Women in Business: Zoe has many stiches in her quilt of life – Bellarine Sewing Centre

Turning a hobby into a business has been an interesting and fun journey for Zoe Clifton.

She made her first quilt 28 years ago for her daughter Katie and this was the start of her amazing journey.

Zoe established a small pattern business 14 years ago that she ran from home named “The Blanket Box”, while her son Daniel was a toddler.

This lead to projects for craft magazines and working alongside leading Australian fabric distributors as a quilt designer.

Zoe then purchased a small patchwork shop 12 years ago, known as A Chatelaine Affair.

She changed the business name to ‘The Blanket Box’ and grew the business substantially.

In 2006, Zoe self-published her first book ‘With Scraps of Time’, which was followed by ‘Times Past’, ‘Melon Magic’ and ‘More Scraps, More Time’ – all four books were printed locally.

During 2012, Zoe joined forces with John Thorpe and together they created ‘Bellarine Sewing Centre’ as a second business selling Brother and Elna sewing/embroidery machines.

In April 2015 they relocated the shop to 395 Moorabool Street, South Geelong and merged the businesses, now only being known as ‘Bellarine Sewing Centre’.

Zoe has a passion for teaching a variety of patchwork and quilting techniques.

She continues to grow her passion and skills in the patchwork world with the release of a DVD for Quilters Companion Magazine in January this year and Zoe will also be releasing her first fabric range later this year.