Spring is in the air! Today there was frost on the ground but glorious sunshine, and the early bulbs are all beginning to show. I love this time of year, and after hiding out during the winter Patchwork Castle is also putting out some new shoots.
It’s nearly five years since Patchwork Castle first morphed from my hazy dream into a real life business creating beautiful clothing keepsakes. Things have changed quite a lot since those early days, and it’s been an amazing journey discovering how we can best help you, crafting our product offer and looking where we might go in the future.
A huge thank you to everyone who has ordered from us so far – it’s such a privilege to be trusted with your precious memories, and we love working with you.
Over the last couple of years we’ve expanded our talented sewing team and developed a really great range of Memory Quilt and Keepsake Cushion designs that work fabulously with clothing. The Baby Clothes Quilts continue to be popular and there’s also lots of demand for our Adult Clothing Keepsakes.
Alongside this, and knowing many of you visit looking for inspiration and advice on creating your own clothing keepsakes, we launched our Baby Clothes Quilt Tutorial about a year ago now. There’s been loads of interest in this area, and some wonderful quilts being made out there.
I know that, whilst there is some cross over, many of you will be interested in one particular area of our work. We’re making a few changes to how things are organised so that we can serve you better, and make it easier for you to find the information you’re looking for. Some things are staying very much as they are, and we have a few new things too! This article will hopefully give you an overview of everything we do, how it all fits together and how you can access the bits you are interested in. I hope you’ll find it helpful 🙂
What’s Staying The Same – Patchwork Castle: Clothing Keepsakes Made For You
On this section of the website our focus will be on the ‘made for you’ side – so those of you who are looking to commission a quilt or cushion from baby clothes, children’s clothes, adult clothes and other keepsake fabrics.
Patchwork Castle is run from my home studio in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Four wonderful local women work with me to create your keepsakes – they all work from their homes. Patchwork Castle is a ‘virtual tenant’ at Woodend Creative Workspace, which is where we ask you to send your clothing, and where we can meet with you if you’d like to come to Scarborough.
There’s no huge changes here!
You might also notice that the blog looks a little different. Many of the articles were already on the site, and I’ll be expanding them over the coming months. It’s my aim to cover lots of different aspects of commissioning a quilt or cushion as well as see how your keepsake will be made – like an enhanced FAQ! I really hope this will be helpful if you are considering ordering a Memory Quilt or Keepsake Cushion, as I totally understand that this is a very special purchase and you’ll want to be sure about the details. You can find a link in the main menu, and at the bottom of the page.
If you are on our current mailing list then we will send you updates as new articles are released, together with any special offers, updates and news. If you’d like to join us you can sign up right here! (We won’t share your details and you can unsubscribe at any time)
Our product range stays largely as it has been:
Baby & Children’s
Clothing Keepsakes
We’re currently offering two designs of Memory Quilt, in a variety of sizes. There’s also the popular Keepsake Personalised Patchwork Cushion and a Keepsake Square Patchwork Cushion available. The baby and children’s items continue to be really popular and are great fun to make! These items can now be ordered via the shopping cart on our website (this just places your order and no payment is taken at that point).
Adult Clothing
Keepsakes
Our Adult Clothing Memory Quilts and Keepsake Cushions continue to be a very special part of our work. A large proportion of these are memorials for lost loved ones, and its such an honour to be trusted with then, and hear how special they are to our clients. We’ve also taken several commissions for adult clothing memory quilts using old uniforms, band t shirts, wedding clothes etc.
If you’re interested in an adult clothing keepsake then please do download a copy of our brochure. Everything is described in detail in the brochure together with lots of options for designs, sizes etc. Please contact us direct to order.
Bespoke
Commissions
We occasionally have requests for bespoke items which often don’t include clothing but are highly personal. Examples include quilts for baby showers, message book quilts for weddings and cushions using children’s drawings rendered in appliqué and embroidery. Please do get in touch if this is something of interest and we’ll do our best to help.
Gift Certificates are a great option if you don’t have access to the clothing but would like to make a gift of a Memory Quilt, Memorial Quilt or Keepsake Cushion. Find out more here.
What’s Changing: Make Your Own Clothing Keepsakes with Patchwork Castle
The ‘make your own’ side of things can now be found here.
If you are inspired to make your own keepsakes then we’d love to help!
Right now you can access our Baby Clothes Memory Quilt Tutorial, and hope to add more resources during 2016 including articles on the Patchwork Castle blog. You’ll find posts that journal about what I’m getting up to in the studio, and some of our keepsake quilting commissions, as well as ideas for making memories with your family and loved ones, tips on patchwork and quilting, and lots of ideas for creating beautiful keepsakes to remind you of all those special times. There’ll also be product reviews and links to great resources outside of Patchwork Castle.
You can sign up for the ‘Make Your Own Keepsakes’ mailing list (and get our free ‘Memory Quilting Resources Guide‘). We’ll keep you updated as new things come on-line.
Final Thought
That’s about everything for now. I’m really excited about the coming year, and I hope you’ll join us on the journey!
Over To You
Do you have any questions or comments? Please do get in touch or leave a comment below – let us know what you think!
If you’re thinking about commissioning a quilt or cushion then we are very happy to answer any questions you might have about the process so just let us know! We can do all sorts of clever things with your clothes to produce a beautiful keepsake.
Thanks for reading!
Chris
P.S. Pass it on
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P.S. Don’t forget to sign up if you’d like to keep updated. You can use the form below, or grab our Memory Quilting Resources Guide
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