Fabric Shop Partnership
In an effort to support and promote our fellow small business owners in the quilting industry, Trace Creek Quilting is excited to partner with our favorite fabric shops! Here are the basics, see below for additional details and fine print.
Longarming Discount: 40% on any quilt made for the purpose of posting and promoting sales for your shop, and any pattern testing project by release.
Preferred Vendor: Listing on our ‘Friends of TCQ’ website and Newsletter.
Events: Longarming prizes and overall discounts available for events and giveaways.!
Employee and Additional Quilts: 25% discount on longarm services for any additional quilt you and your employees would like to send our way!
Welcome, Fabric Shop Owners!
You are a repeat quilt-sender, we’ve messaged, we love working together, I get it. Skip the fine print and get started with the
Details and Fine Print:
Promotional Examples and Additional Quilts:
We offer 40% off the longarming services for any quilt made for the purpose of posting and promoting sales for your fabric shop. It does not matter who pieces the quilt, what matters is that your shop is posting and promoting it after it is quilted as the main example of what you are selling.
40% off any quilt pattern you are testing if we are able to quilt it in time for the pattern release regardless of if you are putting together a bundle/kit/etc.
25% off any other quilt the shop owner or employees make for shop or personal use!
What is included: These discounts apply to the longarm quilting only. Return shipping, batting, and additional services such as binding and piecing backings are not included. These are either fixed costs or are contracted out and I’m unable to cut those costs back in a significant way. NOTE: There is a minimum $50 charge for the quilting services, even after discounts are applied.
What do we expect in return?
Quilting credit every time these quilts are published and posted on social media, in print, or on your website.
If the quilt is published or displayed elsewhere (blogs, books, magazines, online subscriptions, look books, quilt shows…) we should be properly credited. Note: not all publications ask for longarming information - it may be up to you to be our advocate and ensure we are included.
On Instagram, a simple line of credit at the bottom of your post or a tag in the photo go a long way for us!
A little extra IG/FB/Pinterest love when it works into your campaigns that let folks know you’ve used our services is always appreciated!
Photos: Our turnaround might be too quick for us to get IG worthy photos. When that’s the case, if you wouldn’t mind sharing what you get, both of the quilt and of the fabric/bundle/kit you are selling, we would love to be able to share that on our accounts in coordination with the large campaign. We will also share any photos we get if you need them.
Coupons included in your fabric shipments. TCQ will supply them and restock them whenever you need them if you’ll just be sure to help us reach your customers.
Make sure your employees, should you have them, are aware of their discount opportunity.
Honest feedback on our services, patterns, and anything else you think we should be aware of as it relates to attracting customers who are purchasing your fabric. Your input helps us be at the top of our game!
Event Sponsorship, Giveaways, Newsletters, Etc:
We know fabric shops don’t always do events that include/require longarming, but should you be hosting something know that we are more than happy to be a sponsor. Below is what we’ve done before and would happily consider in the future and we are always open to new ideas and fun opportunities to help you and get our name out into the world!
Free longarming quilting, batting, and return domestic shipping during giveaway events.
25% off for all participants for a designated time following the conclusion of an event. This discount includes the longarming services. It does not apply to the return shipping, batting or any additional services needed such as piecing backing or binding work.
We have a ‘Friends of TCQ’ page on our website that lists all our favorite vendors across the industry. We refer our customers to this page in every newsletter we release as well as anytime someone asks for a reference to a quilting resource. Let me know if I need to change/update your information on this page!
I’m happy to use your fabrics in my own quilt making, QAL participation, etc and will tag you every time I can. Let me know if something comes out or an opportunity comes up that you would like for me to check out.
How else can we help you?!? We are flexible and totally open to creative and helpful ways we can work together.
Let us help with additional opportunities!
Have something special coming up and want a little longarming assistance? Maybe you will be featured in a magazine? Maybe you’ve been commissioned by the MQG? Maybe a fabric designer/company has reached out and wants to collaborate? I’m totally up for it!
Additional important information:
It’s Exclusive! This discount is to invited fabric shop owners only. There are only a few of you. :) If you know of a fellow shop owner you think deserves this opportunity, just let me know and I’ll check them out!
Type of Quilting: Trace Creek Quilting focuses on E2E quilting at this time. We are not currently doing custom quilting.
Turnaround: We tell our average customer our turnaround is 4 weeks. However, we understand the release timeline and testing process is often more compact than that and so we promise you a turnaround of 1-2 weeks on promotional projects. My goal will always be 1 week, but it makes me uncomfortable to promise that 100% of the time.
This is 1-2 weeks IN STUDIO. It does not include shipping time on either end.
This is for your promotional projects, personal projects we ask for 2-3 weeks.
The main reason I would need more than one week would be a personal vacation, unexpected family occurrence, and our holiday break.
Holiday Schedule: Be aware of our holiday schedule and winter break! Sometimes those January releases get caught in that time warp and we have to plan/communicate a bit more to get things done. Here is the timeline we are pushing out to customers for 2023. I’m happy to run a quilt or two during this time if I’m around, but the reality is that we are out of town to see family and friends for the bulk of this time.
Quilting Patterns (Pantos): While we have a solid start to our quilting patterns, we are always excited to expand our collection. You can give us an idea of what you like, suggest something you’ve seen from one of our favorite pantograph designers. Your visions help guide us in trends and keep us on point for what would look good on the quilts you are designing. HOWEVER: keep in mind we do have some limitations on what patterns we can/are willing to use so be sure to double check with us on what you want before finalizing your decision.
TCQ Fabric Sales: In an effort to boost online traffic via searches, Pinterest, etc.., we do list a handful of fabric bundles on our website. Our goal is not to compete with fabric shops, just to have another way to get potential customers to the website. We purposely only list very popular and common bundles at full price so as not to take away opportunities from folks like you. If this is bothersome, please let me know. This is a bit of an experiment on our end and should the bundles not sell or not result in additional longarming traffic/orders, we may very well discontinue it.