Happy February! This week is Paul's birthday, so feel free to send him a birthday greeting. He works so hard behind the scenes to run this company. He is the Giant Brain / Wizard of Oz behind the velvet curtain, who makes the website run silky smooth and at red hot speeds. Have you noticed?
Holy Moley, I am actually in the studio and working on several projects! My laptop has been smokin' hot with lots of amazing future projects starting to bubble up, so stay tuned for future developments.
One of my projects is for a traveling exhibit that is going to be shown in several venues, with a companion book. I am working on some prestigious venues for a curated selection of the project. My quilts for this project are made 95% from eQuilter leftover scraps, so when you see them later this year, you'll know those were fabrics that were ordered by our customers, and will show up in quilts all over the world. There is something very satisfying about making quilts and fiber art from your leftovers! *grin*
Often when we have a week with unbelievably high quality, gorgeous and creative fabric shipments, I think back to how different things were when we started this company in 1999. Manufacturers were just starting to bring in licensed designers to create unique lines, but the most creative/colorful/contemporary fabrics were not being carried in depth by the quilt shops. Now of course it is a different story.
We started out with the intention of buying the craziest gobsmackingly gorgeous designs for the younger creative quilter and textile collector so we would not compete directly with the quilt shops. To some degree that is still true, because there are large categories of fabrics that we never buy, because it is more traditional quilt fabric. We leave things like Civil War reproductions entirely to the quilt shops, for instance. However we dove into the deep end on Asian fabrics, Batiks, and large scale novelty prints. Ditto on the bold bright blenders that used to be so impossible to find.
Now, if anything, the market is over-saturated, so we focus on quality and creativity. We seek out the most talented artwork and designers, from the vast ocean of quilt fabrics available. We pore over thousands of collections to cherry-pick the most original and innovative ideas. Yes we carry a lot of basics, but what's exciting for us is seeing the eye candy and creative genius of the top established designers, and the emerging artists/illustrators/designers.
January is when we start looking at the new releases from all the companies, so the last couple weeks have been very exciting. It is going to be a good year!
Help Wanted – Full or Part Time Assistant Buyer position at eQuilter.
Please read all the details carefully here and apply online as described if your qualifications match and your passion for quilting is irresistible! Growth opportunity for someone with EQ/quilt design experience.
Travel Calendar:
Feb 20 – QuiltCon in Austin, TX
Feb 26 – Quilt Festival in Mexico City
Apr 30 – May 3 – SAQA Conference in Portland OR
May 15-17 – Quilt Market
Aug 6-9 – Birmingham UK Festival of Quilts
