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| Shaky iPhone photo of a huge alligator. Should add that I was in a big boat, *not* swimming. |
I didn't get any sewing done while I was down there, obviously, but I did manage to visit a Joanne's for the first time ever. Man, do I feel sorry for people that live in the middle of nowhere and have only a Joanne's for fabric. I mean, they have lots of quilting cottons, but there wasn't much of anything else there I would buy. And there seemed to be an almost equal floor space devoted to scrapbooking, but perhaps that was just the Florida retirement town demographic being served.
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| My kids trying to coax a giant tortoise out of his burrow. Hard to see, but he's there. |
Anyway, after an initial flurry of pins, the Map the Sewintists project is slowing down, but we are now up to >100K views and ~500 participants in the first month alone! Astounding. I've already received a few messages from people thanking me for putting them in touch with other sewists that they never knew of before. Tanit-Isis was the first off the mark I believe, blogging about meeting with Trumbelina in the wilds of Saskatchewan. I know that I'm going to make checking the map for pins part of my next trip planning session. Ummm....probably back to Tampa for a few days of work at USF....any south Florida sewists reading?
View Map the Sewintists in a larger map
Sewing news?: haven't been doing much, except catching up on the mountain of mending and alterations that I ignored last year while hanging with the Sew Weekly bunch. And I don't think that a mend or a hem constitutes a minimum blogable unit, do you? ;)
I *am* planning on doing a bit of sew-alonging with Tempest during her March Bowie Sew-Along. Why don't you join in the fun too?
So there are 5 maps? That's so cool! But I can't figure out how to see other maps; just the one that opens at the original link. Is there something I'm missing?
ReplyDeleteScroll down to the bottom of the list of pins on the left; there you'll see the Google icon and numbered pages 1-4. Click on the "next" button and it will take you to page 5 too. Still haven't gotten around to figuring out how to combine all pages into one. Even asked the new technician I mentioned above if he knew KML during the interview, and now he can't figure out why that was a job requirement ;)
DeleteYour observation regarding JoAnn's is unfortunately right on the mark, which is why so many of us have moved to online fabric shopping.
ReplyDeleteExactly. I'm pretty sure Joann's is the only place in my state to get fabric (which isn't a surprise, since the last time I checked, I was STILL the only sewintist here!), and I recently discovered that the one close to my house is actually really good compared to the one that's closer to my fiance's house. It's a good thing I'd already planned on focusing on busting my own stash, because I might have to start resorting to the internet just to get thread!
DeleteI finally got it to work for me! I have no scientific explanation why it took me five tries other than stupidity. Thanks again for doing this project!
ReplyDeleteOk so I finally got myself on the map and accidetally have myself on there 3 times! I am on Long Island in New York. Do you know how I can delete? I went to the edit page and I cannot see my pins there to delete them....
ReplyDeleteand yes, Joannes is pathetic. My Joanne store is now carrying a line of luxury fabrics every season now and those are really nice. I bought some wool jersey, a brocade and a gorgeous silk. They now have some really nice spring tweed and a really pretty spring silk, but the selection is limited and the rest suck. I am about 40 minutes from NYC though so I am better off than others ;)
When a new person adds their pin, they go at the end of the list (now page 5). Scroll down to the bottom of the list, and you'll see the list of pages. Click "next", and you'll see page 5. You'll be at the bottom of page 5, and you can click and delete your errant pins.
Delete(I was cleaning them up for the first little while, but the project got way bigger than I thought and I've been letting people regulate themselves. It means there are some pins in the Arctic and in the middle of the ocean, but hell, maybe they are on a navy maneouver? :)
My mom is ususally looking for quilting cottons, nothing super heavy but good prints and even she gets frustrated by Joann's. I've never been myself but from what I read it actually makes me thankful for Fabricland. They may not be the be all and end all but I can usually find something interesting.
ReplyDeleteGive me a holler when you are going to Tampa again. I'll get a group together!
ReplyDeleteAndrea (satinbirddesigns (at) gmail (dot) com
Will do!
DeleteJoann's actually has increased their fabric department in the past year or so, particularly garment fabrics. The pickings remain very slim compared to what was available when I first was introduced to Cloth World (1976 or so), the precursor to Joann's. All of the fabric chains gobbled the independent fabric stores, then gobbled one another, resulting in very poor and limited fabric selection in the Valley of the Sun (Arizona). We do have a few good quilt stores and some of the sewing machine dealers have begun to carry a selection of fabric, but nothing spectacular. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteTaja
I live in St Pete and the only thing that over shadows the scrapping supplies and craft supplies in our Joann's is the huge and I do mean huge selection of fleece. Really? LOL Why do we need so much fleece?
ReplyDeleteFor at least the past decade I've said JoAnn's is a craft store that sells fabric and when I did a quick add-up of the floor space at the "Super" store near me only 40% of the store is devoted to fabric. Of that about 20% is evil fleece!! Or to be more 'scientific' about it - 960 running feet of shelf space holds fleece not to mention the hideous back stock they throw on top of the shelving units...
ReplyDeleteHowever, if I travel 20 minutes south there is a JoAnn's that is predominantly fabric with staff that actually SEW, imagine! But I can also go 20 minutes west and float into Stone Mountain that is a family owned business with high end fabrics as well as small independent pattern companies represented. Just have to figure out the amount of traffic I want to put up with : ) I do pity people who ONLY have JoAnn, just too bad.