Welcome Fabric Fans!

Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?  What seems like an annoying question on a job interview is actually something that you should be thinking about on a semi-regular basis. For me, duh, I will be selling fabric for Jaftex so I don’t need to think about it per se.  With that being said, I will think about the specifics of how things will look at Jaftex in 5-10 years from now and will try to achieve certain goals that I set with my dad and brother.  In other words, I will try to execute the plan that we put in place.  To be honest, it’s really…

Let me start off by saying that I value all my customers very much because they have so many other vendors to choose from, but they choose us.  It is truly an honor to be able to serve them all the different fabrics produced by the Jaftex Companies.  Let me also say that I hope their businesses stay open and profitable for as long as they need them to and as long as they are happy working. Anyway,  the key word to focus on in the opening paragraph is profitable.   In order for one to make more profits and have a successful and long lasting business, one needs to…

Happy Monday Quilt Shop Owners, Every year there are a number of quilt shops that close their doors.  There are various reasons why you might want to close your doors and here are a few: Retirement. Loss of lease. Not able to make money. Having to care for a family member. Health. Population shift. Economic downturn. Customer base shrinkage. A competitor or chain moving in nearby. Online competition. Too stressful. As a buyer of other fabric companies, I always wonder why some quilt shops just close their doors rather than selling out.  For this, I put my law school cap on in an effort to explore both angles of the…

Dear Quilt Market Attendees, As we quickly approach the quilt market in Houston, I wanted to give you an overview of where the Jaftex Companies will be located, what schoolhouses we are offering and what our show special will be.  Here goes: BOOTHS Blank Quilting will be located at booth 1221. Fabric Editions/3 Wishes will be located at booth 1114. FreeSpirit Fabrics will be located at booth 1214. Henry Glass Fabrics will be located at booth 1128. Studioe Fabrics will be located at booth 1223.  This will be my home base. SCHOOLHOUSES BLANK QUILTING CORP (All schoolhouses in room 362D): Missie Carpenter of Traditional Primitives will be teaching easy techniques…

This past weekend, I got back into the swing of giving sewing machines away for my Scott’s Free Sewing Machine charity program.  I forgot how good it made me feel to help others.  On the other hand, it made me so sad as I was reminded that the struggles are very very real for some people.  Tragedy and hardship is everywhere.  For some, this is a very sad world that leaves people with many unanswered questions.  The main question is, why me?  Why did this happen to me?  How did I end up in this situation?  Why?  Why?  Why? For the time that I set aside to make calls, I…

Hey Everybody, Happy Monday!  I thought it would be interesting to do a short analysis of the August 2018 Jaftex Facebook Live Shop Tour Challenge.  In a nutshell, I challenged quilt shop owners around the world to create a video tour of their shop and share it on my @jaftexpresident Facebook page.  The winner was the one who received the most likes.  However, if you ask me, I think everyone was a winner for gaining tons of exposure and for stepping outside of their comfort zone to put social media to the test.  I think social media passed the test with flying colors and hope shop owners around the world…

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Missouri Star 10 Year Birthday bash.  It was my first time in Hamilton, Missouri and it was super interesting.  The Jaftex Companies were platinum sponsors along with some other companies.  Our fun little event at our booth was to have consumers make pillows with 10×10 charms for a local women’s homeless shelter.  We had lots of fun and over 350 pillows (4 bags full) were made!  I even made like 10 all by myself…..hand sewn. If you have a chance, you can go over to my @jaftexpresident Facebook page and see the FB live tour of the town and all…

August was a very busy month for me social media-wise with the video challenge.  Unfortunately, I missed the boat on spreading the word about the next #Sew Days events as I would have liked to.  With that being said, I am going to share with you an article about #Sew Days written by Karen Montgomery of The Quilt Company.  Karen & Laurie Harsh, of FabShop News, were the true creators of the #Sew Days program with a little inspiration from my #sewrevolution concept. #SEWREVOLUTION Before I share the article, I wanted to tell you that the first #Sew Days programs were a bigger success than expected.  For shop owners, the…