IT’S STILL SUMMER … SALE!
We delayed our usual June fabric summer sale because of the heatwaves, as few folk were out shopping unless they needed to. So the good news, it’s still to come.
Friday 25 September - Sunday 4 October. It’ll be on the ground floor, giving access to all. Fabrics from just £5/m.
Please note that Loyalty Card stamps are not given on Sale purchases as they have such a large mark-down.
MAVIS HASLAM - A LIFE IN QUILTS
21 August - 6 September
We were very happy to exhibit a selection of quilts, sewn by Mavis Haslam, instore this summer.
Mavis has been a quiltmaker for more than 40 years. After a solo exhibition at Hall Place in Bexley, the interest from visitors in patchwork inspired Mavis to form a quilt group, Rainbow Quilters, which is still going today and to start teaching locally. She has taught quiltmaking to students at Hometown and in Kent over many years.
The exhibition showed a selection of her favourite quilts from the past 4 decades and the stories behind the patchwork. Mavis is now in her nineties and is still stitching!
GIFT CARDS
Our gift cards are always welcomed by keen sewers. Available as £10, £25 and £50 cards. Buy in-store, by phone on 01634 838880 and online. Redeem them on any products or as payment / part payment for a workshop. They can also be used for online order payments.
Please note lost gift cards cannot be replaced, so do look after them or spend them fast if you think they’ll go astray!
LOOKING FOR A BARGAIN?
Have you seen our ‘Yard Sale’ packs? These are metre cuts of fabric, at a great price. Ideal for borders, backing and binding, they’re a great way to keep costs down. Just look for the basket instore as our selection changes daily.
(Please note that Loyalty Card stamps are not given on Yard Sale packs since they’re such a bargain).
Fat Quarter Heaven!
Each week we put together collections of coordinating fat quarters. These bundles contain 10 FQs (2.5m of fabric), ideal for a quilt.
And the good news is you save 10% instore on the price of buying them individually. (We do sometimes get carried away with mega collections of 20 or more quarters, like the one Mavis is holding).
VALUE FOR MONEY
At Hometown we firmly believe in offering you great quality fabrics at fair prices. We have lovely printed cottons from £7.50/m and most of our range is £12-16.00/m. We don’t have a ‘one price fits all’ approach. If the fabric costs us less, we charge you less.
Why this attitude to pricing? Firstly, we want everyone to be able to quilt and sew. It’s for everyone, whether you’re 10 and spending precious pocket money, or a retired, avid quilter, enjoying your retirement.
We also believe in quality. So, we won’t buy cheaper items if that means compromising on quality. The best example of this are rotary cutters. We stock a great range by Olfa (the Japanese grand daddies of the rotary cutting world). Marion has an Olfa cutter in regular use that is 30+ years old. Olfa tools are well engineered and a pleasure to use. Sure, you may be able to buy a cheaper cutter from a non-specialist for a tenner, but we guarantee that you’ll soon upgrade to the real deal. So buy once and buy well.
Page last updated 24/9/26
EVEN MORE GOODIES FOR FREE!
Having trialled this in March, we’re pleased to add another benefit to redeeming your Loyalty Card. Now, you can also use a full card with a valid use-by date (remember it’s worth a maximum of £15), as part payment towards a jelly roll or layer cake. This is in addition to redeeming your card as full/part payment towards a metre of fabric, a book, pattern or jigsaw.
By my reckoning that gives you more than 2250 items instore to choose from! If you’re not local to the shop, go to How to Shop Online page and read down to the bottom for how to redeem a full Loyalty Card against an online order.
Kawandi Cornucopia
In August and September 2025, hundreds of visitors enjoyed the work of students who have sewn Kawandi quilts, having come to our workshops over the past 3 years.
Carol Burrin was the maker of the visitor’s choice Kawandi and received a Hometown Gift Card as her prize.
Many of you also took part in sewing our extra-large community Kawandi. The quilt is now on display in the shop and is fabulous. Come and find your stitched patch!
Are you in THE QUILTERS’ GUILD?
Quilters’ Guild members have a 10% year round discount at Hometown, on full priced items and workshops, on production of their membership card (now found on the back of your magazine).
You can also use the discount online! Just log into your members’ page online for your QG code.
LOYALTY CARDS - JAN ’24 update
This switchover is such old news now! We’ve kept this post here so you can see the generous time we gave folk to swap to a new card. We cannot now swap or redeem OLD cards for any reason. Thank you. (January 2024).
Original 2023 post:
You, our customers are loyal, so a big thank you! This is why we have a Loyalty Card scheme which rewards you with free things! You can take as long as you like to fill a card and full cards are then dated and are valid for 2 months.
After 10 years, it was time for an update and in January 2023 we launched a new loyalty card. It’s still red in colour as shown above - we couldn’t change that! You now collect 1 stamp with every £15 of qualifying purchases (excludes sale items, gift cards, workshops and postage costs). When you’ve collected 10 stamps, you can redeem the card against 1 metre of fabric, a book or pattern (maximum value is £15).
When the new scheme was launched, we had a flurry of old cards in for redemption, but this has slowed to a trickle. So, in order to get all the old cards out of circulation, from 1 May until 3 September 2023, if you have a old-style card, we’ll transfer any old stamps to a new card at the new rate, below.
Since May 2020 we’ve also given stamps with online orders (either on a loyalty card or your invoice for repeat purchasers). So keep all your stamped invoices and we’ll transfer any stamps from invoices dated 4 September 2023 onwards onto a card when you’re next in town.
The same rules apply regarding old-style, new-style cards. Go to this page (read right to the bottom) and we explain how to redeem a card if you’re not local to the shop.
HOw much do I need?
The following is a rough guide to fabric quantities. A cot size quilt will usually need about 1.5-2m for the top and 1.5m for the reverse; quilts of about 60x60in (150x150cm) need about 3-3.5m for the patchwork and 3.2m for the reverse. For a large quilt measuring, say 90x90in (230x230cm), it could be about 5-5.m.
This is an estimate based on block style patchwork. If you have sashing or borders, you’ll need to take this into account and add extra. The more experienced you become, you can check magazine / pattern quantities before buying your fabric, to check they haven’t rounded up quantities.
In-store we cut quilting fabrics from just 20cm and in multiples thereafter of 10cm so you can buy exactly what you need. Online, our quilting fabric and felt is sold in quarter metre quantities.
We sell a variety of wadding widths (115, 228 and 305cm), so we have a wadding to match your quilt size. And if you have scraps left, don’t waste it - join it together with batting seam tape.