Welcome Fabric Fans!

Hi Everybody, Happy Monday! I hope this blog finds you safe and healthy. I have been missing you all and I feel like I haven’t really written a blog about what’s been up seen this Coronavirus hit the US. So here I am today to say, “What’s up to you?” and let you know what’s up with me and my Jaftex Companies. Let me first say that I hope you are well and handling this new environment okay. I know that the drastic change and stress can definitely make things challenging for sure. What I say to that is just take things one day at a time. The uncertainty might…

Meet The Henry Glass Brand Ambassadors Felicia Frakes “I have always believed that being a lifelong learner is the key to personal growth. So with that mindset, I took on the adventure of learning to quilt.  Quilting has taught me how to get uncomfortable, create, try and even fail.  Along the path that I started, the math and measurements became an adventure in new relationships, service and a way to share love through the warmth of a quilt. Follow her on Instagram, @faquilts.  Janie McCombs “I started quilting when I was in my early 20’s. I get my inspiration from quilting magazines, blogs and research on the internet for a…

Meet Our Blank Quilting Brand Ambassadors Barbara Esposito Hey!  I am Barbara Esposito, @TheQuiltedB, and I have been quilting for almost 18 years.  I had the honor of being the October 2017 Henry Glass Desire to Inspire Challenger and have been sewing for Jaftex since then.  Sharing my passion for quilting with new sewists, especially young folks, is my jam.  It is my belief that finished is better than perfect and that creating should be a joy and not a competition! Cara Brooke Cara Brooke loves all things quilting, clothing sewing, and knitting! She’s a busy wife, mother of four humans, and herder of three stubborn cats, but tries to…

(Part 1 of 4) The Program The new Jaftex Brand Ambassador program (formerly the social sewer program) launched in January 2020. We have a wonderful group of passionate fabric fans that love creating projects and enjoy being active on social media. These are quilters and sewers who enjoy sharing their love of this craft on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and/or a personal blog. Create, Engage, Share We send the brand ambassadors packages full of fabrics based on their style. We also send tonals and backings. Once the brand ambassadors receive the fabrics, they have one month to complete one major quilt project or at least three small projects. What they…

Dear Fabric Retailers, Your survival is of the utmost importance to the future of my business and I therefore want to help you however I can to get you through these difficult times. I mean, I always want to help you, but you need my help now more than ever. The idea I want to share with you today is related to video selling which complies with social distancing. This is a creative tool to try to keep the sales going when people are quarantined and not actively visiting your store. For those quilt shops in areas where you can still ship, move around and be in your shop, I…

I can’t bear to talk about the virus as we all need a break from that. With that, I am going to give you the last part of the blog I started two weeks ago. This is the last blog post containing advice for shop owners from consumers. I want to thank all the consumers for their honest and constructive criticisms. There are tons of great suggestions. I imagine that we all care greatly about fabric and the fabric industry. It is therefore of the utmost importance to keep the industry alive and thriving. As I always like to say, whether you like it or not, we are all in…

Last week, in part one of this three part series, I summarized consumer suggestions for retailers to help them improve in these areas: general etiquette, customer service, product offerings and employee strategy . Today, I will continue on with more topics and next week I will wrap it all up. Here goes. FABRIC CUTTING: Make sure to cut all fabric straight and with the grain. Cut panels as accurately as possible. Consider giving a little bit of extra fabric with each cut. You don’t want customers getting home and finding that they are short by a small amount. Keep the cutting table clear of clutter and food. Please don’t be…

In my ongoing efforts to help quilt shop owners be as successful as possible, I am going to discuss all the additional suggestions that consumers had for shop owners when I queried them late last year. On November 18, 2019, I wrote a blog post that included what I thought were some of the strongest suggestions and points made by consumers. Feel free to read that post here. In this blog post, and the two additional parts that follow over the next two weeks, I want to include the balance of the suggestions I received as they are all really good. These may or may not apply to your shop,…

Oftentimes when I am at speaking engagements or talking to customers, people are always asking about the mills we use. They want to make sure that the workers at the mills we are using are of age and being treated properly. They also want to know about recycling and how we care for the planet. A while back, I sent a list of questions to 3 different South Korean suppliers and one in China. Below, I will list the questions and the answers that I received. Q: How does your mill deal with wastewater and pollution? Wastewater and pollution testing is conducted regularly. Mills use pollutant emission prevention facilities. They…