Welcome Fabric Fans!

Hi Everybody,Happy New Year!  I have been in the office for about half the day now and my brain is just starting to get back in synch with the fabric world. Needless to say, I had a nice holiday and have cleared my mind of 2015, but I am just not ready to blog it up yet in 2016.  So with that, I say to you, happy 2016!  Good luck in keeping to all those New Year’s resolutions.  And please please please give me some subjects to blog about.    Until next week!CheersSlow to get started Scott

Hello People,It is Friday night at 8:15 pm and I am pretty darn tired.  So full from chowing down on these delicious soup dumplings at a local Chinese restaurant.  Have you tried one? YUM!  I am just all blogged out and do not have much more to say at this moment.  Can you believe that?  This year has truly worn me down especially all that Quilt Market drama which isn’t over yet.  I think I wrote 50 plus blogs for Studioe and how much more can I really say about fabric and the family business?  A LOT, but I guess you will have to wait until 2016 to find out.…

At the end of each year, I like to take some time to reflect on the past year and come up with some realistic resolutions.  In some cases the resolutions pertain to my personal life and other times to my business.  To be honest, up until the last couple of years, the resolutions were unfortunately not accomplished.  I wish I could say that it worked out better, but I am sure everyone can relate. However, this year, I am proud to say that the last 2 years were true successes and I would like to try to keep the momentum going.Two years ago I vowed not to drink soda and…

At the end of this year, one of our star Jaftex (mostly A.E. Nathan & Henry Glass) in house salesmen is retiring, Joel Preefer.  It is with very mixed emotions that I make this announcement as this gentleman has been with our companies for nearly 30 years and has been working side by side with me since I started in the business around 10 years ago.  The truth is that we spent a lot more time working and traveling together in my earlier days when I was learning the ropes and he contributed a great bit to my knowledge of the business.  I have since graduated and we don’t work as closely together…

We have been having an old school/new school debate at the offices lately about the value of social media marketing.  The thing is that we expend a lot of money to have employees and outside contractors manage all the social media activity that our companies present to the world.  As you could imagine, my nearly 70 year old (shh!) father is of the old school thoughts. You guessed it, yours truly is of the new school opinion that social media activity is a fact of life and an important part of our business.  Then there is the old argument, but “everyone else is doing it.” For one thing, we did…

Calling all Quilt’s Inc. complainers…I know there are at least 20 of you because you all took the time to email me your complaints that I used in a recent blog.  Yesterday I received a survey from the people at Quilt’s Inc. with questions about the last quilt market.  For all of you that are afraid of the wrath of Quilt’s Inc., now is your chance to anonymously complain directly to the powers that be at the Quilt’s Inc. Hopefully you too received the survey and will take the time to let them know your true opinion about the quilt market.  Please try to be constructive and specific about any…

A lot of people are creatures of habit, myself included.  Unfortunately, we sometimes get so caught up in the habit that we don’t realize that we need to make a change because the marketplace or the world is telling us to do so.  I hate to keep bringing this up, but the people at Quilts Inc. for example are creatures of habit because they are not willing to make change based on what the market and current fabric business environment commands.  Sometimes people can get away with not changing the habit like Quilts Inc., for the time being, but others that don’t change habits could be left for dead.  The…

By now, you are probably aware of my little attempt to push for change at the international quilt market for the benefit of its exhibitors.  This push is based on the new reality of the downturn Quilt Market has taken over the last couple of years. If you aren’t aware of my push, here are the links to several posts I have written on the subject for you to review and get up to speed. Is Quilt Market Becoming Less Important? The Necessary Evil Of Quilt Market. Post Quilt Market Complaint Line. Quilt Market In Review:  Throwing In The Towel. As per my most recent blog, I am throwing in…

I had prepared to share a blog today that included all the emails that I received regarding the ideas on how to fix the quilt market.  In light of what just happened in France, I have decided to forego my blog for this week to have a moment of silence.  We at Studioe Fabrics are praying for all those affected by the most recent tragedies and hope you do the same. This gives you one more week to email me your comments about fixing the quilt market which I will include in next week’s blog.  Please email to scott@jaftex.com.  All quotes will remain anonymous.