Nanamoms

I know...no COLA for us seniors but the minimum wage is going up for some states. It's almost now to where minimum wage is where the "rich" used to be!!!

Also, if we hadn't stopped growing cotton in the South (well only major companies are doing it now) and we still had regular cotton farmers, cotton could be "homegrown". Makes me furious!!

craftyone27

Nana- there is still cotton grown in the US.Probably not as much as we used to produce. The problem is we closed ALL our textile mills and sent them overseas. This started happening years ago and finally ended a year or two ago with the last of the mills closing. There are no longer Cannon sheets and towels made at mills in NC or fabrics milled anywhere in the U.S.! It all went over seas for cheaper production costs and now it is costing us in the long run. I'm not saying this as a political dig to either side but no cost of livingincrease is absurd as the price of everything around us goes up, and as someone mentioned earlier the size of the containers goes down. How can any politician in either party say the cost of living hasn't gone up? Maybe we need to be able to vote ob our own increases just as ALL the greedy politicians get to vote on their own payraises. OK - down off my soapbox, that is all.

G'ma Kay

I'm still finding great deals at JoAnn's and WalMart. Our LQS is having clearance sale to clear out for spring stock. I'm sure the new stock will be high, but I'm all about clearance sale prices.

Favorite Fabrics

I believe that Santee still prints in the US... and you can find a lot of Santee prints among the budget-friendly fabrics on the calico wall at JoAnns. So those of you who often shop there, maybe you can even feel a little better about some of those purchases!

danade

I'm extremely lucky and I know it (raised up poor but OK financially now) and can pretty much choose to buy my fabrics and supplies at a LQS or at JoAnn or Hancock. However, I do quilts for a charity that continues to ask for more and more blankets, and it's hard to afford to buy all the fabric and batting and other supplies to produce the most quilts possible and needed. So I do tend to shop at JoAnn or Hancock to get the very most for my money so I can help out with making as many quilts as I possibly can for kids without worrying too much about the outlay (and I do shop with coupons!)

I also might add that a good friend of mine, a fabulously talented quilter, stopped shopping at our most prominent local quilt shop because of their incredibly unwelcoming attitude and indifference to their customers generally, and which is well known to locals as unpleasant place to shop because of these things. And if this particular shop goes out of business, then good riddance. She now shops pretty much exclusively at JoAnn and Hancock both of which have great service and sales in our city. So I don't think that every LQS ipso facto deserves loyalty or extra support just because they exist.

Also, is it JJ's post that is supposedly political? I went back and looked at it and couldn't see much that could be called political. ???

Dana

justflyingin

I didn't see any politics in the original post that people complained about. All she said was that things were going up and that the seniors didn't get any increase. I didn't see anything about any specific group. I don't think it was "politics" anymore than any of this is...

Gabrielle's Mimi

It was JJ's comment on page 1 about "odumdum" saying no COLA this year (a reference we believed to be about Obama) that concerned several of us. IMHO, comments ought to be nonpolitical and respectful. I, too, am retired, and naturally concerned about finances. But let's keep it fun and about quilting.

alaskasunshine

I am so grateful to be raised in America, where my freedom to speak up is expected. My mother grew up in Nuremberg Germany. She was told "KEEP your mouth shut or we'll take you too". The SS referred to the gas chambers. Where 3 of her uncles were taken in the middle of the night. So I feel quite differently when others don't feel others should have any opinion at all. My mom was incerdibly gifted in crewel, knitting, crocheting and she cooked delicious German food. I miss her terribly and she was very frugal. Had she learned to quilt she would have been a master. Of that I am so certain.
She Taught me to save and use what you have and to share. She had yarn like I have fabric, lots of it. She wouldn't be at all concerned with price hikes she would simply use what she had. If something was torn or got a hole in it she repaired it. I learned a lot from a mom that grew up in very difficult circumstances.
Chin up everyone share what you have and be grateful. And thanks for the heads up on the price hike! :D

Red

Here's another " fixed income " quilter...Just received our GM notice about money for January..After losing around $200 a month last year to them we are losing another almost $70 starting now. There goes the quilting money, but do you think anyone in DC cares?? Not on your life.

Red

Easier said than done anymore...Hard to not put the politics in when that's all you hear about.