Losing JoAnn's

JoAnn's, the last of the big chain fabric stores, is closing its doors permanently. 

I wandered through my local store yesterday in search of buttons that I could make into sleeve buttons. 

I'd already braved the crowds once and gone through their button racks, but I was out running errands and stopped by. Glad I did.

JoAnn's will be missed. It met the needs of a big segment of the sewing community at large and has been a place where many beginning sewists came as they started out. 

Their fabrics were inexpensive and allowed a new sewist to learn without the worry about the investment that better quality fabrics are.

For experienced sewists, it was a good place to go for notions, patterns, and craft supplies, and I will miss being able to pop into the store, grab what I needed, and then returning home without losing too much sewing time.

So, what's left around town for sewists?

~ Hobby Lobby has a small fabric section. Their fabric quality is on par with JoAnn's and not what I would use, but I can get my notions and things there. 

~ I checked out Michaels a few weeks ago and was not impressed with the selection or the quality. 

~ Walmart? Nope. Never. They have a brand of thread whose name is VERY close to a major brand name thread. I fell for their ploy and discovered that the Walmart imitation thread was awful quality. It broke constantly as I tried to use it and finally I threw it away.

~ We do have a locally owned quilt shop but I refuse to go there. A few years ago I took one of my sewing machines in for a repair, and they lost my machine. A three week repair turned into MONTHS! They lied several times to me about where it was and finally quit returning my phone calls as I tried to get my machine back. That finally happened when I showed up in person, told them who I was and that I wanted my sewing machine back NOW. It took a while, but they finally found it. I will never, ever return to that store again. 

There was a time when we had more options for sewing supplies here in town. Sadly, JoAnn's put them all out of business.

Hancocks was one of them,

as was So-Fro Fabrics. 

Saddest of all was when Neuwelts closed. It was a two story, locally owned fabric shop here on the downtown square in Lafayette. It was chock full of all kinds of quality fabrics.

People came from out of state just to shop there. It was such an icon that I saved two bags that I found in my mother's fabric stash after she passed away.

A note pinned to a Neuwelt's bag from my mother. She was making chemises, too!

Since I buy better quality fabric than JoAnn's sells, my sources are not changing either for Horsiemama's Haversacks or for Jolis Chevaux. I already have some online sources plus there are sources for 18th century fabrics at events. 

In fact, Leslie came over yesterday and together we put together a big block print order from one of those online sources.

The Feast may be seven months away, but we are both sewing things now in preparation for it. (The obligatory sister selfie.)

Still, I will miss the opportunity to run over to JoAnn's and snag something I needed NOW and then be home and back at the sewing machine in less than an hour.

I sure hope that new sewists find another resource for inexpensive fabrics to learn on. For that, JoAnn's was unsurpassed.

Shannon's Surprise

I was in Joann's last week and took a moment to wander through the clearance aisle. I was looking for small storage ideas for sewing notions, but since I had a few moments, decided to look at appliqués. 

 When I spied these large horseshoe appliqués, I snapped them up.  

I had a project in mind that needed large horseshoes and had been thinking about embroidering them since I have a variety of horseshoe designs in my digital files.

But those horseshoe appliqués were the perfect size and would save me a lot of time. Unfortunately, I needed four horseshoe appliqués, and there were only three available. I brought them home anyway and decided I would look for more online.

A day later, I got a nice card from my friend Shannon Rodgers. Guess what was tucked inside?

Three more of the horseshoe appliqués! Shannon had found them while shopping and thought I might be able to use them, even though she had no idea I was looking for more!

Shannon being Shannon (she is very generous), she'd found some other appliqués that she included in her surprise gift. 

Thanks, so much, Shannon! I will put these appliqués to go use and appreciate your thoughtfulness.