A colourful new destination for sewing and quilting enthusiasts has opened its doors this summer.

What The Fabric? celebrated its grand opening on Thursday at Humble By Nature, the collaborative community of rural artisan businesses set up by TV personality and author, Kate Humble.

The business has been created especially for the modern quilter and sewist, by Jo Riou, who ran the Monnow Valley Recording Studio in Rockfield, and Kim Higgins who had her own fabric shop in Biggar, Scotand.

As Jo explained, she is taking a back seat role in the recording studio, and handing over the running of it to her husband so she can concentrate on the new venture.

More than just a fabric shop, What The Fabric? will become a creative hub for the sewing community, offering regular workshops for all abilities, monthly Soup and Sew social sewing sessions at Pelham Hall in Penallt, guest tutors and special events throughout the year.

As Jo explained: “I’ve been in the music industry for nearly 40 years, buying the recording studio in Rockfield 20 years ago, but 12 years ago, I decided to start a longarm quilting business and from there I met Kim. Two years ago the pair decided that they were going to do a modern fabric shop together after they had been trading online, doing all the big quilt shows.

Kim's background has been in retail and Jo specialised in online sales.

“There was not a lot for the modern quilter and a lot of stuff that we stock is really hard to find in the UK” added Jo.

They expanded so much and knew that Kate Humble was looking for artisan retailers to expand the direction Humble by Nature was going that a premises was a natural step.

Jo added that they are also starting a modern quilt guild affiliated to a guild in America which will be called ‘Wye Valley Modern Quilt Guild’ and are holding ‘Soup and Sew’ weekends in Pelham Hall (Penallt) where anyone can come in and sew for a weekend on any projects that they want, “ it's not a tuition weekend,” she added.

Kim explained that anyone can quilt and sew to their hearts content “without having to stop and start around household work, family or a busy lifestyle.”

Jo went on to say that they will run workshops at the shop and bring tutors in beginning July 25-26 with Giucy Giuce, a highly popular modern traditional quilt and fabric designer from New York to teach an exclusive workshop for them.

“The benefit of us being in the industry for over 10 years is that we have contacts from selling to quilting the quilts,” she added.

They are stocking an exciting range of premium fabrics, threads, notions and patterns from some of the world's most sought-after designers and brands. The shop is a flagship stockist for Ruby Star Society, Giucy Giuce, Legit Kits, Sneaker Kits and Sew Kind of Wonderfulns.

You can find them at the Humble by Nature venue just out of Penallt, open Wednesday to Saturday 9.30am to 5.30pm.