One lone spool of thread. I guess it's social distancing. 😄
There was an associate at the cutting table and we asked why they were cleaned out. She said folks were making masks and she couldn't keep fabric on the shelves. That's a lot of masks! As soon as she'd put some out, it was gone.
Our Walmart has a pretty good sized fabric department. The last couple of years it's been almost impossible to have fabric cut because they never have anyone manning that area. 10 years ago, it was different. There was always someone in that department. Now you always have to find an associate and then wait 10...15...20 minutes and ask multiple times before anyone arrives. Probably 5 or 6 years ago they decided to shut the fabric department down. There are 2 small quilt shops in town and a Hobby Lobby. But there is a large population of folks in our area who are on a fixed income and Walmart is affordable. We are 4 hours from any other decent sized towns and I'm really glad they decided to keep fabric. It allows an awful lot of folks to sew and I buy fabric there sometimes. I bought this print there 15 years ago
and made my first quilt 3 years later:
I posted about it HERE
I made it for our girl and it still lies across the foot of her bed in her room here. I also bought yards and yards of it and made matching lined curtains and valances for the 2 5'x5' windows in her room:
The curtains have been washed each year and the quilt has been used and washed a lot and it has held up beautifully.
I know it's not 'quilt shop' quality fabric, but if they have something I'm looking for, I will buy it. I prefer to support local quilt shops, but ours are very small and after the 6 week closure, due to being deemed non-essential during the Covid-19 pandemic, we may lose one, if not both, of them.
I know folks were concerned when they were unable to find toilet paper, but what is the world coming to when the fabric shelves are empty? (A little tongue in cheek humor here)
I wrote this last week and since then, Hobby Lobby in town opened up. They are open 4 days a week and letting 75 people in the store at a time. No, I haven't been. They are defying our Governor's regulations, but our county is known to go rogue and butt heads with the powers that be in our state. We have had very few cases of Covid in this part of the state and our sheriff said he was standing with the businesses in town that chose to open.
A few weeks ago, DH and I had an appointment in Lubbock. We pass by one of my favorite quilt shops and DH asked, " Do you want to stop in at the quilt shop?"
Me: Aww...that's sweet, but they are closed as per regulations due to Covid-19.
DH: WHAT? Quilt shops aren't deemed essential?! Imagine that!
Yes, he's a rascal.
10 comments:
Your hubby is a hoot! That’s crazy that all the fabric and thread is gone! I have bought fabric there too. All the fabric I have bought there has been great except for some holiday fat quarters that were thin. It’s good that they carry fabric since all the fabric stores have been closed. I am sure there is going to be a lot of fabric, clothing stores and restaurants that don’t open back up. So sad!
LOL Karin, a rascal he is! I've been trying to support the little quilt shops too. A lot of them have online stores, so I have done a little shopping :) Have a lovely day.
Wow!! Those photos are SEW telling. With the quilt shops closed, Walmart fabric is the last resort!
Wow--We have two Wal-Marts in our valley and one has fabric, while the other doesn't. I haven't been to see if they have depleted their supply.
Hobby Lobby was still well stocked when I dropped by after they reopened, and one of our local quilt shops has stayed open through it all. They said they are deemed essential for all of the mask making. The other quilt shop opted to close for a few weeks, but just reopened on limited hours.
Very could use of the horse fabric. I'm glad it has held up well through the use and washings.
Our local quilt shop allowed you to order and pay online, they would email you when your order was ready and put it outside on a table for you to drive over and pick it up (or they could ship it to you). Isn’t that great service? My two orders were ready within 15 minutes!
I have bought from Walmart before, too, but not recently. One time I found some Vera Bradley fabric there and bought the whole bolt! That was at least 10 years ago.
Yes, I remember the big Noise that arose when Walmart proposed closing out their fabric departments after essentially forcing the regular fabric stores to close. They really got an earful, and consequently kept their fabric departments open.
Wow--that's a lot of masks!! It's sad how many small businesses such as quilt shops are no longer going to be.
Your hubs is a smart man--he knows the difference between essential and non essential! He's got his priorities in the correct order.
I shopped at a SuperWalmart in my town a few weeks ago and the fabric department was not as bare as your photos but it was depleted. The 8 foot section that held fat quarters was empty except for a hand ful of packs.
I suspect much of Walmart’s fabric department stock now comes from China and the supply chain from them now has lots of breaks.
I do like your horse quilt and fabric!
Here in SD lots of places are still open. In our county we have only had 1 case of covid and he recovered.
I'm an hour away from a quilt store and our grown son that farms with us said to Say HOme! we are trying to be good but when you need parts and would get to go through McDonald for a caramel frappe it's hard not to:) No quilt stores so far!
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