Shoemaker's Children — Janet Szabo

Someone needs some new potholders.

I wonder if I know anyone who sews? LOL. I made these about 10 years ago. I remember sewing them on my Singer Rocketeer. Now I make them in bulk by layering large pieces of fabric for top and bottom with batting and Insul-Brite. I quilt the whole sandwich on the Q20 and then cut the large piece into potholder-sized pieces. Finish with binding and ta-da!—potholders. I’ll have some in the sale.

Everything is tagged and priced. I don’t have a ton of stuff to sell, but I have enough.

All of the squash came in except for these huge babies. I have no idea what variety they are. If ever there was a label, it’s missing.

Some of our squash from the plant sale was mislabeled. I heard that from a customer and I also had incorrect labels on some of the plants I brought home. These acorn squash were labeled Galeux, which is that warty pumpkin.

I started Table King acorn squash in the greenhouse, but these don’t look like Table King. We’ll have to be more careful about our labeling next spring. Squash seedlings look very similar.

The butternut squash are finding homes, happily.

I made “egg roll in a bowl” in the Instant Pot for dinner with one of my cabbages. The cabbages—the ones I was able to keep the ground squirrels from destroying—did really well. Elysian had a variety in the plant sale called Jung’s Triplet Hybrid. I put in a couple of those and they made the cutest little softball-sized white cabbage. Those are going into the rotation again next year. Sometimes I want a small cabbage and they are the perfect size.

All that’s left is to dig potatoes.

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The fourth podcast episode is up. The podcast is getting some traction; I host it externally at BuzzSprout, and they send me an analytics report every few days. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the number of downloads. I will keep trying to make improvements as I go along. There are a thousand details still needing to be addressed, though, mostly having to do with social media (ugh).

I found a very interesting video yesterday; it was linked on the Joann Fabrics subreddit so I went and checked it out. The YouTube channel is called Sewing Report and the host of the channel did a two-hour dig into what is going on at Joann Fabrics. I think she may be a former (or current) journalist. She stated right up front that she only used sources that could be verified, which included everything from Joanns’ own website all the way down to SEC filings. I watched the video while cutting out a Patterns 4 Pirates Cocoon Cardigan.

Yes, Joanns is currently owned by a private equity firm. (Technically, it is a public company, but the private equity firm owns something like 70% of shares.) This private equity company has owned it since 2019, I think, but it may be that they have finally decided it is a lost cause. The company has a staggering amount of debt. Of course, it seems to be trying to dig itself out of a hole by cutting employees to part-time minimum wage status and forcing customers to buy online. The current inflationary environment doesn’t help, either. People are cutting back. I watched another YouTube video a few weeks ago on the Quilt Addicts Anonymous channel where the owner talked about how inflation was crushing their business, directly and indirectly. Her business went from a high of 14 employees a few years ago to now simply trying to keep the doors open.

The whole situation is very sad. I doubt Joanns management understands what customers want, and until they make an effort to figure that out, they are trying to bail out a sinking ship with a teaspoon. Perhaps some of the execs should take a pay cut.

I also found out yesterday that Target is closing two Seattle stores, both of which my kids shopped at. The reason given was increasing theft and security issues. DD#2 told me that the Target nearest her—one that is closing—has everything locked up in cases, so if you want to buy anything, you have to find an employee to unlock the case.

Empires fall.