Quilting By Design

FABRIC MATCHER


     Sewing has become an essential skill, let alone “hobby“, whether quilting, crafting, or sewing garments. With the popularity of crafting, in general, increasing, more and more people are visiting fabric stores to select their fabrics for their upcoming projects. For some, this can be a stressful and frustrating experience, as it is hard to visually imagine the finished project with fabrics and colors that you may have in mind.
     With that said, enter FabricMatcher.com! This global, one-stop shopping site allows you to match fabrics, patterns, and colors, easily customizing your projects right on your computer’s monitor screen. The site also has the capabilities of storing your projects, patterns, selections, etc.
     Fabric Matcher partners with Hancock’s of Paducah, in Kentucky, to aid users in creating their personalized project components. Hancock’s is a very well-known and respected quilt shop, both online and offline (located in Paducah, KY). Hancock’s has thousands of bolts of fabrics to choose from, and if you have ever had the honor of visiting their shop in person, you probably found that there was not enough time in a day to look at the entire store! In fact, I never made it out of the batik section!
     Fabric Matcher also has formed relationships with some of the world’s top fabric, quilt, and cloth designers to create a huge variety in patterns that are available. New patterns are added to the site on a monthly basis, too.
     So, who is Fabric Matcher? Fabric Matcher is owned by a husband and wife design team, Damian and Sarah Fielke. Sarah is a passionate quilter and crafter, while Damian joined forces with her to help develop a crafting community online (hence, the birth of Fabric Matcher). The Fielke’s live in Australia; proving once again that the Internet brings the world closer together, making us all neighbors.
     In addition to all of the cool features of this Web site, with each purchase from Fabric Matcher, an organization called “Trees for the Future” with the Fabric of Life Project will plant a tree in an effort to help combat the negative effects of CO2 in the atmosphere. It is a nice thought to know that your online shopping can help the environment, too!

INTERVIEW

TERRY: Share a little about yourself, your family, hobbies, etc.?
DAMIAN: I am married to Sarah (co-owner of Material Obsession) with two boys - Charlie, 9 and Oscar, 7. We live in Sydney, Australia and my professional background is in design, marketing, and new product development.
TERRY: Damian, are you a quilter?
DAMIAN: No, I am not a quilter, but am a husband to a quilter who runs a business. I have been developing product and marketing for their business for the past three years; they have a contemporary spin on traditional blocks and quilts.
TERRY: In a nutshell, what is your Web site about?
DAMIAN: Having a wife as a quilt designer and quilt shop owner has added another dimension to our lives. Not only have we made some great friends in the quilting community, but we have also had a fun time trying new and innovative ways to approach design and color.
     That is where the fabric matcher idea came from. We used to watch quilters come in to the shop, buy a pattern, and then spend a lot of time trying to match fabrics and build a kit that suited their color needs. We then developed a Web site to help bring fabric, color, and patterns together in one spot. It’s the world’s first one stop shop for matching fabrics, patterns, and color to suit your imagination. I understand that this will not be for everyone, but hopefully will be a successful addition to the wonderful array of quilt and fabric sites on the Web.
TERRY: What makes your Web site truly unique?
DAMIAN: We have developed innovative color and matching tools to help you choose and match fabric to your projects. You can customize quilt and home sewing creations, then buy the fabrics and patterns you need right now. There’s even a place to stash your projects, including favorite photos, patterns, your creations and much more. It all sounds so easy? I know it isn’t, but hopefully people will find the site fun to use, inspirational, and a place where you can share ideas and learn from the community of sewers and quilters.
     The site is also a great marketing tool for fabric designers and pattern designers – these companies have a chance to showcase their fabrics in a number of ways across a variety of patterns.
TERRY: Do users of your site need a subscription or do you offer free services?
DAMIAN: We have two levels of subscription:

• Basic membership which is free – You can use all the functionality, like search fabrics and patterns, match fabrics to patterns and buy the kits.
• Premium membership is $25 for 12months – This allows users to also save projects, images and searches into their own stash so they can come back and review, change and show to other customers what they have been working on.

 
TERRY: When did your site launch and how long did it take it?
DAMIAN: The site launched during the second week of May and it took four months for it to go live online. If users find an error, please submit it to info@fabricmatcher.com. There is also a feedback form in Contact details on the Web; it is a new site and any feedback is much appreciated.
TERRY: Is Hancock’s of Paducah the only fabric shop you partner with?
DAMIAN: Yes, we have formed a partnership where I am able to have them fulfill all the orders around the world. Justin Hancock has been very supportive of the whole project.
TERRY: What is the average length of shipping time for an order?
DAMIAN: Shipping time depends upon the location being shipped to. Details are given on our site.
TERRY: Do you think living in Australia hampers your site in any way?
DAMIAN: Interesting question. One drawback is I probably won’t be able to have a face to face contact with the industry, but from my Web experience, the way customers now purchase over the Internet and the international participation in the craft, people are now more accepting of buying from most key countries in the world. My key strength is that I am working with a well respected US online fabric retailer company who delivers to over 72 countries around the world. My Web site is just another way to help customers make fabric and pattern choices online.
TERRY: Do you have any future plans to share with us?
DAMIAN: Look out for clothing and accessory patterns to be added in the coming months. Plus we will put up new patterns and fabrics every week.
 
     If you are a pattern designer, fabric designer, or fabric manufacturer and would like more information regarding partnering with Fabric Matcher, or if you would be interested in having your product featured on Fabric Matcher, or you are an advertiser of crafting products, or if you would simply like additional information, please feel free to contact Damian.
     Hopefully, you have gleaned enough information about this revolutionary new Web site to motivate you into checking it out! Please feel free to leave comments and/or suggestions in the Comments area below.

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Original article first published on Quilting Passion by Terry Crawford.

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