Questions
Everything people ask us.
Grouped roughly the way a day goes: buying something, getting it, coming to see us, and what happens when something is not right.
Read this one first. Bobbin & Brush is a demonstration shop for the Creative Path 52 platform. The catalogue, the workshops, the café and the prices are all real, and the shop, till and back office behind them are the same ones a paying customer gets — but no order placed here is fulfilled and no payment is taken, because the engine runs in test mode and cannot charge a card. Everything below is written as though it were a working shop, because that is what the demonstration is for. Nothing below will actually take your money.
Buying, cutting and stock
Do you cut fabric to order?
Yes. Most of the fabric on the wall is sold by the metre and cut to whatever length you ask for, in quarter-metre steps. The shop works that out for you as you slide the quantity, so what you see in the basket is the length you get, not a count of quarter metres. Because a cut length is cut for you and nobody else, it cannot come back unless it arrived faulty — that is the one exception to the returns answer further down.
Can I get a swatch before I commit?
Ask through the contact form and say which bolt and what you are matching it to. Colour on a screen is a negotiation between your monitor, our photograph and the weather on the day it was taken, and for a whole quilt's worth of backing that gap is expensive.
The thing I want is out of stock. Now what?
The shop shows real stock, so out of stock means the shelf is genuinely empty rather than the website being behind. Most lines come back in; tell us which one and we will say whether it is on order or discontinued, and those are genuinely different answers.
Do you sell to shops, groups and guilds?
Yes. Quilt groups, schools, care homes and other shops all buy from us on different terms, so there is no single wholesale price list. Use the contact form, choose "Wholesale or trade" as the subject, and say roughly what and how often.
Do you do gift vouchers?
Yes, and they work on everything — fabric, haberdashery, a workshop place, lunch in the café. They are issued as a code rather than a card, so they can go in an email at ten to midnight on a birthday, and they do not expire.
What can I pay with?
In the shop and the café: all the usual cards, contactless, and cash. Online: cards through Stripe. On this demonstration site the card step is a Stripe test card and takes nothing — the till even says so on screen, because a till that cannot tell you which mode it is in is a till nobody should trust.
Delivery and returns
How long will my order take?
Reckon on three to five working days for us to cut and pack, then two or three for Royal Mail. Cut fabric is the slow part — it is done by hand and in the order it came in. If something is urgent, say so in the order notes and we will tell you honestly whether it is possible.
What does postage cost?
It is worked out by weight at the basket, so you see the real figure before you commit rather than a flat guess that is either too much or a nasty surprise. Larger orders cross into a cheaper band per item, which the basket also shows you.
Do you ship outside the UK?
Europe and a list of worldwide destinations, yes. Customs charges at the far end are the buyer's and are nothing to do with what you pay us. For the United States in particular, ask before ordering — tariffs on textiles move around and we would rather quote than guess.
Can I collect instead?
Yes, and there is no charge for it. Choose collection at the basket and we will email when it is on the shelf with your name on it. The counter is open café hours.
How do I return something?
Get in touch first — the contact form is the quickest — and we will send the return address and a note to put in the parcel. You have fourteen days from delivery to tell us and another fourteen to send it back, unused and in a state we could sell it in. Cut fabric is the exception, unless it was faulty, in which case it is not an exception at all.
Something arrived damaged or missing.
Tell us within a few days and send a photograph if it is damage. We will replace, refund or re-send, and we will not make you post a broken thing back to prove it was broken.
Workshops and clubs
What sort of workshops do you run?
Textile and art, both. Quilting and patchwork, free-motion, dressmaking basics, bag making, willow, watercolour, sketchbook days — a mix of one-off days and short runs, some here and some online. The workshops page lists whatever is actually bookable today, straight from the booking system, so it is never advertising a date that has gone.
Do I need to bring anything?
Each workshop's own page says. Most include materials and the use of a machine; a few ask you to bring your own machine because working on the one you will go home to is the whole point. Bring a notebook and something you do not mind getting dye on.
I have never done this before. Is that a problem?
No, and where a workshop genuinely does assume some experience its page says so plainly rather than leaving you to find out at ten past ten. Group sizes are small on purpose so nobody spends the day waiting for a tutor.
What if I cannot come after all?
Tell us more than a fortnight ahead and we will move you to another date or refund you. Inside a fortnight we will move you if we can fill your place, because the materials for the day are bought by then. If we cancel — weather, illness, a tutor stuck on the A30 — you get the choice of a move or a full refund, always.
What are Art Club and Sewing Club?
Monthly memberships rather than one-off days. A club member gets a regular session in the studio, a bit of discount on materials, and first sight of the workshop dates before they go public. They are listed in the shop with the current monthly price on them — the shop is the only place that price is quoted, so it cannot go stale on a page like this one.
Can you run something private for my group?
Yes. Hen parties, birthdays, work away-days, guild trips. Tell us numbers, a rough date and what you would like to end up holding at the end of it. The café can feed the group in the middle without anybody leaving the building.
The café, and visiting us
What are your opening hours?
The café serves Monday to Friday from nine, with last orders at three, and is closed on bank holidays. The shop counter keeps the same hours, and stays open until five on Wednesdays and until three on Saturdays. Some Saturdays and the odd Friday supper evening run outside all of that; those go to the mailing list first.
Can I book a table in the café?
For a group, yes — use the contact form and choose "A table in the café". For one or two of you there is no need; there is nearly always somewhere, and if there is not, there is the terrace.
Do I have to be booked on something to use the café?
No. That is rather the point of it. Walkers, cyclists, people working from a laptop for the morning and people who came for the view are all as welcome as anyone on a workshop.
Is there parking?
Yes — a large free car park next to the building, with accessible bays by the door. It does fill on a busy workshop day, but it has never yet run out.
Are you dog friendly?
Yes. A well-behaved dog of a reasonable size is welcome inside the café as well as out, and there are two acres of field for the ones who need to get it out of their system first. Water bowls are by the door.
Do you have step-free access?
The café, the gallery and the shop are all on the ground floor and step-free, and there is an accessible toilet. There is no lift to the upstairs rooms, so if a workshop you want is up there, tell us when you book and we will move it down rather than leave you out.
Are you any good if I arrive by bike?
We are on the National Cycle Route between St Agnes and Truro. There are tools, a pump and water, and nobody minds lycra at the counter.
Are the shop, the café and the gallery all in the same place?
Yes, all on one site — The Gwel, on Kea Downs Road near Blackwater, just outside Truro. The full address, a map and directions are on the contact page.
Your details, and this website
What do you do with my details?
Answer you, send what you bought, and nothing else. We do not sell lists and we do not add you to the newsletter because you bought something — that takes a separate, deliberate tick. Ask and we will tell you everything we hold, or delete it.
Is this really a demonstration site?
Yes, and it is a real one rather than a mock-up. The catalogue, the workshop dates, the stock levels and the café menu are genuine; the shop, till, bookings, support desk and accounts behind them are the production software. The only thing switched off is the money: the payment engine is in test mode and structurally cannot reach a live card. Everything you can click is the real thing doing the real job for nothing.
Something on the site is wrong or broken.
Please tell us — the contact form, subject "Something else". A demonstration shop that quietly carries a broken page is worse than no demonstration at all.
Not answered here?
Ask us directly. Somebody reads everything that comes in, and a question that had to be asked usually ends up on this page.