Welcome Fabric Fans!

As Christmas is quickly approaching, I wanted to take a moment to tell you what some of my favorite Christmas and seasonal lines are for this year from my companies. Let’s do this: The Blank Quilting Corp: All That Glitters is Snow by Diane Kater is my selection for The Blank Quilting Corp. You probably don’t know this about me, but I really love the snow. As a kid, I always loved running around in the snow, sledding, shoveling the driveway, having snowball fights and playing snow tackle football. More recently when my family moved to Connecticut, we also took up skiing which has been great for my entire family.…

Now that we are in the heat of the holiday season, I just wanted to take some time to plug the small local retailer. There are so many good reasons to shop local and that is especially true after the last couple of years we have experienced with covid wreaking havoc on even the most seasoned proprietors. Unfortunately, small business was hit hard. There are loads of good reasons why we should be supporting the local retailer. Let’s review some of those reasons below: Love thy neighbor. Let’s start there. Wouldn’t you like to support someone in your community who you might or might not know? But also, wouldn’t you…

Dear Dad, I am sorry for not posting this birthday blog on your actual birthday (11/11) as I know how sensitive you can be about this sort of stuff. Unfortunately for you, my social media managers told me that I had to blog about other things for your birthday. I tried to dissuade them….Jen & Vanessa! (Ahem!) I will let them know that you will be reaching out to talk to them. Just around 49 years ago you contributed to me making my arrival on this planet. Thanks so much for that by the way. It’s been an awesome dream ever since and I have that to thank you for…and…

As we close in on Thanksgiving and the end of another crazy year (thank you Covid), I wanted to take some time to share a few of the things for which I am thankful. While I am at it, I am going to talk briefly about some things that I don’t appreciate and am not thankful for whatsoever. Here goes: THANKFUL Family: I am most thankful for my 5Gs (5 generation sons) Aaron and Brett, and of course my amazing wife, Laurie. They are real troopers for having to deal with me and all the work drama that surrounds us and our lives especially. I am also thankful for my…

A Guest Post by Vanessa Denniston I have two avocations in my life. They are films and quilts. They have both magically intersected at the exhibit of The Ken Burns collection of quilts called “Uncovered.”  Thankfully, I was able to attend the exhibit here in Greenville, South Carolina at the Upcountry History Museum. I minored in film during my undergrad years. My first job was at a production company editing videos and working with large multi-screen productions for corporate clients. Learning video editing was when I first heard of Ken Burns the filmmaker and the now-famous library of techniques called the “Ken Burns Effect.” His “Effects” include panning and zooming…

As if things haven’t been crazy enough in the business world of late, companies and individuals now have to deal with hackers trying to wreak havoc on our computer systems and data. I liken the hackers to terrorists. Like a terrorist, hackers want a ransom, or else they will destroy you. It’s pretty frightening. A few Mondays ago in the early A.M., I received a call from my brother advising me that, “They got us.” “Who got us?” I asked. “The hackers”, he said. Right then and there, I knew that it wasn’t going to be a good week. With all of our New York Jaftex employees working a good…

2021 has proven to be another interesting year thanks to Covid. The Covid has continued to contribute to the madness and some sadness that surrounds us all. I know that I am living and breathing the madness both in my personal and my business life…..and a little bit of sadness too. With that, I wanted to tell you that your friends at Jaftex and I are going to continue to, “Make fabric fun.” But also, we want to make it so funny! Life is too short for us to be so serious all the time. We want to add some levity to your life because smiling and laughing are healthy…

This week I would like to draw your attention to a few of my favorite lines from the Jaftex 2021 October release. Let me remind you that a release is when we introduce new lines to our entire customer base. Those lines are then presold to our customers and will eventually ship to them around March 2022 all the way up to June/July. When these lines ship out, that is what we call the rollout i.e. when we start rolling the fabrics out to the stores. With that, allow me to tell you about my favorite lines from each company and why I like them. The Blank Quilting Corp.: Rock…

It’s really a shame that yet another Quilt Market had to be canceled this year.  Sad times no doubt all around. Have no fear though if you are a Jaftex reseller because we have something special up our sleeves to make you feel a little better. Want to hear about it? Of course, you want to hear it!  As a way to channel the money that we would have spent on Quilt Market back to our customers, we are introducing the Jaftex Fabric Fest October 2021.  And the crowd goes wild! Here is how it works. This is only for Jaftex direct retailers in the US and Freespirit customers in…

Covid has forced us all to look at everything differently, especially in the business world. Many of us have had to pivot one way or the other, if not in many different ways and directions to deal with all the new things being thrown at us. We at the Jaftex Companies have been doing a lot of pivoting ourselves and like many, we are out of our comfort zone….and that is a good thing! Quite frankly, so much time has passed that we are getting more comfortable in the new zone. We have pivoted in the same ways that many others have pivoted in the business world. We have turned…