Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: My Involvement In The Quilt World

Rumor has it that Studioe fans want to find out more about my involvement with fabrics.  More specifically, people want answers to these questions:

• Do I design fabrics or patterns?
• Do I sew or quilt?
• Do I have any of the Jaftex Companys’ fabrics in my house?

I definitely do not design fabrics or patterns. However, I do have some involvement with both. I am involved with the design process from start to finish.  I am always looking for design inspiration and will present those concepts to the lead stylists.  For example, you can often see me handing the designers cut outs from magazines.  In addition, I am very involved with finding and signing on new licensed designers.  

In the office, we frequently have designers present their lines to the team and we critique them together.  I do contribute to the decisions of what the line will be composed of when it is ultimately completed.  I make suggestions on choices related to colors, patterns, numbers of skus, how the swatchcards should be laid out, when the lines should be released/ship and project ideas for the lines, to name a few. 

As for projects, my involvement is limited to suggesting some ideas for the projects and proofreading the instructions.  Other than that, the designers and outside pattern makers are in charge. Long story short, this part of the business is probably too technical for my lack of quilting/sewing skills which leads me to the next question.

My sewing and quilting experience is very very limited.  When I joined the business about 10 years ago, I vowed to learn how to quilt/sew. About three years in to my job, I went to Big Lots and bought a cheap refurbished sewing machine.  I figured that if I learned how to sew/quilt, I would have a better understanding of the business.  

Anyway, one day I brought home some fabric and decided to play around with the machine.  This was right around when my first son, Aaron, was born. So what did I make?  Don’t laugh.  Have you ever heard of a pee-pee tee-pee? It is just what it sounds like.  If you still don’t know, it is fabric shaped like a cone that goes over the, you know,  baby boy’s privates.  Its purpose is to protect the diaper changer from getting sprayed with, well, um,  pee pee.  Needless to say, my sewing/quilting career was short lived.  We recently gave the sewing machine away to a neighbor.

Below is a picture of a pee-pee tee-pee in case you were wondering what it looked like. 

In spite of not being an avid quilter/sewer, fabric is part of my life and is all around my house. Peppered Cottons are probably the most popular.

Below, you can see how we used one of the shades of blue Peppered Cottons on the cornices in Brett’s room.  My father-in-law made this.

   

Here, you can see how we used the sand colored Peppered Cottons to cover the cushions and pillows on a little bench that we have in our den.  This was professionally made.

 

Next, there is a kids quilt that mixes the Peppered Cottons with an adorable boys construction line. The kids truly love this quilt.  See Brett doing yoga on it.  Nice form Brettie!

 

The next photo is one of a quilt made for when Aaron was born.  This was made by some friends that worked in the Richfield, Utah, Wal-mart fabric department.

This is a fleece throw.  The A.E. Nathan division sold baby throws to Bed Bath and Beyond.  We have tons of these in our house and gave them away to friends.

 

This is a quilt that my co-worker, Karen Junquet, made for when Aaron was born. 

This is another quilt given to me by friends in one of the Idaho Wal-mart fabric departments. It is a huge rag quilt using tons of the 2012 A.E. Nathan flannels.

Then there are the piles of fleece and flannel blankets in the kid’s closets.  

Finally, we had pillow cases made with A.E. Nathan flannel.  We used these as giveaways for Aaron’s birthday. The kids love them and the parents still talk about them to this day.  As you can see, we had a bunch embroidered with Aaron’s name. These were made by Mr. Bobble’s Blankets, an A.E. Nathan customer.

I hope you enjoyed tour!  Keep the questions coming as this was a fun blog to write. Hopefully you found it interesting.  Now you need to send me some photos of how fabric is used in your house.  Please post them on the Studioe Facebook page.

Regards,

Scott