The Patchwork Rabbit

More Country Cottage Needleworks now in store

2009-08-31T16:45:00.002+01:00

We've added a whole range of Country Cottage Needleworks to the site.

Bless Our Home
Flower Shop
Forest Snowfall
Garden Girl
Gingerbread Shop
Harvest Blessing
Home Sweet Home
Little League
La Boutique
Ladybugs and Bumblebees
Little Ballerinas
The Bakery
The Needlework Shop
The Tea Room
Winter Welcome
You are my Sunshine

Virtually all Gentle Arts colours now on site

2009-07-27T19:22:00.003+01:00

We now have virtually every Gentle Art 6 stranded embroidery floss on the site. I was doing a stock check and I can't help falling in love with some of the colours. They really are beautiful in their own right.

I'm the same with other hand dyed threads. Stef Francis does a great range and I buy them just to put in jars!

It seems a shame to use them, but it's a shame not to. If threads had souls, would they feel unfulfilled if you didn't use them?

New Trilogy items up on the site

2008-09-05T22:46:00.002+01:00

We've added a load of new Trilogy patterns to our website:

Seaology
Baby Spots
Spring Lineup
Snowy Night
Happy Heart Heart Day
Spring Spots
Gardening Spots
Christmas Spots
Valentine Spots
Easter Spots
Rejoice
Autumn Spots
Happy Bunny Bunny Day

We've also added most of the Trilogy Trinkets and buttons, including:

Snowball buttons
Round Star (Circle Star) trinket
Oval Posy trinket
Checkered Heart trinket
Bird trinket
Flower trinket
Square Heart trinket
Starry Heart trinket
Tall Heart trinket
Birds O'Plenty
Meadow Flowers buttons
Leaf trinket

They are absolutely gorgeous!

5 days until Knitting & Stitching, NEC

2008-09-05T17:59:00.003+01:00

11th-14th September, 2008.

It's our first really big show and I'm so excited! There's still plenty to do, so I'll make this a quick one.

We'd love for you to come and see us! We'll be at stand K30. Come along and introduce yourself as we'd love to put some faces to names.

See you soon!

Big Zipper Border - The Tire Swing is in

2008-09-03T19:39:00.004+01:00

The penultimate part of the series arrived on my doorstep today. I can't wait to add this section to my shop copy. It's really coming together now and has been one of my favourite projects ever!

Big Zipper Border

2008-08-25T12:26:00.004+01:00

Part 5 (Big Tree) of the Big Zipper Border is up on the site and we're eagerly awaiting part 6! It takes us quite a while to get them from Bent Creek, I guess because we're in the UK, and it must be a pain for them to get them shipped to us. We can sometimes wait months after they are on US websites, so please be patient!

The good news is, we've just shipped a Part 1 to Italy! We're getting more international by the day!

The Customer Gallery is up

2008-02-26T13:06:00.001Z

I've created the gallery and put up some pieces that Kate North stitched.

Take a look!

http://www.patchworkrabbitshop.com/page15.htm

Back to work for a rest

2008-02-25T09:51:00.005Z

As usual, I didn't get as much done as I'd hope for. Still, three black bags went in the bin, one went for recycling and one for charity. We made room for all of the stock on the shelves so the sewing room is less cluttered. We then spent a couple of hours designing a new storage system for the sewing room that will incorporate a futon for guests.

We chose the IKEA Ivar range, but they charge £35 for delivery and you have to wait 2 weeks! For £35, I want next day delivery. They don't deliver futons anyway, so we'd still have to go and pick that up.

So, we'll go off to Ikea one night in the week.

I didn't get any shop stuff done, apart from starting a new model. I just got a shipment of Heart in Hand Needleart samplers and charms which need to go up on the site (not to mention the mulititude of other things that are waiting to go up), but I couldn't resist starting on Wool Whimsy Angelica. She works up really quickly and the colours are just beautiful.

I'm starting a gallery of customers' work, as well, so I'll put a picture of her up there, once she's finished.

I've also joined a great Bent Creek, Trilogy, HIHN group on yahoo and the girl there have really inspired me, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

The weekend was very spring like and all of the bulbs in my garden are coming up. I couldn't resist picking up a copy of Gardener's World this morning as I'm really looking forward to having breakfast in the garden again!

Anyway, I hope you have a great day and find some time for stitching :)

Karla

Nearly the weekend!

2008-02-22T13:50:00.002Z

We're planning a bit of a spring clean at home, this weekend.

We're off to Ikea tonight (we always go at night as it's less mental, then) to get some extra shelves to go over the doors in the living room to complete the "wall of books". All of the remaining books that are in Alex's room (when he stays) can be moved down then.

There's a mountain of of old printers and fax machines that can go, too. Then we want to put some new modular storage in the sewing room and have some dedicated space for storing stock between shows.

It'll be exhausting, but I can't wait!

I'll post up some before and after pictures!

Suppliers! ARGH!

2008-02-15T08:57:00.002Z

I have this designer, see. I love their designs, as do my customers.

Problem is, neither I nor my distributor can get their hands on some of their patterns. I've been trying to order a couple of their designs for months and they're always out of stock.

I've signed up for their auto ship for a couple of their series. They never arrive.

I have customers asking for them and I can't get them.

They have a block-of-the-month program which started last year and I still only have block 2.

I notice that other shops have their patterns, so perhaps I'm not ordering enough to be any kind of priority for these people.

So, what do I do?

Do I continue to sign people up for a "block-of-the-quarter" program, making it clear that I can't guarantee when they'll get the next issue?

Or do I stop selling it all together, leaving me stuck with parts 1 and 2 of a 12 part program?

I just find it so frustrating when other people don't take their customer service as seriously as I do.

Here endeth the rant...

Crescent Colours now in the shop

2008-02-13T14:37:00.002Z

I put all of the lovely new Crescent Colours threads up on the site, then had to spend ages taking out all the line breaks OUT that the software puts IN. The shop software is absolutely brilliant for the price, but has some limitations (like that) and that, whenever I update a shopping cart, I have to put all the Google Analytics code (and formatting) back in as it overwrites from scratch.

I'd also like to be able to have "related items" and "customers who bought this..." links. I think discount codes would be great, too.

What it really needs, though, is to be able to display items in a grid, with a thumbnail, as currently they're all shown vertically, in one long list. That, and to be able to have items appear on more than one page so I can categorize them in ways other than by designer.

I'd like a "new" category, "sale" and one for each of the seasons and holidays. I'd also like a Rabbits page!

I need to be generating a lot more business through the site to be able to justify that cost, though, I think.

Here's to dreaming....

Oaks and Acorns

2008-02-12T12:34:00.000Z

I started my business in April, 2006. Why? Two reasons really.

A) I love patchwork, quilting and embroidery
B) I can't imagine working in IT for the rest of my life
C) I couldn't get all the patterns, fabrics and threads that I like
D) My local quilt AND embroidery shop closed down, so the sense of community has gone from my circle of friends. I want to bring that back.
E) When the kids in the street played shop, I always wanted to be the shopkeeper

It's gone from strength to strength and is still growing. We're still only online but I dream, every minute of every day, of finally getting my shop.

This blog will mainly be to chart my progress of going from click to brick. I pondered, for some time, on the wisdom of posting my trials and tribulations on the internet. After all, I want my customers (of which I've had many and am eternally grateful to) to think I actually have it together, but I can't remember that saying about angels and fools and fearing to tread, so it must be OK.

If anyone else stumbles across it, and takes a moment of enjoyment from it, then all the better :) Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear from you!