Bumble Bee Quilting

I have been quilting for some years now, on and off, mainly whilst I was housebound as a single mum + 4 kids + elderly and increasing infirm Mother all at home. Quilting was a way doing something creative.

The kids have all flown, and Mum has passed on.

So, at the middle of last year a rare opportunity arose to sign a 3 year lease on a small craft unit at Corris Craft Centre.

A big venture, but with the promise of 80,000 visitors a year we reckoned we could make a profit if only 1/8 were actually interested in patchwork and quilting.

Hard work though. We are obliged to carry in the shop mostly what we make, and have to be open 7 days a week Apr-Oct. Very long hours/days/weeks/months.

Contractual hours in excess of the EU regulations ‘cos we can’t afford to employ anyone to help ease the pressure.

We create the designs, source the materials, sew the things we design, price and then hopefully sell ‘em.

I am the creative one and the inspiration. He indoors has only recently got to recognise what a needle and thread looks like and has no colour co-ordination at all. So its an end to end process, all Made in Wales.

There has proved to be a dearth of Welsh fabrics, so we are designing our own Welsh themed fabrics and hopefully we are going to get them printed in Wales at the Laura Ashley fabric printing factory in Newton, Powys. Finances allowing, as no grants or help is available anywhere from anyone for a small setup like ours.

But. he indoors has given me a web site (I did it!) and he created an online shop for me. So maybe there’s some (not much) hope for him.

So this is my spot to recount how things go as we approach our first creative full season as part of the Corris Crafters.

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