What The Fabric?

✨✨✨ Day 2 of Festival of Quilts ✨✨✨

Wow, day 2 already - yesterday (day 1 obvs) was crazy busy from arriving at 8am to the show finishing at 5.30pm, however it was an exhilarating and exhausting day running on adrenaline.

Thank you, THANK YOU 🙏 to everyone who swung by the stand, gave us lovely comments and feedback, and if you made a purchase. Existing business owners know that it’s tough out there - whether a bricks ‘n’ mortar and/or an online shop. And what do we go and do - set up a new business 😬.

Our website has gone live (www.whatthefabric.co.uk) and this is the story behind this little business venture.

So who are What The Fabric?

There comes a point in time when two best friends can add nothing more to a few casual ''what if we did this....'' type chats that we'd been having over the past couple of years. After assuring ourselves that the idea of launching a new modern quilting business simply just boiled down to pooling some money together, using our respective contacts and experience from already being in the quilting industry, ordering and buying an excessive amount of fabric, patterns and notions to sell to a modern quilter which can be tricky to find in the UK, making several quilts with what we've purchased, and then launching their new business venture at Festival of Quilts 2024. Surely it couldn't be more simple than that.

The two best friends are us, Jo and Kim - unbeknown to each other, we both started our respective quilting businesses around the same time in 2014 - one in Wales and the other in Scotland yet we frequently saw each other at quilt shows, very quickly becoming friends resulting in our businesses benefiting from each other as we're at opposite ends of the quilting spectrum. You see, one of us sells quilting fabric and the other is a professional longarm quilter.

Having made wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses, christening dresses and clothes for herself in her teens and early twenties Kim always had a pipe dream of starting a fabric based business, especially when she became hooked on patchwork and quilting. An opportunity presented itself in 2014 when she was made redundant working for a bank for 10 years. She recalls her then line manager telling her she had a 2-week period to hand her redundancy papers in - she took only 2 minutes to sign them! Living in her home town of Biggar, it didn't take long to come up with a business name - she started Biggar Stitches from scratch. Initially liking most genres of fabric designs and colours available for a quilter, however in recent years made a conscious decision with her business partner to just focus on selling traditional, rich, warm and cosy designed quilting fabric, including flannel, alongside their own patterns. She has a knack of really becoming familiar with a fabric designer, their collections and their colour palettes, even recognising them and starting to chat to them at Quilt Market. From the outset, Kim has had a tendency to make large bed sized quilts to help sell the fabric at quilt shows, and even encouraged their local town's quilt group to do a couple of year-long BOM style projects which also resulted in large quilt tops being made. But what does one do with one's large quilt tops which are just way too big to be quilted using a domestic sewing machine?

Perfect timing to introduce Jo - she started her business of Lou Lou Rioux around the same time as Biggar Stitches. Already an owner of a domestic sewing machine, but just using it to sew and quilt purely for pleasure, she visited Festival of Quilts where Gammill had a stand. Maybe it was love at first sight, or maybe it was a lightbulb moment for a career move from spending decades in the music industry (she still owns one of the biggest recording studios in the UK)? Or both? She recalls phoning her husband and telling him that she's going to buy a new sewing machine. "I think the whole of the NEC heard him shouting "HOW MUCH???" down the phone"... she meant a Gammill Statler and would need to clear some space for a 4m wide one! She'd also invest in herself to receive some professional training to start longarm quilting for a living. She took to it like the proverbial duck to water, has built up her reputable business from recommendations, and with Biggar Stitches showing off their quilts at shows they attend (which have been longarm quilted by Jo) she constantly has a queue of work - so much so that she now has two Statlers which she has cutely named Humphrey and Hamish. As well as individual quilters, her clients also include a very well known fabric and pattern designer, Alice Caroline, numerous interior designers, oh and her quilting skills are starting to become a regular sight on the catwalk of London Fashion Week, in front of Dame Anna Wintour of Vogue no less.

Coming together to launch this cool, retro, vibrant and exciting new business, Jo and Kim will no doubt compliment each other with a lot of their strengths and skills alongside our common ethos that life is just too short not to jump at an opportunity to partner up with a bestie and have some fun at the same time. Jo has always referred to herself as a modern quilter but for a while now has wanted to experience the part of the business which sells the modern fabrics, ideas and patterns to a quilter, whereas Kim has had an itch to scratch for a while now to give some attention to the modern genre of quilting. Together we're driven by the idea of setting a trend or two here in the UK - seeking out what has yet to be discovered by the masses, bringing attention to a modern yet unfamiliar pattern writer, and being the go-to website for something that is difficult to find elsewhere in the UK.

We still live 350'ish miles apart (though Jo persistently tries to persuade Kim to make the move to Wales) so What The Fabric? is here online. And keep an eye out for us trading at a few quilt shows up and down the UK too. We'll keep in touch via socials, and we'll come to you and your quilt group to do a trunk show and a choice of workshop if you wish. Between us, we have so many more ideas we want to put in place to constantly excite and give the modern quilter something to look forward to seeing and then buying - they say that Rome wasn't built in a day ........... well, What The Fabric? has only just started too.

Lastly, just because of the subtle titles we've given ourselves - not 😅 - we're very friendly and approachable - please don't be strangers if you see us exhibiting at a quilt show.

Jo is Ambassador of Awesome, and Kim is the First Lady of Fabulous, xx

What The Fabric What The Fabric?

✨✨✨ tomorrow is the start of FoQ ✨✨✨

So tomorrow is day 1 and we think we’re pretty sorted! Do you like?

Our good friend Andrea has been binding some Legit Kit panels today, so we’ll have more than Lucy Roo on the stand by the time the doors open.

Hope to see alot of you over the next few days - bring all your pocket money, oh and your D/C cards 😜

✨✨✨ happy WTF quilting ✨✨✨

✨✨✨ 2 days to go ✨✨✨

So this is what the stand looks like right now. Can anyone guess what the WTF? optics are for?

Just wait until this time tomorrow ……

✨✨✨ happy WTF quilting ✨✨✨

✨✨✨ 3 days to go ✨✨✨

This is a shout out to all you members of the Modern Quilt Guild - are you thinking of taking part in the 2025 Windham Ruby+Bee Fabric Challenge?

On our stand we’ll have bolts, 1m cuts and 1/2m cuts of all 6 colours. With 3 days to go, if you haven’t already worked out your design to enter the challenge then start working it out now and come to us during FoQ with your requirements. We’d love to know what you’re thinking of doing.

Remember that the submission date is 1st September to 31st October 2024 so just enough time to design, purchase fabric and submit.

Check out the criteria of your submission
https://quiltcon.com/windham-challenge/

✨✨✨happy WTF quilting ✨✨✨

✨✨✨ 4 days to go ✨✨✨

I’ve interrupted Jo making another pair of sneakers in what looks to be very funky fabric with the most yellow binding. BUT the point of getting her to take a photo is the Binding Eaze silicone mat by Quilted Heartz that she’s using.

Using any iron of a regular size, or mini size, use the mat to help you make your binding with some ease. We’ll have 2 colours for you to choose from on our stand - C28 near the VIP lounge - which colour will suit your sewing room/studio better ….. erm 🤔?

✨✨✨Happy WTF quilting✨✨✨

✨✨✨ 5 days to go ✨✨✨

It should be “Cut, Sew, Add a Sarah Hearts Label, Press, Repeat” ……..

You just gotta love Sarah Hearts labels ❤️

How lovely would it be to personalise your quilt by tucking a label into the binding. Or maybe add a label to each tongue of your sneakers. Or add a label to your quilted pouch or bag. Or to anything else. Anyway, these gorgeous labels will give you the opportunity to do just that - there are 8 labels per pack so maybe get a couple of packs and share with your quilting buddy.

It might be hard to choose but which of these would you go for?

✨✨✨happy WTF quilting✨✨✨

✨✨✨6 days to go✨✨✨

Do you like Foundation Paper Piecing? Have you heard of Legit Kits?

Well, if you haven’t, then you really must come and see these patterns that we’ll have on our stand next week at Festival of Quilts - stand C28 (near the VIP lounge).

This is just a tiny selection of their patterns, and we plan on stocking more of them - this is just a taste of what to expect in the future from us.

✨Happy WTF quilting ✨

✨✨✨ 7 days to go ✨✨✨

A week today and we’ll have officially launched WhatTheFabric? at the first day of Festival of Quilts.

We’re both very excited, and Jo is very exhausted too having spent the past couple of months cutting, sewing, and quilting as well as doing so many other things getting WTF? ready to launch, but hey with a title of Ambassador of Awesome she’s just proved that she definitely is 🤩.

Between now and then, each day we’ll show you something we’ll be selling and hopefully it gets you excited too.

Have you heard of SneakerKits? Have you fancied making your own sneakers with your own choice of quilted fabric, you’ll have a choice of 3 styles to make, and there are a few ways of personalising some of the finishes. On any of the 4 days at FoQ, try and spot the lovely Graham wandering around wearing his new sneakers - it might be these black soled shoes with matching shirt too.

Do come and see us - stand C28 (not far from the VIP lounge).

✨happy WTF quilting✨

✨What do you get when you purchase this particular kit of scrumptious fabric - come and see us at Festival of Quilts (1st-4th August 2024) and you’ll see exactly what ✨

Jo is very busy beavering away on another project for Festival of Quilts - we’ll have kits for this one. 🩷💜💛

This was Jo last night persevering with another project we’re going to kit out for Festival of Quilts 😁

Bernina + Bluetti = dedication 💙🧵

Just when everyone is thinking about their seeds, seedlings and plants ……… this is what our greenhouse already looks like.

Jo has it scheduled to meet Humphrey or Hamish soon, and you’ll be the first to see it quilted. And we have the lovely Ann to thank for making this one for us.

We think we know where we’ll display it on our stand at Festival of Quilts - we’re sure it’ll be a show-stopper.

💚🌵🌱🪴🍃💚

There’ll be no doubting who’s stand you’re on when you visit us at Festival of Quilts.

🧡🩷❤️

Hi everyone, specifically to those of you who are UK members of The Modern Quilt Guild and will have recently seen that the guest speaker of QuiltCon 2025 (Tara Faughnan) has chosen her gorgeous 6 colours for one of the challenges next year.

WhatTheFabric? is a new UK based business venture of 2 modern quilters (who are already in the quilting business) and we’re launching at FoQ in August - many MANY more details on that in the coming days/weeks. But today we’re desperate to quickly tell you that we’ll have bundles of those 6 colours by Ruby+Bee for Windham Fabrics - we’ve just ordered them today 🥰.

I hope that excites you all as it does us - please spread the news of this to all your MQG friends, and start following us as we start to tease you about who we are and what we’re going to be selling.

Jo & Kim 🩷

There’s so much happening at the Modern Quilt Guild right now! Did you see the challenges announced in this week's Modern Monday? The amazing Tara Faughnan, the QuiltCon 2025 Featured Speaker, chose the colors for the Windham Ruby+Bee 2025 Fabric Challenge. Seeing what members make out of these will be a treat. Get all the details below:

https://quiltcon.com/windham-challenge/

We’ve just created the first two roles for WTF?

She doesn’t require any introduction really - she’s already in the quilting industry and is an awesome, talented, professional longarm quilter BUT now wants to come on my side of the fence and sell awesome modern fabric, so meet ……..(drumroll please)…… our new “Ambassador of Awesome” that is Jo Riou
👏👏👏👏👏👏

And already known for selling traditional, rich, warm and cosy designed quilting fabric for Biggar Stitches, and is now able to ‘scratch an itch’ that she’s had for a while now and grabbing a fabulous opportunity to partner up with Jo to launch this cool, modern, vibrant fabric business is yours truly - moi - Kim Higgins. Just check out the job title “First Lady of Fabulous”
👏👏👏👏👏👏

What The Fabric? is a new bright and modern quilting business coming next year - start following us, tell your quilting friends to follow us too, and we’ll take you all on the journey of what’s/who’s/when’s over the next few months.

As the first teaser, we’ve ordered our first fabric collection and it’s a retro yet modern beauty ………. Rise & Shine by Melody Miller for Ruby Star. Oh my - our fabric loving hearts are so excited about this but even we have to wait until all 28 bolts of deliciousness arrives next February/March.

Quilting friends, Jo & Kim 💕