Joann's Is Gone

This was posted on the Joanns subreddit when I got up this morning. The author’s handle is rianadawn and I think she was watching the court hearing over Zoom.

The auction started at 4pm yesterday with lots of back and fourth between Gordon Brothers. Finally as of about 6:30PM tonight this is the outcome.

Gordon Brothers doesn’t have any new bids. Great American has successfully won. Great American said that they know this is not the outcome we all wanted and they were hoping for the employees and for the customers to be able to keep the stores going. They said they’ve had a long standing relationship with JoAnns. They helped close 370 of JoAnns stores while helping them to be expanded. They have a multi million dollar retention plan for the employees they will be rolling out after the court approves this. They said it’s frankly not enough and 90% is going into the stores. They want the employees to know they will help them through the transition. They said they will help with time out. They said they’ll help organize job fairs. They said most stores are stay open until end of May. They said they’re helping with payroll and wind down. They’re saying for the customers, as soon as they get settled all stores will be going on discount and the merchandise will be rolling out as soon as possible. They said they had nothing to do with the bankruptcy and they’re going to help with as much empathy as they can. Auction over and now it needs to be approved by a judge.

It’s over folks. Joann’s is gone.

I’ve had people say to me, “No one sews anymore!” After I pick myself up off the floor from laughing so hard, I point out that the five-billion-dollar-a-year quilting industry indicates otherwise. I am sure the demise of Joann Fabrics will provide plenty of fodder for graduate business school classes for years to come. This didn’t have to happen. The sheer stupidity of human beings stuns me anew every morning.

******

I needed a mindless sewing project yesterday, so I pulled out the bag of red scraps. The bag also contains some pink, purple, and orange scraps. Most of the scraps are in the form of “strings,” or strips of fabric at least 1-1/2" wide. Larger scraps get turned into 5" squares. I spent the afternoon making these half log cabin blocks.

The pattern originally came from the book Sunday Morning Quilts under the name “Scrapper’s Delight.” We have a mulitcolored version on our bed. I’ve also done a couple of white and cream versions. This version is fairly retina-burning, but I need to use up the bag of scraps. Honestly, I think I could make two king-size versions of this quilt and still have scraps left over. I didn’t think I used a lot of red fabric but the scraps say otherwise.

I’ve found it’s easiest to make four blocks at the same time and chain piece them through the machine. They finish at 12-1/2". Some logs are a bit wonky, but that adds to the charm. This likely will be a long-term project.

******

I was reading through the teacher guidelines from Sew Expo yesterday as I was gathering supplies. I found it interesting that they had to put a reminder in there for teachers to dress professionally. Really? Do some teachers show up in jeans and hoodies? (You can tell I’m old.) Not only do I dress up, I put on makeup. 😮

I was happy to see that some of my feedback from last year has been acted upon. I suggested that they set aside an area as a teacher lounge. Teachers had no quiet place to sit down for a few minutes, get a snack and something to drink, or meet and visit with other teachers.