Welcome Fabric Fans!

Good Evening Blog Fans,I worked very hard on a blog today, but just couldn’t get it done in time to post and be proud of it.  No excuses.  All I can say is that “I am sorry.” That is the best that I can do.  I promise to get it done in the next day or so.  It will be all about my recent quilt shop visits in Tennessee, Alabama and Florida as well as my speaking engagement in front of the Chattanooga Choo Choo Quilt Guild.  There will be several photos of some amazing projects that I had the pleasure of being shown on this trip.Until Then,Sorry Scott 

Last week I chimed in with my 2 cents on the current Craftsy predicament.  It isn’t like there is that much drama in this industry, so I need to capitalize on the blogging when the opportunity arises and strike while the iron is hot.  Since my initial blog on Craftsy, I have received many emails, blog and social media comments on the subject.  I now want to share some newly discovered info with you, but before I do that, I wanted to make one observation.  The majority of the comments that I heard were from non-quilt shop owners i.e. ultimate consumers and most of them were in defense of Craftsy, which caught me a little off-guard.  The comments…

Two weeks ago I had the great pleasure of visiting quilt shops with my sales reps in both Tennessee and Florida.  I really love travelling with reps because I always learn new things and get to hear all the juicy gossip from all the friendly quilt shop owners across the country.  During these visits, it was the first time that I heard about the backlash against all that is Craftsy, among some other less juicy gossip that isn’t worth discussing further.  So what is this big gossip about Craftsy anyway?  I am hearing two different stories.  One of the stories is related to teachers for Craftsy.  As the story goes, the teachers feel like…

I recently had the opportunity to travel through Florida with the local Studioe sales rep.   As we were driving down the street in Boca West we happened to have passed a store called Fortunoff’s. The rep pointed out the store and asked me the question that I have been hearing for my entire life. “Do you own that store?”  I chuckled.   I presume at this point that all of my blog followers know that my last name is Fortunoff.  Most people from New York are well aware of Fortunoff’s the retail store that has been around since 1922 selling anything from jewelry to outdoor furniture.   The Fortunoff’s of fabric…

It has been a little while since I last discussed the ever exciting Quilt Market predicament.  I continue to get lots of calls and emails on this subject which is a good thing because it is still on everyone’s mind.  I hate to say it, but I don’t think this discussion is going away until there is some major change and unfortunately I don’t see that coming anytime soon.  The fact that I did not get one response from anyone at Quilt’s Inc. this entire time while blogging and speaking publicly about the problems with quilt market just shows that these people could care less about public opinion.  They just think…

It has been a long time since my last speaking engagement in front of a quilt guild.  Recall my trip to speak in Jackson Hole Wyoming in late 2014.  Well, I am back.  This time I am staying a little more East where I am heading to Chattanooga, TN to speak with the Choo Choo Quilt Guild thanks to an invite from my sales rep in that territory.  Here is the announcement about the event.  If you are near Chattanooga, please come on down and hear what I have to say.  Maybe you will learn something or maybe I will learn something which wouldn’t be so bad either.Way back in 2014 was…

Do you believe that February is already here?  Time sure is flying by and personally I am happy to be putting December/January behind me. December is typically a slow month for receiving new orders and shipping orders as a lot of stores take inventory or just slow down in general for the holidays.  January, however, is typically when shops start ordering for the year ahead and things start to pick up again with the optimism of a new year. This January unfortunately wasn’t as strong as hoped for our companies.  I have heard of more shops closing and we have received more cancellations of orders than normal.  Moreover, I have…

Just the other day I got an email with this in the subject line:  Fifty Shades–Studioe Fabrics Clearance Request. Hmmm, you have my interest.  I am not even sure what crossed my mind when I saw that.  Actually, I was thinking this it was spam.  In any case, I read the body of the email and this is what it said: “Universal Pictures is in production on the theatrical motion pictures for “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed.“  The films will be directed by award-winning filmmaker James Foley (Glengarry Glen Ross, House of Cards). Both films will again star Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson. In “Fifty Shades Darker,” Anastasia Steele has…

Do you recall the 85th anniversary contest in celebration of The Jaftex Corporation (parent company of Studioe) last year?  If not, here is a reminder:Due to the success of the aforementioned contest, we have decided to move forward with another contest…let’s call it the 86th Anniversary Contest for lack of a better name.  This isn’t a big momentous anniversary per se, but 86 years is still a long time nonetheless, so why not have another celebration? We are working on finalizing the fine details of the contest for the official flyer, but I am going to spill the beans and give you the details here before the flyer is circulated.  As before, the contest will apply to Studioe Fabrics, The…

This is a follow up blog to one I wrote on September 21, 2015 entitled, “There Are No Shortcuts In Life.”  The gist of the blog was about people stealing fabrics from the Jaftex companies, what they did with the fabric and the ultimate consequences.  Here is the follow up.  In particular, I am referring to the situation where a customer of the SNS North Warehouse was allegedly in cahoots with some of the plant employees (they have been fired). They worked together and were stealing our fabrics, shipping them directly to their own customers and getting paid for it.  The selling price to the shop was $1.40 per yard which is so unbelievable because that is significantly…