Bee Square Blog

Last Blog Post. Really. I think...

2011-11-07T15:49:00.003-05:00

Thank you to those of you who have reached out in the last year or so seeking advice on opening your own fabric shop! I wish I could help each and every one of you, but sadly, I cannot. I hope my old blog posts help you sort through some of the decision making process.

I am no longer checking my beesquarefabrics email address, apologies to those who have reached out and I didn't get back to.

Below are some snippets of advice I had previously emailed to varying inquirers looking for advice on opening running an online fabric shop. Enjoy!

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If you have all your business papers in order, look into American Quilt Retailer magazine, and the book they put out called The Answer Book by Jim Salinas. He has a formula for what you should be making per square foot of shop space.

There is a reason that Sew Mama Sew and Purl Patchwork sell their fabrics for what they do - they know that to actually pay people, you need to charge the full markup - which is wholesale cost + what it cost to ship to you x 2.

I don't think you need the best looking website, you just need one that shows up in Google searches.

The only thing I can say about what your offerings are is this - it takes the same amount of time to fill 1 yard as .25 yard. Once in a while I would get an order with 25 different prints all at .25 yard cuts. It would take me an hour to fill - and half of those cuts would be on sale. I just didn't have the capacity to fill those kinds of

orders for such little money. Fat quarters are great, but they take time to cut and fold and bundle up and photograph.

I don't mean to discourage you at all, but I just want to be honest about what it is really like. You have to market yourself all the

time, and when you're not doing that you are filling orders which is physically and mentally exhausting. And when you're done with that there is the bookkeeping, and getting ready for new orders, then getting that new product on your website.... It is a job that never ends.

I think the biggest difference between a fabric shop and a yarn shop is the additional labor. It's one thing to take an item off the shelf and pack it up and another thing to take the item off the shelf, measure, cut, fold, package, put the remainder back on the shelf. It is joyful labor, but still much more physical work. I was also astonished at how much I needed to spend each month on advertising because once you have a fabric for more than 4 months (assuming it is a 'trendy' or designer fabric) it's already old.

Guerrilla Marketing

2010-04-28T11:56:00.003-04:00

On April 15th I had to file my last tax return for Bee Square Fabrics. I was pretty shocked at how much money I spent on advertising in 2009. I have also been cleaning out my email inbox and found this bit of advice I sent to someone explaining what my process of guerrilla marketing was.

Enjoy!

Guerrilla Marketing is getting your name out there in a free and active way. It is making a name for yourself without paying money for it. Unfortunately, like all things free, it isn't really free, it is your time you will be paying in.

So it means you need a blog. You found me through mine right? See, it works. :) It's free, it's a place to post specials and deals and giveaways - and trust me, giveaways work! And then it gets your name in the Google arena. The more people who visit your blog and add your blog to their blogs, the higher up in the Google ranking you get.

You need to Twitter. You may already be blogging and tweeting and if you are, then you should have links on your website. (You need a website). The more places that link to you online, the more Google likes you.

You need to search out every quilting related group, message board, list... and get yourself in their directory. Like the Sewingmama's forum, and quiltinggallery.com and you need to make profiles everywhere. It's a total pain, but it works.

Then you go to wists.com and you list your own stuff there.

Then you go and find quilters out there who aren't yet working for anyone else, and who also have blogs and ask if you give them fabric to make something, will they write up a tutorial for your blog which they can also post on their blog.

Then you host a competition of some sort with some sort of prizes. And people will participate! And they'll ask their friends to go to your blog and vote for them, which will bring you more traffic.

But you'll need a Flickr account to host the images, which you'll learn will bring you some traffic as well if you up load images of your fabric there. (But be sure to read the terms of Flickr because they shut you down if you try to mention your shop there).

And if you sell, say, Jennifer Paganelli's stuff and she has a blog, ask her to link to your shop. A listing on a designer's blog could be your number 1 traffic driver. Designers want their fabric sold so they are asked to design more fabric. They will help.

And while you're doing all this, listen to the Indie Biz Chicks podcast (download to your computer on iTunes) she has so much great advice to give. http://indiebizchicks.com/wp/

Oh and then set up a Facebook fan page or group. Facebook is getting bigger and bigger and it quickly targets an audience.

I found I spent 60% of my time filling orders and 40% of my time marketing myself.

Sell on Blogger???

2010-02-18T10:35:00.004-05:00

I just discovered this from Google Labs. You can create an online store on your blog. Who knew? All you need to do is sign up for Google Checkout, add your products to a Google spreadsheet and create your widget.

Pretty neat! Check it out...
https://storegadgetwizard.appspot.com/storegadgetwizard/index.html

Visual Design

2010-01-19T16:06:00.007-05:00

I am sad to say that I am winding down my blogging (if you haven't already noticed). I am picking up in my old career of Information Architect which, thankfully, has a bit of work available.

In the meantime, I wanted to share some early design ideas for Bee Square Fabrics. These were all homepage options, and as you can see the colors, graphics and overall design go a long way in developing a brand.

Enjoy!

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

The Keeper

Bigger better images can be found on Flickr.

Your Own Web Shop - Part 2

2009-10-05T11:12:00.004-04:00

For me, the 2 biggest issues to consider when building your eCommerce website are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Usability. These things are really quite dependent on each other. To build your customer base you need to easily found, but to keep those customers you have to have a site that is easy to use. I always harped on the importance of Web Usability, but having never worked in online retail before, I didn't realize how important SEO was to the success of a site.

SEO:
Unfortunately I'm not an expert on SEO, so I can't advise on how to improve your existing shop. But I can say that if you're starting from scratch, it's important to interview your hires about their SEO experience. It will only benefit you to make a good hire in this department, even if it costs a little more. What you'll save in monthly advertising expenses will be worth a little more money spent up front. Trust me on this one. I spent months trying to get my fabric found in Google searches, and no matter what I did, it all came back to issues with the coding of the site.

Usability:
I'm a big fan of usability. There is a fantastic book called "Don't Make Me Think" which basically explains how visitors to your website will spend more time on there if they don't have to think about how to use it. For example, if your customer has to think about how to add something to their shopping cart, they might not make that purchase. If your customer can't find a coordinating print to the one they fell in love with, they may not purchase either. You may have the most visually beautiful website out there, but if it isn't easy to use, you may not make the sales you are looking for.

When designing my shop, I kept going back to all the things I like about other sites I've shopped on, and thought about how I shop for fabric in brick and mortar stores. I love the color wall in quilt shops, so I wanted to make sure that you could sort the fabric by color on my shop. When shopping online it always frustrated me how many clicks it took to add a bunch of fabric to my cart, which resulted in my Quick Shop. It was important to me that you didn't have to go back to your shopping cart every time you added a new fabric - especially with the Quick Shop - so I designed an overlay that opened up to display the cart and then automatically closed.

From the feedback I have received, I think I had a pretty usable website. I never had complaint about how to find something, even though I didn't have a search function, and the only issues that ever came up were because of a glitch with PayPal. My checkout process needed work, but overall in the usability department, I think I was a success.

When designing a shop from scratch, it is important to ask how you think your customers will expect to shop on your site. Don't make assumptions such as 'they'll find it' or 'they'll figure it out' because they won't, or more importantly, they won't want to. There are other shops out there that may be easier to use. Make sure that if you get that customer to your shop, you keep them there and encourage them, through usability, to make their purchase with you.

I have been busy working on a few projects outside of the selling fabric world. One of these is a usability project that I'd love your feedback on. But before I post about it publicly, I want to get permission from the sites owners. Get ready to do some clicking around and note taking. I'm hoping this exercise will gel the importance of having a usable site.

Your Own Web Shop - Part 1

2009-08-03T16:12:00.008-04:00

How do you know if it is time to move on from a venue-type online storefront? If you answer yes to any of these, it may very well be time.

- Have you started paying hundreds of dollars in advertising each month to generate the amount of sales you need to stay viable?

- Do you want some flexibility in the look and layout of your online shop?

- Are you already marketing yourself daily to the point where you feel like you are driving most of your sales yourself?

- Are you comfortable enough with HTML to make small edits yourself, or do you have someone who can make small changes on the site for you.

If you answered yes to any of these, it may very well be time.

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Once you've made the decision to go out on your own, you have several options of how to get a shop up and running. They range from the basic and affordable to the extremely expensive. Every additional feature you want on your site is going to cost you, so keep that in mind when shopping around.

Step number 1. Register your own domain name. If you haven't already done this, take a break and go do it now. Go Daddy or Register.com are places I've used. It doesn't cost a lot, and it keeps you the owner and in control of your URL.

Step number 2. Decide what ecommerce solution is right for you.

This post will briefly discuss the "all in one" ecommerce solution. It is based on templates, fully functional without much work at all and often will cost a monthly fee.

Yahoo! shops is one example of this type. They have a one time set up fee (in Yahoo!'s case $50.00) plus a flat monthly fee ($39.95) plus a transaction fee (1.5%). So if you're making sales of about $5000/month - your fees to Yahoo! are about $114.00/ month. *** Those are fees to your host/provider only. You will also be paying a monthly merchant account fee.

An advantage to this type of set up, it's quick, it's easy and it really doesn't cost much. If it is a tried and true package, it may have good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which will help reduce your advertising expenses in the long run. It is an important question to ask before committing to a provider.

Another "all in one" solution is Volusion. Their pricing is based on the number of products you sell. An important thing to consider if you're a fabric shop. You may start out with 400 bolts, but when some of them don't sell and you buy more you'll find you're quickly at 600 then 1000 in the blink of an eye.

There are many more of these types of solutions out there - feel free to name your favorite in the comments. The two I've named are the ones I'm most familiar with. When looking into these kinds of solutions, it is best to figure out your own needs first. For example, if you want to sell fabric by the quarter yard, can they accommodate that? What is their administration panel like - is it easy enough to add products? Do they have gift card options? Newsletters? Is the shopping cart/ checkout easy to use? You get the picture. Make a wish list and start doing some research!

Next up: Your Own Web Shop - Part 2

Benefits of Your Own Online Shop

2009-07-28T09:07:00.005-04:00

I have a lot to say on this topic, but very little time this week. I'll save the recommendations part for next week.

Pros:
- You are in control of the site design, web functions, branding, messaging etc.
- Setting up your own shop allows for flexibility. (Do you plan to expand your offerings? Want to highlight a sale? Arrange items next too each other that coordinate?)
- If you are selling full time, your merchant fees may be less than selling on a venue.
- You can sell more than one thing at a time without having to go back and forth with your customer multiple times.
- Your customer has the ability to shop how they are used to shopping online. For example, you will have an integrated checkout system.
- All advertising dollars direct customers to your shop, not a place where they can find the same item in someone else's shop.
- You can offer gift cards/ gift certificates that integrate with your shopping cart.
- You can create a community aspect to your shop.
- You can include newsletter sign ups directly on your site.
- Your average transaction price will be higher.

Cons:
- You need to market yourself and drive traffic to your shop.
- There is no built in customer base.
- You will need some capital up front to get your shop up and running.
- You may need to hire a developer to make changes to your shop.
- There is no community aspect, unless you create one yourself.

If selling fabric is your full time job, I personally think the pros outweigh the cons. When I left Etsy I felt freer. I no longer spent my days trying to drum up business in my Etsy shop, stalking the shop hoping for one more view to be posted, and chatting in the forums. I spent my time developing my brand, nurturing my customer base, and more importantly, filling bigger orders.

I guess the question you need to ask yourself is this - If you are selling on a 'venue' site, are you happy there? Is is working for you? If not, it's time to start looking for other solutions.

Next up: Recommendations and options for starting your own online shop.

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For all of you who have asked recently, the reason I closed my fabric shop is not because I wasn't doing well - I was doing just fine. I was going to expand to make the business even more viable. But instead of doing that, I decided to liquidate my inventory to help purchase a new home. I plan to go back to working as a web consultant to help pay the bills on the new loft. I am not sad about this decision - I was for a while - but now I am looking forward to fixing up and moving into our new place.

If you'd like a new wonderful online fabric shop to buy fabric with, please visit my sponsors. :)

Etsy Tips and Tricks

2009-07-23T09:47:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking about this for the last few hours, and it turns out - I have none! Etsy has changed a lot since I was selling there full time, and I'm not sure how to best be viewed on Etsy anymore.

This is what I've managed to come up with:

1. Don't pay attention to what your competition is doing. You can't control them, so there is no need to waste your energy thinking about it.
2. Don't stalk your Etsy shop. The views there are meaningless. Don't spend your day refreshing your browser hoping that one more person has viewed your item.
3. Don't put all your eggs in Etsy's basket. Try other venues as well. Etsy Bitch has profiles on all of Etsy's competition. You never know - your style might work better elsewhere. Your items might be found more easily on another venue. You might end up selling more outside of Etsy. You'll never know until you try.

Why do I say this? Because once I opened up my own online shop, I stopped spending my whole day waiting for sales to pop up and started using my time to market myself and enjoy the life I set up for myself. There are so many free ways to get your name out there. It takes some work but is well worth it. I mean, you're here reading this right? Shows that I've done something right! :)

If you do sell on Etsy, I will refer you to the following resources:

The Ultimate Newbie Guide

Secrets of Savvy Etsy Sellers

Etsy Hacks. The number one thing you can do to improve your time management of selling on Etsy. If you haven't downloaded all of these hacks, spend your next hour doing so. You'll thank me. Really you will.

Selling on Etsy

2009-07-21T10:25:00.001-04:00

First and foremost, let me start by saying that Etsy is a great thing. A really, really great thing. If someone from Etsy called me up tomorrow and said, 'Hey Diane, we have an opening for an Information Architect. We want to improve the customer experience and usability on our website. Please come work for us.' I totally would. I'd brag that I am an award winning IA and I have many ideas of how they can improve the shopping and selling experience there and how I'd be honored to be a part of their team. One can dream, can't they?

Now that I've stated that, let me go back to telling my story. After spending my entire budget at quilt market, I arrived home full of energy with plans of building my website. I had black and white 'wireframe' drawings that I designed and was ready to hire a visual designer to make the site look as good as I planned for it to function. I had a friend lined up to code the site, and was looking to hire someone to implement the shopping cart.

I thought I'd have a month or so to get this all up and running, but a week or two later boxes and boxes of fabric started showing up. Thankfully I had my shelves ready to store everything, packing materials on hand and PayPal all set up. With the clock ticking (Jim Salina's words ringing in my head about the sizzle stage of the fabric) I knew I had to start selling now!

Thank you Etsy! I was selling baby quilts there already, so I was already very familiar with the site. I knew the lingo, the little tricks of getting noticed, the advantages to posting on the forums and the advantages of making and getting in a treasury. I cut some fat quarters, took some pictures and started selling. Things were good for a while. They were actually really good. Really, really quite good. I was selling fabric at about $9.60/ yard and people were buying.

Things were going so well that I abandoned my plan to have my own website. I was paying Etsy quite a lot of money in fees and I was ready to hire someone to help me pack and ship.

And then Etsy changed the way its search function worked. My business totally fell flat. I survived on repeat customers for about a month, and then, getting desperate, I started renewing my items for the first time ever (¢20 down the drain per renewal). When that didn't help, I started paying for advertising to try and rebuild my business. At this point I realized that Etsy was no longer for me. With crafting supplies out of Etsy's main search and the discounters opening shops like mad I knew it was time to go out on my own.

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Here is what I learned about the financial side of selling fabric on Etsy. I can write about 'tips and tricks' for selling on Etsy in a later post, if you'd like. For now I am going to focus on the money side of it.

For some crazy reason the average price per yard sold on Etsy is well below a profitable price. Below is an example. Figures are approximate, but realistic. I apologize in advance to anyone in the industry who feels I am giving away too much information.

Let's say that wholesale price per yard is about $4.50/ yard (this price varies by manufacturer). Add in your landed cost (what you paid for the manufacturer to send it to you) and you get about $4.55/ yard. Add in Etsy fees (3.5% + .20) which makes it about $4.91/ yard. And then add in PayPal fees (2.9% + .30) and it brings your base price to about $5.34/ yard. (In realty the fees will be higher because they are based on retail mark up, not on wholesale price which I have used here.)

Since Etsy is so competitive, and supplies do not show up in the main search, chances are likely you will need to advertise. I understand that Etsy finally implemented Advanced Search so it may be easier to sell supplies there again, I can't say. Because I see Etsy shops advertising in the same places as non-Etsy shops, I will assume this is not the case.

Take your $5.34 and add in advertising. Let's just say you spend a mere 5% of your price per yard on ads. That now brings your base price to: $5.61/ yard.

If you sell everything at 'Etsy competitive' prices, without putting your fabric on sale and without renewing any listings, you are making about $2.00/ yard in profit. You need to reinvest half of that (or more) to purchase more inventory so that leaves you with about $1.00/ yard as your take home. However, it is inevitable that you will end up marking down at least some of your inventory so expect less than that.

Of course, this math assumes you have no help. And that you don't pay for insurance (health or otherwise). And you don't pay for storage/warehouse space. And you are including the cost of your shipping materials (printer ink, labels, plastic wrap...) in your shipping charges. Oh wait, this isn't the case? Your profit just plummeted to pennies.

And that is exactly why the 'big' shops sell their fabric at $9.00 - $10.00/ yard. Because they have to if they want to be viable businesses.

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I think Etsy would be a great place to sell fabric if they made a few changes. I think it would be better if they didn't display prices in the search results. It would help if it were easier to gain access to supply-buying customers by allowing supplies its own portal/ homepage, or were even featured more on Etsy. Most of all, it would benefit all fabric shops if every fabric seller decided to implement manufacturer suggested pricing at least during that important 'sizzle stage.' And let's face it, the advantage to selling on a place like Etsy or eBay or Artfire is that you should have a built in customer base. You should be selling there to reduce or remove your marketing and advertising fees. Otherwise, you have to ask, what is the benefit?

This is just my opinion, and I know that many of you reading this are fabric shoppers, not fabric sellers. I personally love buying fabric on sale. I know how great it is to purchase fabric at a bargain.

Fabric is expensive, and if you're making a lot of stuff, you need a lot of it. Having been on the other side of it, however, I can't help but wonder how long these shops can last selling fabric at Walmart prices. Walmart can't survive selling at Walmart prices, so I'm pretty sure the independent seller can't either.

I know this is a long post, but I'd love your feedback on it.
:) Diane

Next up: Benefits of Your Own Online Shop.

Random Thought of the Day

2009-07-20T21:53:00.005-04:00

As you know, I'm moving. I am spending nearly every moment of every day purging and packing. One of those purges was to go through all my old Martha Stewart Kids magazines and decide which to keep and which to give away.

What struck me as overly geeky, was as I flipped through the pages, looking at the sewing craft projects, I stopped looking at the project and started identifying all the fabrics by pattern name and manufacturer. "Oh there's Alexander Henry's Hot Dot in brown mixed with Michael Miller's Ironwork scroll in lime."

When I read the magazine the first time, those thoughts were nowhere near my head. I only looked at the color and pattern and almost always sized it up as 'pretty' (Martha's staff does have impeccable taste). It just goes to show how I've come to look at things very differently after handling fabric for over a year.

:)

Best of the Best

2009-07-13T08:46:00.009-04:00

Jim Salinas has more than 35 year of experience in the business, the last 10 of these has been as a sales rep for Moda. He lectures regularly at International Quilt Market in Houston, and writes a column for American Quilt Retailer called "Just Ask Jim."

Sitting down to the Best of the Best lecture in Houston was an experience into itself. You could feel the excitement in the air. I couldn't imagine what was going to be so great, but yet here I was in one of the larger rooms in the convention center and nearly every seat was filled.

What I am including here is some of the points he brought up that I think would be of general interest to anyone who is curious about the selling side of the quilt shop business.

Retail fabric purchasing has changed over time from an apparel/necessity business to a creative sewing industry. Quilting and creative sewing are continuing to grow, while sewing as a necessity has gone away.
Department stores used to carry fabrics, and WalMart is the last of which to which to do so. At the same time, they are reducing and eliminating their fabric departments. Every 7 years WalMart renovates a store, and most of the time they eliminate their fabric department during the renovation. Hobby Lobby has started to only carry solids and basics, and JoAnns has turned themselves into crafting stores. The only shops growing in this industry are the independent quilt shops.
For the small business owner you may have an easy time building up a great balance sheet, but have a hard time making a profit. It all comes down to inventory management. Quilt shops should aim to turn their inventory 1.5-2 times per year.
Designer/ Trendy fabrics have 3 lives. The sizzle stage is when new fabrics have been in the shop 6-8 weeks. After that they become old and need to move to the color wall separated by color and style. They can live for 10 months in a color wall. The 3rd stage is clearance. After a year, it is more important to sell these fabrics for shelf space over making profit on them. (This advice is aimed for a brick & mortar shop, but still applicable for an online shop.)
Dress up your sale section. Nobody wants to buy fabric that looks like a stray.
Old stuff in this industry is 2 months old (for Designer/Trendy fabrics - not basics).
Most customers come into your shop with 2 mind sets - "What's new?" and "What's on sale?"
If you don't manage your inventory, your customers will. They'll take the cream off the top and leave you with the rest.
Managing and understanding expenses is important. It takes $300 in sales to make $30. Keep this perspective when considering expenses.
It is harder to break even than it is to make a profit.
You need to increase sales each year by rasing prices.
Your cost of fabric is the landed cost = the price you paid for the fabric + what you paid to have it shipped to you. Mark ups need to be based on landed cost, not base cost. (I would add: consider merchant fees as well - Etsy, PayPal, Merchant Account...).
Time management: Plan time for the things that you need to do every day (in your shop), how often do you need to update your books, restock inventory, etc.
Your first hire should be a stock person (I would add: for online shops make it a cutting/ packing/ shipping hire).
Implement a good loyalty program and build relationships with your customers. (Good business advice for anyone).
Remember no two shops will ever be exactly alike. There are so many offerings out there that it is impossible for two competing shops to have the same exact inventory.

At this point, Jim started talking about the industry in general. The popularity of sewing lounges and indie crafting. This was in fall of 2007, and when he mentioned Etsy as a place to see what 'young people' are making, nobody had heard of it. I could tell this by the sound of a thousand people scratching the word Etsy on their notepads. He recommended that you think of your shop as a Creative Sewing Center and not just a quilt shop. Over the last few years crafters are making more than just quilts and you want to embrace them as customers.

There are more gems of wisdom, formulas of what type of inventory your shop should carry, and markup percentage suggestions in his book, "The Answer Book" available to retailers.

Next up: Selling the Stuff - Etsy

Colonial Dress

2009-07-09T08:43:00.004-04:00

Never in my life did I envision myself sewing a colonial style dress. One 7 year old obsessed with American Girl dolls plus an upcoming trip to Colonial Williamsburg equals one mom's attempt at making a modernized but passable colonial style dress.

The fabric was easy enough to find - I have long admired Kathy of Pink Chalk Fabrics and she thankfully, thankfully had this one below on sale. My daughter took one look and exclaimed 'that one!' and looking closer I saw it was from Windham's Centennial collection 1780-1880, perfect.

Then we needed to select something for the bodice, and ordered this one below to coordinate. It's a little bigger and bolder, but only a small piece is needed, and the color was perfect, so I think it will work.

On to the pattern. It will take a bit of a hack to make it, um, wearable - in Virginia, in August - ~~but I am going to use a pattern from Rocking Horse Farm as a base to work from.~~ ETA: That pattern never, um, arrived. (I unsuccessfully tried ordering from a new place) so I found the McCall's one on eBay for $5.00. Hopefully it will arrive soon!!!

In searching for the pattern, I found this blog post by Mama Made, where another mother had the same exact idea. I love how it came out, and love that she used some Amy Butler as the main print. Had I seen that blog post first, I might have gone with the McCall's pattern, but it's always good to start a new adventure.

The trip is planned for August 1st, so I have a few weeks to complete it. I'll post pictures when it is complete. :)

Shopping Quilt Market

2009-07-06T09:03:00.004-04:00

I'll admit it, I've only been to 2 Quilt Markets in my short stint as a shop owner, Fall of 2007 and Fall of 2008. My spring orders were all from online previews and placed via email. The Fall Market tends to be bigger and, for me, overwhelming enough to last a full year.

If I haven't mentioned it before, I should now. I have no prior retail experience. None. I worked one summer at The Limited sometime in the late 80's back when Banana Republic was still just a safari themed line The Limited carried. And that's about it. So when tasked with spending my allotted $12,000 (a very, very small budget comparatively - a brick and mortar shop might start with $50-100k available for inventory) I wanted to do my homework first. I discovered the Fabric Shop Network - a trade organization - and purchased their CD "How to Shop Market Like a Pro." It set some good expectations, and helped me go in with a plan. Spending that much money at one time is nerve wracking at the best of times, but knowing that you had to choose wisely and sell everything you purchased was doubly so.

I knew the basic categories for my website: Stripes, Dots, Flowers, Cute & Japanese... so I had a basic guideline of what types of fabrics needed to fill those categories. I also happened to be on a kick to find gender neutral quilting fabrics. After shopping for myself, I realized how few and far between boy friendly fabrics come about. They are often way too cute - and not in the Japanese kawaii sense - or just plain boring. I happened to start at a good year with Joel Dewberry's Aviary & Chestnut Hill collections, Prints Charming's Two Young Street, Michael Miller's Neutrals, and Kaffe Fassett's Spots & Paperweight - all of which had exactly what I was looking for.

The first day of Market, a day before the main buying floor opened, I spent taking classes including "Inventory to Profit" and "Break-even Analysis" both of which were incredibly educational. The main part of the day was spent at the "School House Series" where every 15 minutes you could hop into a different presentation given by designers, publishers, established shop owners, and fabric manufacturers. It was exhausting and inspiring all in one. During my Inventory to Profit class the teacher recommended Jim Salina's "The Best of the Best" lecture. This was the highlight of my learning experience, and something worth expanding on in a later post.

Following the advice of How to Shop Market Like a Pro, I spent my second morning - promptly at 9am when the convention floor doors opened - speed walking the aisles findng all the manufacturers I wanted to meet with to set up appointments. My day of buying included a 1pm appointment with Seven Islands who carries Kokka and other Japanese goodness and a 3pm appointment with Alexander Henry. The following day started with a 10am with Westminster Fibers, an 11am with Marcus Brothers, and a 2pm with Michael Miller. In between all of those appointments I managed to find and sit down with the distributors for Lecien and Cosmo Textiles to buy more yummy Japanese fabric.

Perhaps this sounds a bit much - it is and it is flat out exhausting. I took a lunch break to call my husband during the first day of buying and when asked, the only thing I could compare Market to was being in Ikea for 4 days straight. It is serious eye candy overload.

My second Market shopping spree (Fall of 2008) went much more smoothly, and I learned not to go it alone. My wonderful husband joined me, he was curious about the whole thing, and I was glad to have his company. I also had 'met' many more people in the industry by the second year, so there were chances to chat with these people in person for a change. One of these wonderful people was Kim from the True Up blog. She asked if she could tag-along to one of my appointments, which I was more than happy to have her at, so that she could write up a post about it. She did a really nice piece called "Buying Bolts with Diane of Bee Square Fabrics" which you should definitely check out. Kim is awesome, but more about her later too.

Next up: The Best of the Best

Getting the Business on Paper

2009-06-29T10:42:00.006-04:00

About 3 weeks before International Quilt Market, Fall 2007 I was chatting with my husband, yet again, about the fabric shop idea. Finally he blurted out, "Diane, stop talking about it and just do it already!" So I did. I knew that to enroll at Quilt Market as a prospective retailer you must have a few things: A business card, a tax ID number and either an invoice showing that you've spent at least $300 with a quilt fabric distributor or proof of a business bank account. 3 weeks until Market and I had none of those things.

The business card: I was still going between "Lucky Star Fabrics" and "Bee Square Fabrics" as a name for the shop. Both had good logo potential - a bold red star or a yellow bee. Obviously I went with the bee. Bee Square Fabrics spoke to my geeky side and tied in quilting at the same time. Plus I was already selling baby quilts under Bee Square Quilts, so I felt comfortable with it. Now that I had settled on a name, I needed a logo to match. I previously worked with Tara Hogan of Ink + Wit to design some calling cards for my personal use, and thankfully she was available. I will admit that I had no intention on spending what I did on my logo, but in the end I am glad that I did. My little bee is perfect.

Initial logo options by Tara Hogan

Tax ID number: After reading The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business I was convinced that I should set myself up as an LLC so that I could grow the business by adding a partner and hiring employees. It wasn't too hard to do this thanks to Legal Zoom but also turned out to be unnecessary for my purposes. Having no experience in this area, and only a few days to get it together I went a little overboard thinking I'd better be safe than sorry. Had I known GoTo on Etsy earlier, I would have saved myself a lot of work. Anyway, a few clicks at IRS.gov and I had my FEIN ready to go.

Business bank account: Here is my big mistake. I went with the first bank that I found where I could complete the account set up online. I should have waited a day and walked over to the nearest bank and asked some questions first, but no, I wanted it done NOW. The account I set up ended up having incredibly high fees if you don't maintain an incredibly high balance. When you're working with something like fabric which has such a small mark up to begin with, you don't want to loose your profits on bank fees. Trust me.

With my credentials set I was headed to Houston, Texas by myself to spend my alotted $12,000 on fabric. But more about that later.

Next up: Shopping Quilt Market

The Idea

2009-06-22T11:20:00.006-04:00

How did you come up with the idea? Is a question I have been asked many, many times. It took a while, but I got there eventually. I wanted to start a business where I could work really flexible hours, be with my girls after school hours, and help with the household income.

But what to do? About 5 years ago, I started making really simple baby quilts for fun - just 9 squares of coordinating fabrics on top and flannel on the back. It was a nice little blanket for an infant, not too stiff, not too big, perfect for swaddling. A few compliments later, I had a stack of them ready to be given out as gifts. A few 'you should sell these' later I discovered Etsy and actually did sell a few of them.

I knew I couldn't make enough money on these sweet little blankets for it to be a career path. Each blanket took 3 hours to make, and after I constructed about 30 of them I realized I never wanted to make another one again. However, the biggest reason I couldn't make money off of these was the cost of materials. I kept looking into how I could purchase fabric near wholesale prices, and came up short every time.

Around this same time, my daughter was making friends at her new school. She kept requesting more and more playdates with this one little girl, who is still one of her best friends. I didn't mind this at all because I really liked the mother. As I got to know this woman more I discovered that she has this online business selling maternity PJ's, called Mommy Bliss. I was floored. Here was this savvy, active, involved mom of 3 who also had her own business going on on the side. I was inspired and knew then and there that this was the idea. I could sell quilting fabric online.

In my free time I started working on a business plan. I didn't have a name for my business yet, but I knew what I wanted the shopping experience to be like. Having no retail experience myself, I conducted quite a bit of competitive research which I did by shopping for fabric online and locally. On one of my many visits to the amazing Purl Soho I overheard someone on the phone saying "...we buy our fabric twice a year at Quilt Market..." I just happened to be a the right place at the right time for that gem of information. I made a nice sized purchase and ran home to Google "Quilt Market."

I had my plan. I knew what I wanted to do, knew where to buy the fabric, had the basic layout of a website sketched up, and a business plan to boot. Even with all of that information ready to go, it took me another year to be ready to start the clock on Bee Square Fabrics.

Next up: Getting started, getting your business on paper.

Postmoretm

2009-06-05T09:43:00.004-04:00

Back in my consulting days, after a project ended the team would sit around and conduct a postmortem - a discussion of what went right on the project and what could be improved for next time.

I've gotten a few inquires about what advice I would give to someone who wanted to set up a craft related shop. So starting on Monday, June 22nd I will start a blogging series discussing the rise and fall of Bee Square Fabrics. I'm not going to claim to be an expert - clearly I'm not - but I always feel that sharing an experience is the best way for someone to learn from it.

I look forward to blogging about this whole experience. :)

In the meantime, please tell me - are teddy bears really that bad of an idea for fabric? I thought they were cute - and better yet, little boy friendly. Lesson learned there...

1/2 of what is left in the shop.

Goodbye

2009-06-02T09:00:00.007-04:00

Update: Remnants and remaining yardage will be up in the shop on July 7th around 10am.
..............

This is the post I have been absolutely dreading to make. And when I say it is a bummer to have you tell you this, I mean it is a total bummer.

On July 15th 2009 Bee Square Fabrics will be closing its doors.

Retail in this economic climate is a bit tricky, as you can imagine. In April, I was faced with a very difficult decision for my shop - go big or go home. I was on my way to going big -- looking into getting a new space, planning to hire employees -- but the space fell through and I never did move and I sat around for a few days totally depressed. But sometimes when a door closes a window opens, and a few weeks later an apartment came on the market that my husband and I decided to purchase, which means I've decided to go home.

I have truly loved running Bee Square Fabrics and I hope to have some sort of reincarnation of it at some point -- a decision that kept me from selling the business entirely -- and while I have some ideas brewing in my head, it will be several months before I can make anything happen with it.

Let me say again what a total bummer this is. I've had the best time running this business, and I am very, very sad to have to shut its doors. Thank you all for your loyalty and support over the last year and a half. I have met the most wonderful people and have enjoyed reading your comments and following your blogs and watching what you all create with the fabric I sold.

Please, please, please spread the word. I need to sell every last yard before July 15th and I'm asking for your help with this. While everything has returned to retail price, I'm offering 50% off everything with coupon code "goodbye50off" entered during checkout.

The fine print:
Everything must go. My last sale in this shop will be on July 15th, 2009. After that anything left will be sold offline. This 50% off coupon is the lowest price these fabrics will be sold at. My goal is to break even, to not lose money.

If you have purchased from me recently, I sincerely apologize, but I will not retroactively apply a coupon code. Shipping is based on the regular price of fabric - not the sale price. No shipping refunds will be given.

If there is a bolt shortage, or other reason the fabric you ordered is no longer available, I will fill the order with what is available and refund the cost of the missing yardage.

Orders may be delayed in shipping out, so please bear with me.

Notions and bundles in my Etsy shop, plus the Heather Ross Far Far Away collection will not apply to this sale.

I am happy to answer any questions, and again, please spread the word.

Thank you all.

Time to Vote!

2009-04-01T12:02:00.014-04:00

The entries are up! Please VOTE on your favorite Dr. Seuss inspired mini/doll quilt now! Voting will end on Monday, April 13th when a winner will be announced. One vote per person.

Thank you to all who entered. I really appreciate all of your hard work!
View the Group Pool on Flickr (sign in to Flickr to see all of the quilts).

Sublime Stitching - Community Quilt

2009-03-30T10:38:00.005-04:00

My kids are back at school this morning after a long spring break, which gives me time to think about how much I love their school. Right before the break, the school held their annual fund raising auction. One of the highlights for me was the community quilt crafted by many hands, with its embroidered patches that made up the quilt top.

Sublime Stitching was a huge help for this project and as you can see many of the patches are from their patterns. I personally love the diversity in style and theme of patterns that our stitchers chose, which reflects the selection at Sublime Stitching, and am most impressed with the quality of the embroidery.

The best part of all was seeing how the parents came together to make something so beautiful to raise quite a bit of money for the school. It's a project I'd definitely recommend for so many reasons.

Roller Derby

Lucha Libre & Forest Friends

Guest Blogger: Crazy Mom Quilts - Make a Zig Zag Quilt (without piecing triangles)

2009-03-23T13:18:00.007-04:00

Here's how to make a zig zag quilt without piecing those pesky triangles!

First, select your fabrics.

You will need:

- 9 quarter yards (not fat quarters) of coordinating print fabric

- 1 3/4 yards of solid fabric

- 1/2 yard for binding

- 2 1/2 yards backing fabric

- batting and thread

Cut 2 strips 3" wide x width of fabric from one of the print fabrics.
Cut 2 strips 3" wide x width of fabric from the solid fabric.

Sew together with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Press toward the grey.

Cut into 5.5" squares - you will need 14 blocks for each row. Each strip should yield at least 7 blocks. Layout as shown (except use all 14 blocks-only 12 are shown here).

Repeat for the next set of fabrics.

Layout the next color...
Continue building the zig zags, repeat for all 9 fabrics.

Now it's time to assemble the quilt top.

Since your quilt squares are set on point, you will be assembling your quilt top on the diagonal.

Join the blocks to make strips, then join the strips together as shown.

Now the quilt top should look like this....

Cut off the zig zag points...

and your quilt top is finished!

The quilt top measures approximately 46" x 61".
Quilt, bind and wash.

And you have a finished zig zag quilt!

Enjoy!

amandajean

---
Thank you amandajean of Crazy Mom Quilts for this wonderful tutorial. Please visit her blog for many hours of inspiration.

Entry number 3: Lorax Flora Quilt

2009-03-19T19:05:00.004-04:00

Lorax Flora Quilt
Originally uploaded by SherrySM

Hand embroidered Truffula Trees! What more can you ask for? I love the red and white together - very Cat in the Hat - and love the subtle way the Dr. Seuss theme was used here.

Please stop by and give Sherry some love!

Dr. Seuss Mini Quilt - Entry # 2

2009-03-13T19:31:00.002-04:00

March 108
Originally uploaded by carygkornegay

Look at the emotion on that poor fish. Telling that cat, "Put me down!" said the fish. "This is no fun at all! Put me down!" said the fish. "I do NOT wish to fall!"

Thank you Cary for your entry! I love the details of the fishbowl and the water splashing about, and you know I'm partial to orange. :)

First Entry is up!

2009-03-06T09:24:00.003-05:00

wocket in my pocket
Originally uploaded by mandylifeboats

I love it! I really can't say how many times I've read "There's a Wocket in my Pocket," but I know it's a lot because I can pretty much recite it from memory. Thank you to mandylifeboats for getting us started with this awesome quilt. So much fun, it really captures the spirit of the book.

Share your love with her in the Doll Quilt Competition Flickr Pool.

Stash Ideas: Bold Florals

2009-03-04T09:07:00.006-05:00

I just love these bold prints with the range of pinks and a splash of green. Bold fuchsias and lighter blush and tan work well together and balance each other out. The addition of the lime green really makes this group pop.

I also appreciate how the Heather Bailey Sway has similar elements to the Anna Maria Horner Fortune, with Amy Butler's Fresh Poppies bridging the gap. To fill in this color story we have Lace from Sugar Snap and 2 Alexander Henry prints Yen Rose and Jewel Stripe.

PS. Sugar Snap, Pop Garden and Midwest Modern are all on sale while they last.

Thank you!!!

2009-02-22T10:48:00.002-05:00

Thank you so much for all your feedback! I love how thoughtful everyone is in their comments. I really appreciate that. It seems that the consensus is that the /yard is quite confusing. And about only half of you would get past it to read the description.

But more exciting is all the encouragement to combine the remnants and bundles that I have on Etsy over to my own shop. After I get my next load of fabrics uploaded, this is going to be a big priority.

I'm going to talk to my developer to see if/when/how I can make all these changes. Thank you for the encouragement, it really feels great!

:) Diane

Help! Feedback Please.

2009-02-21T10:32:00.008-05:00

When I started selling fabric a year and a half ago, I was exclusively selling on Etsy. It was good, it worked, I was having fun. When Etsy changed their search, it was no longer fun, so I moved to my own shop. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Since then I've still had some remnant pieces up on Etsy, a few Fat Quarter bundles, and some notions. I'm working on a way to get them all over to my on shop (beesquarefabrics.com) for a one stop shopping experience. I have a temporary solution, until the site development budget opens up.

For now, I may add a new section to my website:

I don't really like the term "Extras" but "Bundles and Notions" seemed really long. Ideally this link would go down by "View All" and "Sale" but until I can get some more technical help, it's going to have to be with the "Color, Print Style, Collection, Designer" part of the navigation.

The other issue is that my shop is set up to sell yardage, not one-offs. So when I upload a bundle, I get this:

Where it is listing it as $15.00/ yard. With 1 yard in stock. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to remove the /yard part of the detail page.

So this is where I need your help.

1. If you found this page (above) - would it be clear to you how to purchase it?

2. Should I just wait until I can get all the flaws hammered out before I move all my remnants, bundles and notions over?

3. What names do you like for this catch all category? "Notions, Remnants, Bundles," "Extras," "Accessories?"

Thanks in advance, and please let me know your thoughts!

Color Namer

2009-02-10T10:42:00.005-05:00

This is just too fun. There are so many subtleties in the many colors of the rainbow, and naming each one can be tricky.

Take the Echino fabric Owls & Tigers for example - is it pink? purple? magenta? plum? Well, the Name That Color tool will answer that question for you. According to them, it is Red Violet.

Also worth playing with is the Color Name & Hue tool. This is especially good if color blindness is involved. I can see using it to place each fabric into a main color category.

I love this, and plan to use it many more times to name my colors. Enjoy!

Shash Ideas - Orange & Plum

2009-02-04T11:26:00.006-05:00

Adding Tendril in Plum between the Orange Mod Dots and Red Tiled Primrose (from Heather Bailey's Bijoux) really highlights the pinks and purples in those prints . Spots in Taffy and Tiled Primrose in Yellow finish off this color story by lightening it up, but keeping with the overall orange tone.

I think it's really easy to forget that purple compliments orange - it can often be a harsh color combination - but with this softer warm lavender and muted orange, it works really well.

Stash Ideas: Baby Boy

2009-01-30T20:54:00.004-05:00

I love this collection of light blues and whites. It is very boy friendly with the trucks, planes and nautical flags, but modern too. Cute but not too cute. Sadly the first 4 fabrics are sold out in my shop, but there is still a bit left of the trucks and planes.

Enjoy!

Stash Ideas: Orange and Brown

2009-01-25T09:37:00.004-05:00

Have I mentioned before that I love orange? I do. I love, love, love it. And pairing it with chocolate brown and aqua, even better. Just a quick post to share these lovely prints working so well together.

Enjoy!

Restored Quilt - Finished

2009-01-14T00:55:00.008-05:00

Well, mostly finished. It is quilted sparingly, and bound with a pink My Folklore fabric. I plan to continue to quilt the top, but for now, with its green recycled bottle batting, it is toasty warm on my daughter's bed.

Related posts:
Restoring a Quilt
Back to My Batting Decision

I should have mentioned this...
The recycled bottle batting was really easy to work with. I was surprised. It feels like fleece, but worked just like cotton. And even though the white fabric is really thin on this quilt, you don't really see the green color through it. I also found that the batting, since it is needle punched, moved just like cotton batting does. Just remember, this batting won't shrink, so if you don't pre-wash, you may have some issues working with it.

Seeking Hand Quilting Resources

2008-12-17T15:28:00.005-05:00

Hello Quilters! I think I've gone insane. I'm trying to finish up all the projects I've started this year by the end of December, which I'll post more about when I have the pictures uploaded. But the one that I started months ago - restoring my old quilt - is the one I'm obsessed with and ready to finish up. For some crazy reason I decided to quilt it.

Last night I laid out the 'quilt sandwich' and just stared at it for about a half hour. Then instead of basting it I just started 'in the ditch' it right there and then. The fabric just seemed so fragile that seemed the right thing to do. 3 hours later my fingers were (and still are) bruised and I'm only 1/4 of the way of the minimum I should do. I never realized the importance of a thimble until now!

In light of this, I'm hoping that some of you can point me to some resources, tips, tricks & tools. Most importantly, can you recommend a good thimble?

Thanks!

Quilt Market 2008: Shopping

2008-11-12T23:12:00.000-05:00

I was planning on making several more updates about International Quilt Market, but I think Kim over at True Up has said it all. She has a wonderful post on her blog about her experience shopping with me. It is the kind of post I wish I had come across last year when I was first setting up my business and attending Quilt Market for the first time.

Read Kim's post: Quilt Market Fall 2008: Buying Bolts With Diane of Bee Square Fabrics

More pictures are up on Flickr, but here are a few of my favorite new fabrics arriving in this Winter...
Jay McCarroll for Westminster Fibers

Cute Japanese sparkle Elephants

Lizzy Dish for Andover

Snippets by American Jane for Moda

Quilt Market 2008: A Moment of Quiet

2008-11-11T16:00:00.003-05:00

Quilt Market, for me, is total visual overload. There is way too much eye candy to absorb during such a short time. With my brain processing all the colors and patterns and finished goods available, it gets to be overwhelming. That being said, thanks to the completion of Discovery Green right outside of the convention center, I was able to balance a little bit of zen with the visual chaos that is the convention floor.

As a former architect, I really appreciate the thoughtful design of the space. This park is one of the most beautiful and serene places I've been in a while. I hope you enjoy this quiet moment as much as I did.

Michael with the remote-control sailboats

Crazy Mom Quilts - Binding Tutorial

2008-11-02T10:00:00.007-05:00

Crazy Mom Quilts blog has a really nice tutorial up about how to bind a quilt. There are step-by-step instructions with lots of pictures marking each step in the process. I use a similar method when I bind my quilts - the only difference is that I trim my edges or square up the quilt first. I think I'm going to try it this way next time - it seems a bit more forgiving.

This is an amazing blog by Amanda Jean, a mom who loves to quilt. I love her lengthy list of tutorials listed on the right side of her blog - they are well done and so inspiring. I love seeing her progress as well as all the finished quilts she's made. The doll sized ones are a particular interest to me right now since my 4 year old sleeps with 3 baby dolls every night. Doll sized quilts just might be a great way to get into quilting - start small and go from there.

Please stop by her blog when you have a chance.

Spoonflower - Print your own fabric

2008-10-29T16:19:00.004-04:00

In case you haven't heard Spoonflower is now open to the public! If you've ever wanted to have your own designs printed on fabric, now you can! I just had to share the news.

From Stephen of Spoonflower:

"After five months of testing, on Monday we finally opened up Spoonflower so that anyone who wants to can register, upload a design, and order custom-printed fabric.

We are writing to thank you for signing up for the beta version of our site, but more importantly to thank you for your support and help as we have tried to turn a fabulous idea -- affordable, on-demand fabric -- into a real, functioning company.

It's not that we don't still have a lot to learn (note that the site still says beta), but once you have over 10,000 people signed up as testers you may as well open it up to everyone."

If you decide to try Spoonflower out, please let me know, I'd love to hear all about the process and your experience. As always, please share your pictures on Flickr.

Quilt Market 2008: Fabric 2.0 meet & greet

2008-10-27T22:38:00.010-04:00

As mentioned, Friday night brought the Fabric 2.0 Meet & Greet hosted by Caroline Devoy of jcaroline creative, Kathy Miller of Michael Miller Fabrics, Lissa Alexander of Moda, and Christina Batch-Lee of Etsy and held on the rooftop terrace of Hilton Americas with its stellar views of downtown Houston.

Caroline Devoy was a wonderful hostess and it's easy to see she's an expert in this field. She quickly introduced me to Michelle Engel Bencsko, whom I had met through the world of blogs, but never properly chatted with. Michelle was super nice and was really patient with me while I asked her 1,000 questions about her fabric design. Her new line of fabric, "Dogwood" for Henry Glass, debuted at Market, while she has several lines on Etsy that she is printing herself.

I then introduced myself to Jay McCarroll, who has two lines out this December with Free Spirit, "Woodland Wonderland" and "Garden Friends." Jay was very friendly and totally genuine, as expected, and he instantly had me laughing. When I asked about his design process for these prints, he mentioned being very conscious of making smaller scale prints for quilters. Speaking of process, he also reminded me that he has a movie coming out called "11 Mintues," which is showing in select cities and will be out on DVD soon.

I finally got to meet Kim Kight from True Up in person. We had previously only communicated via email and she is as wonderful in person as I expected. Everyone there seemed to know Kim, which didn't surprise me one bit. She is doing such a great thing for the community with her awesome blog, and I don't think I'm the only one who gets that.

I also had a great time meeting Melissa Averinos who debuted "Sugar Snap" for Free Spirit; Jenean Morrison, also with Free Spirit; Myrinda Dixon, owner of Fabric Hound; Bari J. who has wonderful handbags; Chelsea of Pink Fig Patterns; Mary of Flourishes; and Weeks Ringle of Fun Quilts who shared her experience of starting out in this business with me. It was such a great feeling to connect with this community, sharing ideas and experiences -- I could have stayed all night, but I also wanted to see the frenzy at Sample Spree.

Fall Quilt Market 2008: Friday set up

2008-10-27T12:10:00.008-04:00

Last Fall at International Quilt Market, the quilting industry trade show, I didn't notice the set up of the show like I did this year. I had never seen anything like these giant wooden crates the vendors freight to each trade show. I just had to share. It is amazing the transformation from set up to live show. These black panels are part of Westminster Fibers many booths.

For a small glimpse of the Moda booths look at the top picture. They were all white with light aqua fabric panels - a very soothing and beautiful set up.

These pictures show only about 1/4 of the show floor, which may give you an idea of just how large this show is!

Quilt Market - Quick Post

2008-10-25T22:01:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post to say that I'm having a great time at Quilt Market this weekend. I attended a wonderful 'meet & greet' party last night hosted by J. Caroline Creative, Kathy Miller of Michael Miller Fabrics, Lissa Alexander of Moda Fabrics, and Christina Batch-Lee of Etsy, which I will write much more about more when I get back and can upload my pictures. There were so many of my favorite designers there and it was great to get to chat with them.

I spent most of today shopping for fabric. There is so many great things out there to choose from! Most won't arrive until December and January and some not even until March. I took several pictures though, so you'll get a great preview. It's been a day full of wonderful eye candy, which I'm sure will seep into my dreams tonight. :)

Projects: Restoring a Quilt

2008-10-21T12:15:00.001-04:00

My Aunt Alice made this quilt for me when I was about 11 years old. She made one for my sister too, but being the younger and less organized sister, she managed to lose hers. Mine however has been passed down to my 7 year old. Last year she used it all winter but constantly complained that it wasn't warm enough. So this year, before it gets too cold, I'm out to remedy that.

When I showed my Aunt the quilt recently she was pretty happy that I still had it and was really impressed with her own work. Her comment was this, "It's a good thing I decided to use the good cotton on yours." I'm glad she did too! Otherwise it might not have become the family heirloom it is today.

So, I wanted to share a few small things I've learned about the longevity of quilts.

1. Teeny tiny stitches may be a really good thing. It took me forever to rip these seams, but they've held out for more than 25 years, so I know they work!

2. Funny enough nearly all the seams that were going to split on this quilt did so after the first washing. As a kid with my lack of quilt experience, I thought the best way to fix it would be to sew up all the split seams by hand on the quilt top while avoiding the back as much as possible. I ended up doing a pretty good job being that these hand repairs lasted for quite a while. I only had one other seam split since that first wash, so I mended it the same way I did when I was younger, just to be consistent.

Before tearing the whole quilt apart I went over to Ravelry and Craftster to get some advice. The best response for split seams on vintage quilts was to whip-stitch the open areas and then reinforce with an appliqued patch. I thought it was a brilliant idea, worthy of sharing.

3. Tying a quilt is a great way to finish a quilt, but it only works if you tie according to the batting's requirements. I've always read about batting 'migrating' and 'bunching' but I had never seen it in person until now. No wonder why my little girl was cold, the batting was totally gone in some areas of the quilt!

However, one good thing about tying a quilt is this, if you ever do need to reconstruct it, it will be much easier to take apart!

My goal is to replace the old cotton/poly batting with some natural cotton or bamboo batting. I'm in the process of researching which will shrink less after washing. I'm keeping the old backing, as I was able to take it off in one piece, but will be binding with new pre-washed fabric. The only other outstanding question - do I quilt the top, or do I tie it again? I'm open to suggestions. :)

Fabric Storage

2008-10-05T21:36:00.008-04:00

In my Product Updates: Red post, there was a comment from http://christopherandtia.blogspot.com/ saying that it would be great to see a picture of where I store my fabrics. Well, that was an excellent idea, so I've taken some quick pictures to share. The space is a bit small, so I had a hard time capturing most of it, but you'll get an idea. I also had an issue with the brightness reflecting off the glass - that was a tricky one to work around too. I'll have to work on it again once I have some new fabrics in. In the meantime, Enjoy!

Product Updates: Reds

2008-09-27T16:06:00.003-04:00

Being an online fabric shop, I don't get to share my lovely fabric studio with everyone. I have all my fabric in wood cabinets with glass doors, and they are either arranged by designer/ collection or by color. Just as you would find it in a brick and mortar quilt shop. Sometimes I find myself just standing there staring at all the beautiful fabric I get to see every day.

Recently 2 of my customers were looking for a red or orange fabric to match a project they are working on. So I pulled some bolts out and snapped some pics to share with them. I just love the colors together and wanted to share them with you. Enjoy!

It's alive!

2008-09-15T08:47:00.004-04:00

Yay! I am so happy! My website is live! Please feel free to shop there - and more importantly, let me know what you think.

I want to thank Tara Hogan of Ink + Wit for her lovely design, Randy for his hours of HTML, and Melissa and Jon from Honeybee Graphics for their hard (and patient) work on the development of the site. Jon is a rock star, and I appreciate all the effort he put into this endeavor.

Thank you also to my loyal customers, I love working with you and seeing all the great things you come up with. Please continue to share your ideas and keep us all inspired.

Warm wishes,
Diane

Bee Square Fabrics.com: Quick Shop

2008-07-30T10:25:00.006-04:00

Quick Shop. One of the things that sparked the idea of starting a business was the amount of time I was spending shopping for fabric online. I was making and selling baby quilts on Etsy at night, after work when the kids were in bed. I would have loved to head down to Purl to buy all my fabric, which is only about a half hour walk from where I live, but as my impulse fabric shopping usually happened around midnight, that didn't always happen.

Because of my night owl shopping habits, I started buying more and more fabric online. There are some great web stores out there, and I know you know who they are. But all this time I spent shopping for fabric made me realize that there were a few web widgets that practically no fabric shops had. One of these is quick shop. I love the feature on the Old Navy website (and having kids, I've shopped there quite a bit) and thought it would be great for buying fabric.

Out of nowhere I started sketching ideas about how I would design a website if I were making one for myself. And that was what started it. I'm excited about my Quick Shop widget and I can't wait until it is live so I can test it out for real. In the meantime, I'd love to know what you think. Please feel free to post any comments or insight you'd like to share.

Bee Square Fabrics.com

2008-07-22T13:16:00.012-04:00

Coming soon:
beesquarefabrics.com

Etsy is awesome. The community couldn't be better. I love my customers and I love my fellow sellers, especially the members of the Etsy Supply Street Team. I love the discussions in the forums, and as someone who works solo, it feels really good to know that there is a whole supportive community out there.

Having said that I've been working on my own website to sell my beautiful fabric from. Etsy has some limitations - it is hard to list multiple yards of fabric, it is difficult to show which fabrics coordinate with others, and Etsy doesn't allow my customers to select the exact amount of fabric they'd like.

The navigation of my site will allow you to sort fabrics by color, by print style, by collection and by designer. I hope that this gives enough flexibility to find the fabrics you need.

Currently the plan is to launch early September right after Labor Day. Until then I will continue to update you on the progress of the site. I will also be looking for some volunteers to help test the site before it launches. If you are interested please leave a comment and I will get in touch with you.

I am not leaving Etsy, I am just expanding how I sell. A big thank you to everyone has shopped with me thus far. I am looking forward to many more years of selling beautiful quilting fabric.

I heart Denyse Schmidt

2008-06-11T12:29:00.002-04:00

When I got back into quilting after so many years it was all due to Denyse Schmidt. It was way back when I was working as an architect, I'd say 1998ish. For fun I went to the ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) seeking out inspiration. I've always loved furniture design, and ICFF is the place to be for that sort of inspiration. Of all the innovative and inspiring furniture that I saw, it was the display of Denyse Schmidt Quilts that really struck my eye. I took home a postcard - which I still have - and marveled over it. The direction she took quilting in was astounding to me. I had only ever seen traditional quilt blocks - patterns that have been around for centuries, never had I seen such a modern style - jaunty yet structured. Forever I wanted to make a quilt in her style but I never had the space or equipment to do so.

Since this foray into fabric has enveloped my life, I have finally found a good opportunity to try it out. My best friend and former college roommate is having a baby. I wanted to make her a quilt, and wanted it to be special.

Within the same month my daughters school hosted a fund-raising auction. I wanted to donate a handmade quilt to that too. That was my month of April. Two quilts, same pattern, different scales, different colors. I love each of them the same. It is always amazing how changing up one small thing can change the whole look of a quilt.

I used the pattern in her book "Denyse Schmidt Quilts - 30 Colorful Quilt and Patchwork Projects" but recently found the free pattern through a link on The Purl Bee - Free Pattern From Denyse Schmidt (pdf download)
It's not a difficult patten, but paying attention to how the pieces and blocks are laid out is key.

Both quilts have been delivered and both recipients are very happy.

For more inspiration visit Denyse's website at http://www.dsquilts.com/

Introduction

2008-02-07T11:47:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Bee Square Blog where you’ll find new product announcements & updates from Bee Square Fabrics, featured Etsy crafters, and project ideas.

Thanks for stopping by!

Diane
Bee Square Fabrics
www.beesquarefabrics.com