Simply "Scant-ilous"

As February approaches, I have a number of folks registered to participate in the inaugural Quilt Store Next Door Block of the Month (hereunto referred to as BOM) program.  I'm SUPER excited about this BOM for two reasons.  First, this is actually MY first BOM project!  Yes, I am a BOM newby!  In all my years of quilting, I've always wanted to do a BOM; I figured heck, anyone can make ONE block a month, right?  Of course, by the time I'd realize the local quilt shops had a BOM, it would be June, and who has time to complete six blocks in one month to catch up?!  Not me!  Hence, I never did any at all.

Secondly, the BOM program I've chosen is actually a Craftsy BOM from 2012 designed by Amy Gibson for Craftsy.  It is a 20 block sampler that will teach us TWO NEW techniques each month!  Some blocks are very traditional while others are wonky and wonderful with a modern, improvisational feel.  I'm stoked to learn some new techniques myself, so I'm ready to get started!

In all my excitement, I was talking to one of our registrants and she asked me "what exactly is a scant 1/4" seam?  How's it different from a regular 1/4" seam?"

Hmmm....I know the answer, but I didn't know how to verbalize it to her, so I clumsily explained the best I could and decided that maybe a few other people had the same question.  Let's demystify the "scantilous" scant 1/4" seam.

My machine has a very narrow 1/4" piecing foot which will give me a perfect scant 1/4" seam if I simply run just slightly outside that raw edge of the fabric, but maybe your presser foot is different, so let's figure this out.

Why do we use a scant 1//4" seam?  After we sew our two pieces of fabric together, what do we do?  Well, we iron those babies right open to see how beautifully our fabric choices are getting along.  When we open that seam and roll that fabric back a bit, we lose a negligible amount of our block, now making our block smaller, be it ever so slightly, but smaller than we originally calculated.  

To account for that we use a scant 1/4" seam.  This simply means it is just shy of a full-bodied 1/4" seam.  So if your machine has a 1/4" foot, don't follow the fabric edge, but instead, ride just a little to the right of  that fabric edge, and you should be fine.  Always measure the distance from your presser foot edge to your needle to make sure your 1/4" foot is accurate.  The 1/4" foot on my old machine was not accurate and that messed me up several times.  If you're using your regular sewing foot, take a measuring gauge the next time you sit down to sew and measure from the edge of your foot to your needle, and find out that distance so you can adjust accordingly to be just slightly less than 1/4".   One word of advice: whenever possible always complete your piecing project on the same machine as you started it on simply for the sake of calibration.  If you sew some of your blocks on one machine with one 1/4" foot and then finish your blocks on a different machine/foot, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise when your try to fit your blocks together.  

See, that was easy, wasn't it?  What is a scant 1/4" seam?  It's a seam that is actually slightly less than a full 1/4" seam.

Why do we use it?  In an attempt to keep our finished block size as true as possible without losing much block when we iron our seam open.

See... it wasn't so scantilous after all!  

Go BIG or Stay Home?

Hello All!  It's New Year's eve and I haven't posted to this blog since APRIL!  Where did I go? You may be asking or you didn't even miss me--either way, I'm back for the final post of 2013.

If you follow my other blog " A Quilter's Journey, " then you know what happened to me.  Several little trips, selling a property, oh yeah, and converting a screened porch into a home-based quilt shop and studio.  Then Christmas orders came rushing in---and I'm definitely not complaining---but I got a little busy.  

So, Christmas has past, and things have slowed enough for me to sit down for 10 minutes and peruse the latest copy of my trade magazine "FabShop News," when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but an article that first, hurt my feelings, and then made me pretty angry and now I just want to set the record straight.

If you don't follow my other blog, let me give some quick background on Quilt Store Next Door. I started quilting in 2000 around the age of 26.  In 2004, my daughter was born and quilting becomes a memory.  Christmas 2012, my daughter asks for a sewing machine for Christmas. Once she gets the sewing machine and we start working on projects, I go through fabric I had in my old stash and attempt to sell it online.  It sells out, I buy more, it sells out and I realize I'm on to something.  In the meantime, friends and co-workers encourage me to sell the items I make, such as iPad cases and table runners.  Between my fabric sales online and my product sales locally, Quilt Store Next Door is born. 

My original plan was just to run an online retail fabric business, but the finished product end of the business took on a life of its own.  Moving from the makeshift basement studio I had been using, I then expanded into an unfinished screened porch to create my home-based studio and quilt shop.  

Now you're up to speed and can fully understand why I find this magazine article so troubling.  

Not really an article, per se, but actually the results to an email survey that was sent to shop owners last month.  

The survey asked "if you could influence change in the industry, what three areas would you change and why?"

Several respondents gave points that I too have encountered myself in this business

• More diversity of designs.  Less of the different designers just repeating what's already been done.
• Reliability by the suppliers. More updates given on back orders, out of stock and unavailable items.  In my own experience, suppliers don't provide you with shipping amounts ahead of time (you find out when you possibly get an invoice with your shipment or when you get your credit card statement).  For the most part, suppliers really keep you in the dark until you see what shows up from the UPS person.
• More fabrics should be produced in the USA to keep jobs here.
• Higher quality fabric for the price; prices to shops should be reduced now since cotton prices have dropped.  

These are all great points with which I completely agree.  A few people mentioned fewer free patterns should be available.  I'm sorry but those individuals need to get on board with the digital age we live in.  I get that it reduces what pattern designers and quilt shops make on patterns and books, but the reality is, we live in the age of the internet and someone, somewhere, has posted a pattern or tutorial for almost everything.  

Why do you suppose Pinterest is so wildly popular?

This takes me to my point.  Well six of them to be precise.  This article listed 26 email survey responses.  Of the 26 responses, SIX (or 23%) of them were bashing online fabric retailers and home based businesses.  Almost one-fourth of the responses.  

Wow.  I had no idea we online and home based retailers were so threatening and so despised.

Here is what was said:

• "Have fabric companies not allow online discounters immediate access to new goods when they are going to sell  them substantially below a full retail mark-up"
• "Maintaining minimum advertised pricing policies on goods"
• "Exclusive products for brick and mortar stores"
• "The fabric sold to us be unique to quilt shops only--not to discounters or people OPERATING OUT OF THEIR HOMES and undercutting competitors"
• "Tighter controls for setting up wholesale accounts"
• "Less attention paid to bloggers and more to shops"

Again, my first response was "Wow."

So, in the name of fairness, I stepped back to see it from the standpoint of a small business trying to make it.  

By trade, I am a Registered Dental Hygienist with a BS of Dental Hygiene from The Ohio State University. (GO BUCKS!) Being a dental hygienist, I have always worked for a small business owner.  I have seen firsthand the daily struggle of running a small business and controlling your overhead.

• Rent or mortgage payment for office space (or storefront)
• Advertising
• Supplies (shelving, displays, class machines, tables, chairs, etc)
• Inventory (fabric, notions, kits, samples)
• Staff (salaries, benefits, interviewing, hiring, managing)
• Managing a business that is also your job (you own your job)
• Accounting services
• Building a patient (customer) base

This is all very stressful.  I get it.  Which is precisely why in this season of my personal life, I have chosen to keep my business online and home based.  I have a 10 year old daughter.  That's it. She is number one.  She is my first responsibility.  She is my first commitment.  I started this to teach her something about following your dreams, but I'm not willing to carry it to the detriment of her upbringing while I spend 70 hours a week building a business that has to float or I financially sink.  I refuse to do that to her or my husband.  End of story.  That is the choice I have made right now and I bear the cross that comes with that choice.

One day, in a different season of my life do I want to move my business to the brick and mortar level?  Yes, I do.  I would love, brick and mortar owners, to have the advantages that you have. Yes, did you see that?  Brick and mortar's have ADVANTAGES over online and home-based retailers. Say what?

I have been in many a quilt shop in my quilting days.  From a customer perspective, here's what I see that brick and mortar shops have over online retailers:

• Your storefront.  You have a physical presence.  You have a sign.  You are visible. Some of you have MULTIPLE locations. You have space for large classes.
• Your advertising.  You are in the yellowpages.  You are on the WEB.  You have word-of mouth.  You are present on vendor's websites.  
• Your inventory.  You can boast 3000 bolts of fabric and more notions, patterns and books that I can shake a stick at. Volume speaks Volumes to many customers.  They want 3000 choices.
• Your staff.  They are talking about where they work.  Some belong to local guilds.  Some are crafters directing business to your shop through their own creations.  They are teaching your classes and helping to build and maintain your customer base. They are advertising.
• You are "REAL."  You are taken seriously by the public, by vendors, by professional organizations, by advertising organizations, by your local chamber of commerce.  
• You have the quilters who are don't "do online."  They perhaps aren't into email, online shopping, don't have the internet or even own a computer.  Tell me again how an online retailer can even reach that demographic?

Have you, my dear quilt shop owner, pondered what we online and home-based retailers don't have and how it works against us?

Here's what I deal with in my online and home based business:

• I am invisible.  I DO NOT have a storefront.  My shop and studio is at the back of my home--behind my house--in my subdivision where HOA rules tell me I can't even put out a small sign.
• Advertising is expensive for a small business owner.  Imagine what a chunk it is to a micro business owner.  I RELY on Facebook, email newsletters, craft show appearances and friends/family/word of mouth and personal contact to keep me in people's minds.
• Let's talk INVENTORY!  I am working in 240 square feet of real estate.  How can I physically compete with your selection?  I can't.  Hands down, I have already lost the customer who demands a huge selection before I've ever met them.  
• I am my staff.  I do everything.  I order. I stock.  I maintain two websites.  I blog.  I stay up until 2:00 am printing mailers and preparing them to mail out. I run to the post office.  I do order fulfillment. Couple this with my PRODUCT line.  I do all the manufacturing, marketing, etc. for that side as well.  I do EVERYTHING after my daughter goes to bed so I'm with her when I should be.  I sleep about 5 hours each night; sometimes less.  I teach all my classes.  I prepare for all my classes.  I rent booths at craft bazaars.  I offer in-home parties to build my product brand.  I do whatever it takes to get in front of people and I do it all myself. Did I mention, I work a full-time job in the dental profession?
• When I meet people at craft shows, etc.  I have to tell them my shop is in my home, and they look at me strangely.  At that moment, many of them stop taking me seriously. I have to be careful who I'm bringing to my home because putting my family in danger is always a fear.
• I am not treated the same by vendors as you are treated.  I'm not a huge account that promises them a huge pay-off.  Sales reps don't even return my phone calls.
• I don't have space for more than 3 or 4 people per class.  If I have five, I'll have to use a room at my local library (if one is even available) or rent a venue.  That costs money and I'm not getting rich doing this.
• Online, yes, you are international.  But the vast majority of those customers don't return.  Not because they've received poor service, but simply because the next time they're looking for something, they will "google" and land (and subsequently purchase) from wherever google takes them.  I AM COMPETING NOT ONLY WITH BRICK AND MORTAR SHOPS, BUT ALSO OTHER ONLINE VENDORS.
• My production side.  Do you honestly think it's fair to not offer me, as a product manufacturer, the same fabrics and prices that you can get?  Doesn't that harm my business and cut into my bottom line?  I think one might call that a monopoly and that is illegal. 

I CHOSE this however, because it is what is right for my family and I accept the limitations that come with choosing to do business this way.

I guess what first really bothered me, is that while I do have access to wholesale fabric.  I still frequent my local quilt shops.  There are things I want or a customer requests for a product that for my teeny-tiny business, it would not be advisable to order full bolts of fabric that I may not be able to sell.  I support people visiting their local quilt shops through my website, my Facebook pages and my blogs.  I don't resent you, nor am I threatened by you.  Our businesses are in fact, different by nature.  I guess I feel like we should be helping our customers get what they need, make that dream project and guide them to whoever has what they need or can better meet their budget.  Incidentally, my fabrics are only marked about $2-$3 per yard less, and for every one yard I sell, you are probably selling 100 yards.  I'm not exaggerating.  Puts that couple of bucks per yard in perspective, right?  I have better prices, you have better inventory.  We're not the same and to compare us is like the proverbial apples to oranges.  

I could go on and on.  A couple of the email responses above mention exclusive products to brick and mortar shops.  The hard fact is, by virtue of your size, volume and budget.  You do have exclusive access to products that I can't get.  I can't afford an opening order to United Notions (Moda) of $750 or a yearly minimum of $1200 or more to any single supplier. Therefore, you will have products that I can't stock because your budget is much bigger.  You have your exclusivity right there.

If I might add one more little piece of advice to brick and mortar owners from a customer.  Stop focusing on how the internet is hindering your business (we live in the internet age---you need to deal with this reality anyway) instead, focus on those wonderful customers who are walking into your store everyday, no matter who they are or what they look like.  

You remember, I mentioned that I was 26 when I began quilting.  Well, I will tell you that I was treated differently at quilt shops and in quilt classes than "more seasoned" quilters.  Even one year ago, when my daughter and I took and mom and me quilt class at a local quilt shop, having told the instructor that I was a quilter, she was extremely condescending to me and explained everything to me as though it were MY first class.  My daughter and I had brought fabric to the class that we purchased at an Amish quilt shop (it was designer fabric--Timeless Treasures) but it had gotten a little bent out of shape when it was washed and the instructor asked "where did you get this fabric?"  I told her, and her reply was "oh, I just wanted to make sure you didn't buy it here."  Wow! How rude.  That very shop sells Timeless Treasures fabrics.  Aren't we a bit snobby? I have not been back in that shop since that day.  They haven't missed me, I'm sure. But when you're the size of my business--that one customer is a HUGE loss.

What I have learned as a customer and as a home-based retailer, is to never judge a book by it's cover.  I have students who never sewed before, who now make beautiful things for their friends and family.  I have students who can't sew in a straight line.  I have the privilege of sharing this art with anyone who asks me about it.  I don't care if you're young, old, male or female.  I'm not judging anyone.  I'm just excited to share my knowledge, my fabric, my products and my business with anyone who will seek me out.  Local quilt shop owner, you have customers walking in your doors that you are turning away with you "cliques" of regular customers and your country club attitude.  Please beware.

Remember, YOU CHOSE to open a brick and mortar shop for your own personal reasons as opposed to doing what online retailers are doing, and you must accept that online retailers are here to stay and are simply trying to do business in an effort to make a profit, just as you are. Trying to create your own "local quilt shop monopoly" is not the answer.  Accept the circumstances of your choice.  

Whew!  I didn't mean to rant this long, and I do say all this with one caveat;  this mentality, I'm sure does not apply to every local quilt shop owner. There are two local quilt shops that I visit quite frequently and they are very nice and not condescending at all.  They don't know I'm an online retailer, so would they treat me differently if they did?  I don't have the guts to find out.  

January 25th is "Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day."  Be sure to stop by your local quilt shop and show them some love.  If you live in the Pickerington, Ohio area, stop by Quilt Store Next Door and see my 30 bolts of fabric! Ha!  In all seriousness, I am small, but I LOVE helping people with their projects and if there is something in particular you need, I will special order it for you. You can also find my fabrics and products at :

www.quiltstorenextdoor.com

   and at

www.quiltstorenextdoor.etsy.com


Thank you so much!  Talk to you soon! Happy New Year!  

Wishing you many blessings for 2014.

Shelley