, have been so wonderful to me!
How does one take the Conn? Especially when they can’t “self-teach” themselves like John did? One goes to schoo! I did a one-on-one training for nine hours and that helped so much. I came home and applied what I learned and after two months took company training. Gammill, who builds our model and others right here in Missouri, offered training in Utah. This training was for several days and I went there to soak up as much as I could. After two months of applying that knowledge, I walked the last 100 kilometers of Camino de Santiago in Spain. Not so much because it related to training, but sometimes you just have to step away for a bit. In that vein, I recently attended a local workshop for women who own a small business called “Business and Balance” and it reinforced my plan I’d developed over the Christmas break. It also allowed me meet women in different industries and see what challenges we share, exchange ideas on finding / maintaining balance, offer support to others who are newer in their endeavor, and I enjoyed really amazing food there! One of the participants is a chef and nothing beats lovely food that you didn’t have to make. (I lost my chef (John) and this truly may have been my favorite part of the workshop.)
What does it mean for K2 to have the Conn? By definition, it means I’m the only one issuing orders. Seeing as it’s only me, dogs excluded, that’s pretty easy to understand. It also means I’m the one responsible for safe navigation and operation of the long arm. Basically, that requires backs are eight inches longer and wider than the top, so I can safely run the machine, and doing the routine maintenance on it to keep it operating correctly. I often marvel that there was a time I didn’t even know how to turn it on. Now I’m responsible for generating enough income to keep the lights on and the ol’ dusty loom humming. As one friend wrote in a card she sent me, “keep it dusty”. Doing my best, Jayne!
When is the term Conn is generally said? During the watch change over and the change over has come. The Gentleman handed off to the Lady, and she’s accepted it.
I feel like I’ve found my rhythm. I schedule customers to come in on certain days for drop offs and pick-ups. This allows me to fully concentrate on quilting the remaining days. These days fluctuate, so TGQ continues to run “by appointment only”.
I’ve found it’s easy to say no. I want to protect the reputation John built for TGQ. I’ve turned a job down where the skill for custom work was outside my expertise and not the type of work I want to do even if I had the time. Another I turned down because the materials she bought and the vision she had were not achievable for her budget. It was converting a duvet to a quilt. It would have been very labor intensive and she decided to return it and use what she currently had on the bed.
John tended to work six hours a day and rarely on a Sunday. Rarely certain Saturdays during SEC football season, but that’s another story. 😉 I’ve gotten my learning curve to where I’m averaging six hours a day and taking Sundays off.
We took off one week per quarter and I’ve also maintained that. I’ve actually taken more time off as I’ve tried to get through these griefy days. During 1Q23, I did take time off (thank you, Joan, for a lovely visit!) and to get through the one-year anniversary of John’s death and I still quilted 54 quilts. I haven’t checked the log, but I feel like that’s a “Gentleman’s pace”. I have plans for time away in the second quarter and once I pin down pet care for third quarter, I’ll choose my destination. Per usual, TGQ will close the week before Christmas. So just like much of life, as much as things change, they stay the same.
Neil asked me to do custom work on the quilt you see next to the title of this journal entry. It turned out great, but it took me a l-o-n-g time. I’m proud of it and think John would be proud too. John would have knocked this out in two days, took me seven. But I’m not John, I’m K2. As soon as the job was finished, I promptly modified what TGQ offers for custom work. John was on fence to not offer or increase rate because it takes so much longer to do custom work than it does edge to edge quilting. Things changed before I could put his decision on the web, but I totally know why he was on the fence and an executive decision was made by K2 to mindfully decide whether or not she will accept any more jobs like that.
Side note, this was not published on April Fool’s Day as I didn’t want anyone thinking it was a joke. The Conn is no joke, now excuse me while I quilt another quilt. 😊