I went to my local Wal-mart yesterday, and spoke to the clerk in the fabric dept. She said they hadn't heard anything about shutting down fabrics, but from the amount of bolts on the shelves, it doesn't look good. Lots of bare spots and not much spring and summer fabric. I signed the petition, guess I will call too just to make my point. Not looking forward to having to drive 30 miles for quilting supplies, expecially since sometimes I get an uncontrollable urge to touch fabric, but will do what I have to so I can keep quilting. I went to thousandsofbolts.com, and it looks promising. Haven't had a chance to check other websites. This is very upsetting, because before Walmart came to town, we had a full-service fabric store and sewing machine sales and repair, and a cross-stitch store. Now they are both gone, and the cross-stitch section at Walmart is mighty slim pickins. I already travel 25 miles when I want different cross-stitch fabric, and again it's not always convenient when that bug bites me. Just frustrating.

Julie, you'll find that the clerks don't know anything about whats going on. Walmart is keeping everything hush-hush about whether they are closing that dept or not. Its really kind of weird. All of our clerks were offered different positions in the store and kind of figured it out.

About the selection of fabric, our walmart just started rec'g some new bolts, but it was slim pickings for a few months. Plus our Joanns doesn't have a big selection. They don't know whats going on either with why there is no fabric coming in.

Joanns had a big clearance sale last weekend where all of their clearance fabrics were just a dollar a yard. Boy did I get alot!!!!!! It was only 1 day and the manager let me know. Got some great deals.

Great that you caught that sale at JoAnns. I don't make it to ours often enough to get the scoop on inside sales, but I do get their flyers. I need to get some fabric to make a quilt for my 3 year old grandon. Patrick loves construction vehicles. He can tell me the names of all of them and what they do. So I thought it would be fun to make him a quilt with that theme. His favorite color is purple though, and I don't see many purple excavators! I did get some fabric at Walmart for other projects so the trip wasn't a total waste. The clerk did tell me that customers have told her before that the department is closing, but you're right, she didn't know anything about it. As she pointed out, we are a 4-H county, so it would be mean of Walmart to do away with fabrics.

Well, the manager of Joanns and I have been friends for years, plus I set up a kiosk booth with my quilt stuff at our mall every Sat. and our joanns is in the mall. So yea, I'm lucky in that way. Plus the clerks at walmart are some of my customers, so always get the inside scoop at whats going on.

Tricia

If our local WM fabric department goes away, I think I'll miss the women who work there more than the fabric - and that's a lot. No two of them fold up my purchases in the same way. Lots of different personalities - all nice. When I went to buy my latest machine, she opened the box for me - and cut open the plastice wrapper around the manual - just so I could verify something before lugging it home. Luckily, I found what I was looking for so I bought it as planned and she didn't risk getting in trouble just to help me out. :-)

Patrice, you're so right. The clerks are so nice, and always so interested in what I'm making. I had the same experience, when I bought a sewing machine for my daughter-in-law, the clerk was so helpful. Since Michelle was new to sewing, I wanted a basic, easy to understand machine, and she helped me find just what I wanted. The clerks help not only me, but I have seen them help find coordinating fabric, etc. for other customers. At the same time, these ladies are expected to help out in other departments also. I will truly miss them.

yes yes yes I agree with you all. We have 2 walmarts , one definaterly plans to close out fabric w/in the year I guess that applies to both. And I also heard a rumor that JoAnnes plans to close. I don't know if this means just the one here. But if they do Guess my options will become quite limited. I.e. quilt shops that charge a minimum of $7.00 pr yd. or the old second-hand store to scrounge for used fabric. Which I am not ashamed of doing :wink: Like one of you ladies pointed out our grandmas and theirs before originally used pre-used. I find some amazing fabric there actually. but, the problem comes when a specific need for quantity , color, or pattern arises. As well as time. (like I need it now)! So I would definately be more and more interested in a co-op situation. I only recently became internet connected so haven't had much time to browse see what is available. My intention is to sell my quilts which may be subject to some type of content law's I.e. new materials! I have not researched this area yet.

The three most reasonable sites recommended so far have been:

Hancock fabrics main website
( http://www.hancockfabrics.com/index.jsp ) - check the clearance stuff first
Joann ( http://joann.com/ ) - again, start in the clearance selection
http://www.thousandsofbolts.com/ where their regular prices are lower than the sale prices on every other site I've seen except the 2 above.

I, too, have been a captive customer of WalMart. Our department has been drastically cut. thanks to the person who found the thousands site, I finally feel less trapped by my income.

:-)

yea I plan to amass great quantities of yard goods brfore they do shut down, but I'm definatly going to research some on line sources as well. Thanks for the reply

our Walmart is closing their fabric section March 1 they will keep other craft items. it is just the items that have to be cut that will be gone. notions will be kept. I am fortunate that I have quilts shops in my area that I support . I don't need walmart. walmart has done a lot of damage to our community.