WARNING: This is very long and personal...
And so here we are...
After 7 years, 5 months and 22 days, we've come to the end.
I am so, so grateful to each and every one of you who has purchased The Vintage Sweetheart & Quirky Cottons fabric over the past few years.
I have loved it so, so much! Choosing the fabrics, showing you guys our new designs, seeing all your wonderful makes...it has really given me so much joy (apart from the social media side - I hate that!)
I've thought so long and hard about things since we announced we were closing and have read and taken in every single comment and email we've received. The outpouring of love has been incredible!
And whilst I would dearly love to carry Quirky Cottons on in some capacity, I'm just not sure I can without Tracy.
Tracy has been my best friend for the past 12 years. We have been through SO MUCH together; 5 births, the deaths of 3 out of 4 of our parents by the time we were both 36, miscarriages, fertility issues and health scares. Not to mention all the everyday ups and downs that go with being a parent!
She has been my absolute rock and I'm just not sure if I can (or want) to carry on without her here. Having to make Tracy redundant was the single worst thing I've ever had to do in my life.
This week has been INCREDIBLY stressful and emotional, not just because it was the last week of the business, but also because there's so many other stressful and sad things going on behind the scenes with my health and that of my family. I really am hanging on by a thread and seem to get very sad over the smallest of things!
I'm going away next week with my family and am going to take a break from it all. When I come back on the 4th September, hopefully it'll be with a clearer mind and a lot more happiness so I can make a proper, informed decision on the future of Quirky Cottons. I'd love nothing more than to keep it going, even if it's just a hobby for me, but right now, with the amount of stress and sadness I'm experiencing, I can't commit to it.
Thank you so much for reading this far! The website will now be closing and any outstanding orders will be shipped either tomorrow or Monday.
Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT! You've made a slightly crazy, music-obsessed mum of 3 from Somerset so happy over the last few years and I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to bring equally weird and wonderful fabrics into your lives.
So much love,
Emily x