With everything happening in the world, it’s hard to believe that there could be even more devastating news. And yet, it happened – the announcement that the entire chain of JOANN fabric and craft supply stores was closing for good.

It is disappointing to see all of the stores shut their doors, but I’m especially saddened to see my local JOANNs close. This JOANN store on South State Road in Springfield, PA, is where I learned to quilt. It was through an amazing, supportive first quilting class that I learned to sew again, after not touching a machine since I was in the 8th grade. It was on my grandmother’s sewing machine handed down to me in 2006 that motivated me to want to re-engage with sewing. Little did I know that the first class available was a quilting class, and what a journey it has been since then!

When my grandmother’s sewing machine stopped working during the pandemic, my husband and I went to the Viking Sewing Gallery in this JOANNs store to purchase a new machine. They couldn’t provide me a full training session on how to use it due to COVID conditions at the time, but this new machine kept me continuing on with my stitching through the pandemic. My husband had been wanting to buy a sewing machine for me for years (he promised me a new one when I received tenure at Penn State Brandywine, but with my grandmother’s machine still working, I didn’t want to stop using it!). Now, a Sapphire 930 joins my quilting journey, and I was able to take a few half-day classes in JOANN to learn more sewing and quilting techniques.

Although I will miss JOANNs and the convenience of driving such a short distance to get any last-minute thread or binding for projects, I will still be able to keep up my quilting productivity. I’ll shift heavily into supporting as many local quilt shops (which are now 30-60 minutes away) and small businesses online as possible. It’s not a bad thing for me to fully engage in shopping small and shopping local (or through small, local stores online).

But I am concerned about the impact on all the volunteer and service projects that relied on the sales and fun-patterned fabric available at JOANNs. My own quilting guild, as well as all the guilds I know of in my region of Pennsylvania, make quilts for kids in hospitals, senior citizens, Veterans, and more. I hope those that engage in quilting, whether for personal or professional reasons, are still able to move forward to generate quilts for warmth, comfort, display, or…. for quilting science stories (like I do!).

Explore how I’ve used quilts to communicate science stories on this blog.