just went thru new catalog,& was so disappointed!looks like they are turning more towards paper cutting & csrap book than quilting ! has anyone else noticed this or is it just me ????????????dar

I have noticed that most of their ads are geared toward a lot of scrapbooking stuff.

However, the coupons for last week's big sale included more coupons for fabric than crafty stuff. Who knows?

Yes . . .though I think they've been on this trend for awhile. They really used to be a sewing only store . . .now it's mostly crafts, etc with fabric thrown in almost as an afterthought.

There must be some sort of consumer surveys that reflect fewer people making those types of purchases so they're moving in another direction. But really . . .I think those of us who DO sew would purchase more from them if they carried higher quality fabrics. Even when my children were young and I did much more garment sewing . . .it was next to impossible to find good quality fabrics for garments. I relied heavily on a clearing house for a local children's garment factory for most of my fabrics. There was no way I could find those types of fabrics at JoAnns.

Incidently . . .JoAnn's USED to be called ClothWorld before changing their name. There's a reason that name was changed . . .to take the emphasis off sewing supplies . . .

This is true . . .but it could just be they're liquidating the slower moving items which is why most stores price things on sale anyway :)

My Joanns had been making more room for the paper crafts but I look at this way fair is fair as long as they still sell fabric I am happy :lol:

Our new Joanns is 2/3 sewing and 1/3 all the other crafts. I think the flyers/specials go in cycles. In April and May there's a lot of quilting (Paducah, Spring Market, etc) in the flyers and then they go to kids crafts for the summer, etc. but then it comes back to us - the quilters/sewers.

I made my first stop in the Joannes last week. There was ONE employee to cut material and work the cash register. There was a line waiting for fabric to be cut. Finally after 20 plus minutes another employee appeared to check out. So the original cashier came to cut fabric. By the time I got to the cashier, the line was really long. The register didn't want to recognize the coupons some of the customers were using.

I was so disappointed. But there isn't any other fabric store close by since WalMart did away with fabric. The next closest store is 30 minutes away.

If I ever win the big money from the lottery, I'm going to quit my job and I want to open a full blown fabric store.

I think that the quality of fabric has a lot to do with sales in JoAnns and Walmart. When I go to Walmart (and sometimes at JoAnn's now) nice, good looking, quality fabric is more of a surprise than the norm. If they want me to spend my money/gas then I need some incentive. Don't get me wrong, I do go to Walmart and JoAnn's but it seems lately that my choices have narrowed.

I seem to remember the sales for quilting supplies etc were usually in the winter months. They figure its too hot to quilt in the summer. Just a thought. True though many of the catalogs are more geared to paper crafts-scrapbooking and cardmaking.