Join us for our NEW Table Toppers Club!

Announcing the launch of our newest club, Table Toppers for All Seasons! Read about it here and there's a link to join at PatrickLose.com, below.

After 8 successful years of the Party with Patrick Club, we knew before even bringing that club to a close we would need to have a new one waiting in the wings for our loyal members. After several rounds of surveys on social media, we got a very strong response to the idea of a club that would deliver a different table topper each month.

We wanted to offer some extra value with this particular club that would make it an easy decision for you to want to join us. So look at everything you’ll get with Table Toppers for All Seasons:

    - A new table topper project each month for 12 months
    - Four table runners, four placemats and four centerpiece mats
    - Complete instructions including color illustrations and all templates for appliqué projects
    - TWO BONUS THROW QUILT PROJECTS delivered at the 6th and 12th months! $24 value!

An added bonus for those who are machine embroiderers or use digital cutters: We will also include the machine embroidery files and SVG cutting files for any project that includes Patrick’s trademark fusible appliqués designs at no additional charge.*

These are quick, colorful and easy-to-finish projects to dress your tables for Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Optional kits will be available for purchase.

The price to join Table Toppers for All Seasons is $59.99 for one year. That’s $5 per month for all of the digital downloads, but you’ll also receive the two BONUS throw quilt patterns at an added value of $24. Machine embroiderers and those who use digital cutters get an even greater value with the embroidery and .SVG files, included at no extra charge.

Projects will be delivered in digital format - PDF and, when available, SVG files. Embroidery files, when available, will be delivered in .art, .dst, .exp, .hus, .jef, .pes, .vip and .vp3 formats.*

If you have a small online shop or sell at craft shows we’ll offer licenses to create these projects for sale. There will be no charge to licensees but we do need to have you register with us to sell these designs.

Those who have been with us for Party with Patrick, Monthly Mug Mats or the other clubs we’ve offered know how much fun it is to anticipate and receive a new “surprise” project each month. We hope you’ll join us for our new Table Toppers for All Seasons club!

For more info or to join, click here.

*Machine embroidery designs will be delivered in the size used in the project. We do not offer in various sizes and you must have the hoop size needed to stitch the design.

Here are some examples of the types of projects you can expect to make in the club. These aren't the actual projects which are a surprise each month:

Click to enlarge

   

Growing Pains

As a young fabric company, it's a nice problem to be having growing pains already, but it can be frustrating - not only for us, but for our customers.

On a daily basis, we receive emails or social media comments from retail customers asking where they can purchase our fabrics. Because we have not yet fully developed a network of independent reps to service our quilt shops, many shops purchase from our distributors and the information on those shops is not provided to us. We're getting a lot of areas covered with reps but they have only been out in full force for a couple of months.

We are working to come up with a list of brick-and-mortar and online independent shops that we can recommend. In the meantime, we'd like to ask for your help.

Please understand that we strongly feel that you should support your local independent quilt shops who are doing their best to offer what retail customers want and to provide support and inspiration to their customers. If you can't find what you're looking for in your local shops, you should be asking for it. A good shop owner listens to the requests from their customers. If they don't carry what you want, there are other shops that do and some of those are online shops.

Shop owners - We'd love to send customers your way and hope you'll speak up on our Facebook or Instagram feeds when you have something a customer wants. Email your information to gary@patricklose.com and we'll put you on our list. It's easy to quickly get the Patrick Lose Fabrics your customers ask for. You can even order directly from us by using our website, by emailing gary@patricklose.com or by calling 623-414-9464 for assistance. It's fast and easy to set up your account using the application link on this page.

Retail customers - Thank you for your patience and, if you've had a good experience with a shop carrying our collections, please recommend them to your creative friends and on our Facebook or Instagram feeds. Your fellow quilters will appreciate your advice.

Please feel free to post shop info as a comment to this post, also!

The interest, feedback and support we're getting is phenomenal and much appreciated. Thanks for all the excitement you're showing for Patrick Lose Fabrics!

An announcement and a giveaway!

"Free" Patterns

There's something I feel like I need to weigh in on because there's been a lot of talk about it recently among designers and shop owners who are trying to navigate some challenging times in the quilting and other creative industries.

The number of free quilting, sewing and crafting patterns being offered everywhere you turn is seriously hurting the livelihoods of those who publish quality patterns of original designs and offer them for sale. All of these easily-accessible, free patterns are making so many of those who use them think that all patterns should just be free of charge and happily handed out for nothing. Do they really believe that they’re getting the best quality patterns? Do they think that the free patterns have been tested and proofread to the extent of those that are sold in the marketplace? Are they getting original designs or just another rehashing of an old standard with minimal instruction? Even those have a monetary value when someone has put a lot of their time, effort and talent into making the pattern something from which the end user will benefit, by making their own efforts easier and more enjoyable.

As a pattern designer, I’ve actually had to explain to some people why we sell our patterns instead of giving them away and, even then, some have become disgruntled and behaved almost as though they thought we were stealing from them by selling our work. They’re probably some of the same ones who also think it’s okay to just share patterns among friends - which most of us would never consider. I’ll never understand it.

Designers deserve to make a living from their honest, hard work, just as everyone else does. The vast majority of us do not give our patterns away for free and our businesses shouldn’t suffer because of those who distribute them for nothing online. We’re just trying to offer something valuable to those who enjoy what we do and that should be worth something. We hope that you’ll help to educate those in your own circles who don’t understand everything that goes into creating and making a design and then writing and proofing a pattern to make it suitable for your use. I can tell you, from my own experience working with companies who offer free patterns, you get what you pay for with many of those “free” patterns.

I do want to thank those who support what we're doing at Patrick Lose Studios/Patrick Lose Fabrics by purchasing and using our products and doing such great things with them. We love seeing your work and appreciate your spreading the word about how much fun you have making the projects I design. You're a part of the hope that designers have in being able to continue their work of making sure there are innovative, inspiring and exciting patterns available to the creative people who want them. You're the best kind of ambassadors we could have representing us.

On that note, stay tuned for some information coming very soon about our new Patrick Lose Brand Ambassadors Program. Maybe you'd like to be a bigger part of the work we do and the fun we have at Patrick Lose Studios...?

Cheers,
Patrick