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Thanks to all that participated in this contest, we have selected our 3 lovely winners for this give-away! Envelope, please……and the winners are: Phyllis Wiltsie, Kathryn Knox, and Nina K. Congratulations, ladies!! We will be shipping each of you one of the beautiful purses and a fat quarter bundle of some Laurel Burch Fabulous Felines! Thank you again!
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Greetings my friends! Welcome back to another installment of the Wonderful Folks of the Works. Everyday it’s a pleasure to work alongside people who are so creative, talented, and come from such diverse backgrounds. In some ways, the employees of Clothworks remind me of a vibrantly colored patchwork quilt. Each employee represents their own uniquely-designed fabric piece, and when united together, they create one eclectically stitched quilt. The next person that I’m going to introduce you to has the pleasure of working with all the wonderful artwork that goes on to be printed into beautifully designed fabric. Please meet, Candice, the Creative Director.
Candice has been with the company since 2006, when she and her husband Ted purchased Clothworks from the previous wonderful owners, David & Julie Peha. Ted had dreamed of being his own boss and when they came across Clothworks for sale, he was thrilled because he knew how much Candice loved fabric. Another big plus in becoming new owners of the company, was that Candice could set up a safe, chemical & fragrance free environment at Clothworks. Since being diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities back in the 1990’s, it was difficult for Candice to work outside the home and not get sick, due to severe allergies to chemicals and fragrances.
As Creative Director, Candice oversees the Design Team at Clothworks. They plan their collections at least one year in advance and take design submissions from artwork on paper to an approved strike off printed on fabric. For those who don’t know what a strike off is, it is a swatch of printed fabric sent from the mill to be approved for color & printing quality. As an owner of a company, every day is a work day for Candice. She begins her days at home by checking email on her phone while eating breakfast, and immediately addresses any urgent concerns since she works with many international folks. Next, she prioritizes her day based on “projects”: what needs designing, what needs to be reviewed, what new issues or initiatives need to be analyzed or resolved and then goes from there. As a non-artist, she loves looking at art and fabric all day, and every day! She also enjoys working with our sales reps and customers, finding ways to help them be successful in their businesses. And her newest favorite thing is participating in Clothworks Health Club, a weekly session where participating employees meet to encourage & support each other in their personal health & fitness goals. The Health Club is the brainstorm of our fellow employee, Angela, who even leads us in a 15 minute arm toning workout in the warehouse a few times a week. It’s quite a hoot!
Like many of the other employees here in the office, Candice is just as busy in the office as she is in her free time with craft projects. And like many who have the sewing bug, she acquired her passion from her mother. Growing up, she did a lot of needlework and sewed most of her clothes in high school. Like every sewer, she has a lot of UFOs (Unfinished Objects). A couple of years ago, she set a goal to complete one project a month alternating with something for someone else and something for herself. Even though she didn’t complete 12 projects, this goal allowed her to complete more projects than the previous year and also have fun in the process! This year her goal is to complete one UFO per month. She missed the January goal, but blame it on losing her glasses mid-month! A couple years ago after having finished a quilt before tackling some mending on her son’s PJs, her mind was on ¼” seams— which was not enough to accommodate the rough wear & tear of a teenager. The flannel bathrobe she’s currently working on for him will have 5/8” seams for sure! One stunning UFO project that she’s been working on and off again for the past 8 years is a crewel embroidered pillow that she hopes to complete soon. She also planned out a California King sized quilt based on Sew Be It’s “With or Without” pattern which Clothworks cross-promoted a while back. Her version will have 12” blocks and no borders, so she’s excited to get cutting!! Now if only she could just find her ruler that one of her kids borrowed for an art project.
And lastly, if Candice were ever stranded on a desert island, she couldn’t live without having some wildlife around her. Which makes complete sense since she’s an ardent animal lover and ‘mom’ to a rabbit and playful puppy!
Front & Back of a quilt designed and made by Candice. She made this for her son using Clothworks fabric designed by Jill Webster.
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Kathleen posing with a Laurel Burch quilt she made
Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome back to another installment of the Wonderful Folks of the Works! We are now into the 5th month of this posting and I’ve decided to dedicate this to a very special employee at Clothworks! This wonderful lady gets her hands into everything here….and that is almost an understatement! Her can-do attitude, her diligence, and her heart of gold make her a real asset to the company. After 8 years at Clothworks, she has decided to retire at the end of this month. We’re sad to see her go, but we wish her the best in her retirement and hope she can finally relax. I’d like to introduce you to Kathleen, our ‘Jill-of-All-Trades’ at Clothworks!
Eight years ago, one of Kathleen’s quilting friends, asked her if she would like to lend a helping hand at Clothworks in preparation for Quilt Market. For any outsiders who have no clue about Quilt Market, it is a large trade show where we showcase our ‘latest & greatest’ fabric collections, samples, and quilts. In preparation for Quilt Market- we are assembling a multitude of sales boards to show the fabric collections to our customers, as well as fat quarter bundles, samples, etc. The weeks leading up to Quilt Market are frenetic around the office and warehouse. Sometimes it greatly aids us to have a helper jump in the mix and complete all of the necessary preparations that will be sent off to our Quilt Market booth. It also helps when the helper has an interest in fabric and quilting, as some of the preparations need special attention given that only a fabric person can give. Enter Kathleen. Eight years ago, she was delighted to have the opportunity to work the 6 weeks needed in prep for Quilt Market. The beautiful Clothworks fabrics had always intrigued her and with her quilting background, she jumped right in with no hesitation. Upon interviewing for this position with our previous owner, she was given the job on the spot and those 6 weeks turned into 8 years!
Clothworks has found a gem in Kathleen!! She gets her hands into everything here and assists many of the different teams at Clothworks: the upstairs office with accounting and customer service, the sample room, and the design team. And I’ve even seen her pick fabric orders for the shipping team!! I like to call her a ‘Jill-of-All-Trades’—as during a typical day at Clothworks you will find her calling customers on orders ready to ship, as well as helping any of the walk-in customers find fabric as they shop the warehouse. Kathleen manages donations, cuts fabric samples for sales reps, lends her quilting eye to the design team seeking extra input, and even helps check quilt pattern accuracy from time to time. Kathleen puts her heart and soul into her work, and she has quite a heart of gold, not to mention. She deeply cares about our customers, and delivers the highest customer service as much as possible!
Working amongst the beautifully designed, high quality fabric by Clothworks is a pleasure for Kathleen, as well as working alongside the highly creative team of people at the company. Those are two of Kathleen’s favorite things about working here! And it makes sense, as she too, is a highly creative person! In her free time, she enjoys working on various projects: sewing dresses for her grand-daughters, making quilts for friends, family and colleagues, and embellishing towels using Clothworks fabric. She enjoys needlepoint & cross-stitch, and takes some spectacular National Geographic quality photos on some of her many travels. She spoils the heck out of us here at Clothworks- and this quality will be sorely missed when she leaves. She makes us fantastic soups for lunch, and every holiday she will put together a carefully handcrafted bag of goodies for each and every employee in the office. Did I not mention she has a heart of gold? Her caring continues upon leaving the office-she has a lovely husband, 2 cockatoos named Shiva & Fiona, and a gorgeous garden that she tends to! Which, if she were stranded on a desert island, she could not live without plants and gardening tools so that she could add her special ‘Kathleen’ flair to the island and make it beautiful! Kathleen, from all of us at Clothworks, we wish you a happy retirement and here’s to making the world a little more beautiful with your special touch!
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Susie on her wheels in rainy Seattle
Greetings & Happy Holidays, my fabric friends! Welcome back to another installment of The Wonderful Folks of the Works. We’re now into our 4th month of profiling the fabulous employees that work here at Clothworks. So far, I have shared the following stories of Debbie the Shipper,Tony the Warehouse Manager, and Susan the Order Department Extraordinaire. These folks share a common role in bringing the actual goods to our customers’ shops: from order entry- to cutting the fabric- to shipping out the fabric from our warehouse. The next employee that I’d like to introduce you to puts a different spin on fabric here at Clothworks. Allow me to introduce you to Susie, our Marketing Coordinator.
Back in March of this past year the position became available when our then Marketing Coordinator, Brandi, left the company to pursue another round of motherhood & new chapter in life. That’s when Susie rolled into Clothworks, quite literally, on a bicycle. After reading the job posting for Clothworks, Susie felt it was a good match for her love of blogging and her sewing experience. Susie comes from a crafty bunch, with quilters and sewists sprinkling her family tree. As Susie would come to find out in her new position at Clothworks, she could use her computer savvy, while learning new programs and online media tools to get the job done. And it helped for her to work in a lighthearted work environment that permitted her to keep work and home life separate. After all, she has her hands full with her son, Finn, who sometimes makes an appearance modeling fabric projects that Susie posts on the blog.
Bicycling to work and braving the Seattle rain, Susie begins each day with plenty of pep and coffee to keep her going. And boy, does she have many responsibilities to tackle! Her main role at Clothworks is to promote our company and product. She strategizes interesting ways to connect with our customers and our followers through online social media. On a typical day, you’ll find her engaging with our facebook followers, creating boards & interacting on Pinterest, blogging on The Works, and checking our social media analytics to see if folks are responding positively to the content that she posts. She determines what to do with small cuts of fabric that are too small to roll onto a bolt. She makes small projects with fabric, photographs them, and then creates fun & inspirational blog post tutorials. And if you haven’t noticed, Susie is our resident shutterbug– snapping pictures of everything from fabric fresh from the port, to quilts that have been pattern-tested, to sewing projects that our talented employees bring in for Show & Tell. She coordinates with designers who want to use Clothworks fabric for project submissions for magazine features, and also works with bloggers & sewists that fit the Clothworks groove for guest-blogging on The Works. Finally, Susie conjures up ways for Clothworks to help sponsor quilting & sewing events like Quiltcon and the Sewing Summit, as well as smaller quilting and sewing contests & give-aways. Phew! It’s amazing she still has the energy to ride her bicycle home after work!! Susie’s favorite part of her job is designing those super fun & eye-catching graphics, writing blog posts, and taking pictures….Oh, Snap! As we approach the end of 2012, her New Year’s Resolution is to write a blog series describing the production process of fabric: from field- to factory- to sewist!
Susie’s boundless energy is not just limited to time spent on the job at Clothworks. Her wheels continue to spin even after she pedals her way back home at the end of the day. Her crafty forays into DIY life run the gamut: from making clothing for herself, her son, and husband, to quilting, needlework, hand-drawing, fabric printing, and even making shrinky dinks! Like many artsy folks, her talents extend past one field. She bikes, she sews……. she sings! Yes, Susie is a singer in a 2-piece band, and loves to write & perform her songs. So if Susie were stranded on a desert island, what do you suppose she couldn’t live without? She’d trade her bike, her camera, and her sewing machine to make sure she’d have her husband, her son, and guitar along on that island. Now that sounds like beautiful music to my ears!!
Susie, with her son Finn, her husband, and her various crafty creations!
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Greetings my fabric friends! Welcome back to another installment of The Wonderful Folks of the Works. So far, we have introduced you to Debbie our shipper, and Tony our warehouse manager & fabric cutter! Have you ever wondered what happens when you place an order with Clothworks? The next person I’m going to introduce to you manages this area. Please meet Susan, our Order Department Extraordinaire! Clothworks is so lucky to have an employee like Susan who possesses amazing organization skills to help this department run smoothly!
Clothworks might not have been so lucky to find Susan had it not been for another local fabric & notion distributor, named Aptex, Inc., who was in the process of being sold about 7 years ago. Back in 2006, when Aptex was eventually sold off, their distribution center and offices located here in Seattle, also closed. Sometimes when one door closes, another door opens. With just a few months before Aptex closed its doors for good, Clothworks had a few open positions available and snagged Susan to fill one of them. Lucky for Susan, as like most people, she detests the act of job searching. And ever since January 2006, Susan has taken on the role of Order Department Extraordinaire here at Clothworks.
As Susan was brought on board to work in the Order Department at Clothworks, Clothworks soon took notice of how lucky they were to have gained her as an employee! As I mentioned earlier, to manage this department, it takes someone that possesses meticulous organization skills, while paying close attention to the fine details. Susan shines in this position– she is an organization queen who still manages to ‘dot her i’s and cross her t’s’. Each morning, she begins the day by tackling a load of emails. There’s really no telling how big the email load will be, sometimes it can eat up the whole morning. After she has answered her emails, she continues on with her duties by entering all the orders into the computer database. Clothworks receives loads of orders in various forms: purchase orders faxed from the fabric reps, phone-in orders, and orders emailed to us. Depending on when we have previewed a new fabric collection, the order entry process can also be very time-consuming for Susan. Keying in correct fabric collections, sku numbers, and pricing, while also entering the orders under the correct account are some of the primary duties in order entry. Now you can see why attention to detail is crucial in this position. And not to mention, Susan maintains an extensive filing system for all of this order paperwork.
Aside from her stellar organization system and being detail-oriented, Susan is a key team player here at Clothworks! She collaborates with Tony the warehouse manager, as well as the pickers, and Debbie the shipper, to process orders to be cut, picked, and shipped according to our customers’ needs. After she has finished her daily emails and order entry, she begins to process orders that are ready to ship. She will print out the pick list & attach it to the original order paperwork, preparing it for the pickers who pick the fabric from inventory to be shipped to our stores. She also manages the traffic control portion of the order shipments and determines the degree of urgency for shipping each fabric order. Many times the workload in the warehouse can be heavy, so Susan will jump in to lend an extra hand in picking orders to be shipped out in a timely manner. And would you believe that she still finds time in her day to answer phones & call customers, serving up some friendly, Clothworks-style customer service with a smile?!! I’m exhausted just thinking about it!
Clothworks found a real jewel of an employee when Susan came to work here from Aptex, several years ago. The feeling is mutual for Susan, too. She loves working here because it’s a fun company to work for and loves the people at Clothworks! In her spare time, she recharges with therapeutic hobbies such as gardening, hiking, and sewing. Having been an experienced sewist since her 4H grade school days, she wishes she could sew more, but is content to produce quick projects such as decorated towels, fancy potholders, and baby gifts. And if she were stranded on a desert island, the one thing she could not live without is her Bible. Clothworks is blessed to have Susan running our Order Department and Susan is equally blessed to have taken on this position! Amen!
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a beautiful bag made from Laurel Burch Fabulous Felines. As seen at Houston Quilt Market.
Hello All! It’s been a little quiet in the office here at Clothworks! Most of the staff are down at the Houston Quilt Market, manning the booth and representing our beautiful fabric lines! Please be sure to visit our Instagram Feed to check out some of the highlights from Quilt Market. You can follow this link to view the feed or click on Clothworks Gallery on the sidebar of our blog.
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Tony in action: finding shelf space for fabric! The picture to the right is Tony’s cutting machine.
Hello again, my fabric friends! Thank you for taking the time to visit us at The Works! I’d like to bring you another installment of the Wonderful Folks of the Works. Last month, we introduced you to Debbie, the shipper. This month, we’re going to work our way back a bit behind the scenes here at Clothworks.
Have you ever wondered about the origins of that bolt of fabric that you unpack from the Clothworks box that your shipper delivers to you? Or the bolt of Clothworks fabric that you pull off the shelf at your favorite fabric store and have yardage cut from it? Well, the next person that I’m going to introduce you to has an integral hand in bringing that fabric from roll to bolt! Meet Tony, the warehouse manager.
Having only worked here at Clothworks for a year, Tony sure knows his way around a fabric wholesale warehouse! It must be those previous 16 years spent working for Kona Bay, a fellow fabric wholesale company based in Seattle. Tony’s main responsibilities include keeping in the loop of production planning, receiving shipments of fabric, making sure goods go out in a timely manner, and cutting loads of fabric. He is a fabric cutting machine! Not only does he work closely with the order department to determine when fabric shipments will be coming to the warehouse & what fabric quantities to cut for the orders, he has to figure out a way to organize the warehouse in order to hold all of the fabric. It takes patience and quick reasoning to make this happen. And it also takes a lot of energy and strength to move these heavy, cumbersome wide rolls of fabric!
To explain a bit more about this process, Tony is notified from the port when a shipment of fabric is ready to be delivered to our warehouse. The fabric is delivered by a large semi-truck & arrives wrapped in plastic, on large rolls, with several yards of fabric on each roll. If Tony is already in the process of cutting a fabric collection while this new fabric shows up, Tony and his warehouse team must figure out where they will store the fabric and how to stage it. I’ve seen Tony take a whole day to just unload a truck, organize a place in the warehouse, and stack fabric for staging. Once the fabric is ready to be cut on to bolts, Tony will load it into the cutting machine and cut according to the cut sheets given to him by the order dept. His responsibility is to cut as many 15 yard bolts and 10 yard bolts as needed per the cutting sheet. Fabric is cut and rolled onto cardboard reels. Once all the bolts are cut, they are organized by sku # on the shelves, ready to be picked and shipped out to you, the customer!
Tony’s favorite part of working at Clothworks is the people. In his own words- Everyone here is nice and a great group of people to work with. In his free time- you can find Tony enjoying what the great outdoors has to offer (it must be because he’s cooped up in the warehouse all day at Clothworks). If you meet Tony outside, you might find him camping, golfing, or practicing his Frisbee golf skills. And if Tony’s not hanging out in the great wild, he is perfectly content to work on a puzzle or brain-teaser…..I guess that helps keep his brain in check for when he has to figure out how to organize all those massive rolls of fabric in the warehouse. But if Tony were ever stranded on a desert island…..please make sure there’s a coffee maker there, or else he might go off the deep end!
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Thank you all for entering the contest and sharing this post on facebook! We had so many participants! The contest ended at the strike of midnight Pacific Standard Time and I’m happy to announce that our winner is Robin Peoples!! Congratulations, Robin! You’ve won a fat quarter pack of the luscious European Taupe VIII fabrics! Hope you have a friend in mind that would love to receive the other beautiful stack of European Taupe VIII fat quarters. What a treat….just in time for Halloween, too!
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Thanks to all who participated in the Quiltcon contest! I’m happy to announce the winners. Drum roll please………..Beulah & Jessica Mitchell! Congratulations, ladies! You have won the entry fee and 2 yards of Clothworks fabric to complete your quilt entry for Quiltcon. We will be in touch with you soon to coordinate all the details! Hope you ladies are up for the quilting challenge as we track your progress on the blog.
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Debbie with her family on vacation at Yosemite National Park.
Howdy all! Today on The Works we’re going to switch it up a bit. Instead of posting about fabric, patterns, and sewing tutorials, let’s take this opportunity to put the spotlight on the amazing people that work here at Clothworks. Most of you reading this blog already have some form of contact with maybe one or two of the team members. You may know us by name–that person on the other end of the phone line or that person you email with back & forth on a daily basis. But have you ever wondered what we look like and what type of a person each of us is? At the end of each month here on The Works, we’ll showcase a different team member in this special segment highlighting the behind-the-scenes world of the Clothworks team members. Allow me to introduce you to the Wonderful Folks of the Works!
Family: it’s a word synonymous with our tightly-woven team here at Clothworks. We spend a big chunk of our time together delivering classic, high quality fabric, assisting with your fabric orders, shipping your fabric in a timely manner, and helping you keep your account current. And much like a family, we cook & eat together, take care of each other, carpool together, do the crossword together, and most of all, have fun together! Family is also very important to one of our team members at Clothworks. I’d like to introduce you to Debbie, the Shipper.
About 6 years ago, Debbie was working at her previous job that demanded her to work weekends and evenings on top of her regular day shift. All of the overtime was starting to cut into Debbie’s personal life, especially the precious time she spent with her family. With her daughter being just a toddler, Debbie was concerned she’d miss out on all of the lovely moments watching her daughter grow. This was a motivating factor for finding a new job at a company that allowed for a healthy work/life balance. After doing some research, she found that Clothworks provided an environment allowing Debbie to easily juggle her roles as mother of a 2 year old and employee in a fabric wholesale company. It was a win-win situation: Clothworks was a good fit for Debbie’s lifestyle and Debbie’s can-do spirit fit well into the Clothworks work ethic.
Upon joining the Clothworks team, Debbie became a picker & shipper, but over time, has taken on many more tasks that are not specifically shipping-oriented. Her main responsibility at Clothworks is to ship out fabric orders to all of our customers–from your favorite mom & pop quilt shop to the distributors dotting the globe! She picks the fabric, boxes it up with our free patterns, and arranges shipments with the freight carriers. Not only does she manage the shipping end, but she keeps the upstairs warehouse tidy & well-organized, also assisting customers who come by to shop the warehouse. Debbie is not a force to be reckoned with—she is a Multi-Tasking Powerhouse! I have seen her pick orders of 100+ fabric bolts, as well as run around the building doing maintenance repairs, all in a day’s work! On typical days, you’ll always see Debbie running around in her tennies, tackling whatever the day throws her way. No matter what kind of day it is– fast-paced or relaxed, Debbie faces it with a get-‘er-done attitude! Watch out! The girl has moxie, muscles, a drill, and is not afraid to use them!
You’d think with all that running around and lifting of heavy boxes, Debbie would be pooped at the end of the day! Not such the case here! In her free time, Debbie is a quilter and currently working on 2 projects. I guess that explains her favorite part of working at Clothworks– getting first dibs on sale fabric! Reading is another activity that Debbie enjoys– I always see her in the lunchroom with a book in her hand. But above all, hanging out with her family is Debbie’s most favorite activity. And if she was stranded on a desert island, the one thing that she could not live without….would be her daughter Reegan!
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