A good haul Victoria you will be set up for some time for fabric now. Any plans for any of it.

Sally

Ah, good old Michael's. It doesn't matter if I have five or fifty colors of DMC on my list, they will always be out of three. It's everything I can do to keep a straight face when they ask, "Did you find everything you were looking for?" I told the truth once to no avail so now I lie and say, "Yes." It's just easier. The thing is, they are the closest to my house and the cheapest, so I always go there first. Some day my shipment will come in.

The closest on is about a 25min highway drive away which wouldn't be a problem if I had a car. I'm stuck waiting until I rent or a friend is feeling crafty. The one I go to where I got to know the manager (hence I know when they are doing their $2 grab bags) is closer to 40mins away.



The two evenweaves will go towards HAEDs and probably the 32ct Linen. The rest of the Aida will probably go into a drawer until I find a need for them. The rest like the placemats will become gifts. I have to hit the other Micheal's to see if they have anymore of the placemats. I need 6 total.

Judging by the fact they always seem to have low, and messy cross stitch supplies, Michaels appears to be forever in "clearance mode."

It seems to me that their other sections in the store are always carefully maintained and well supplied. The cross stitch section is, by comparison, understocked and ignored.
Also, (in the Michael stores I know) the section is shoved in the back corner of the store - "out of the way." I get the impression they could care less about cross stitch.
But, I suppose, in general, the interest in the craft has waned and that is why it's like that.

They should log onto this forum!

I have the opposite here.. My Michaels always has their floss well kept and in stock.. AC Moore seems to go months before stocking their floss
Faith

I think it all depends on the store manager or maybe these are franchises? The difference from store to store is significant. I do agree that the other craft areas are much better stocked (I've wandered around a bit) and maintained at my Michael's and I've never seen placemat or even bookmark or towel fabrics there. But I have come to rely on them for floss and this unstocking of DMC floss is disturbing.

Carole

I agree that it seems that it varies by store. Like some saying their Joanne's is better, while here Michaels is better. Someone mentioned Hobby Lobby as a good place for cross stitch. I went to the nearby Hobby Lobby and they had NOTHING of cross stitch.

Michaels here has a HUGE section on Scrapbooking, their frames, and most of the rest of the store is decorative products, boxes, baskets, artificial flowers, etc. All the other craft sections seem to be rather small in comparison, the needlepoint ones being the smallest, I guess. But still, I'm happy with what I find at the Michaels here, and with the price.

Maybe next time I go there I'll sneak in a picture of the cross stitch section, for comparison.

Thanks so much for mentioning the clearance you found! I decided to go this morning to see if I would have any luck, and I did manage to find some stuff.

Here's some material I got (the prices were great!)



Here's a cross stitch pattern book I bought:



And these thread sets were only 2.49 each! (There's 25 skeins to a pack):



I wish I'd had more money, as I would have stocked up on the material, but at least I was able to get what I could. They must be clearancing some stuff at different times, because I bought some of the handtowels about 3 weeks ago for 1.99, and they were the only things on clearance at the time.

Mine didn't have the thread packs on clearance. Now I'm going to go back at the end of the week and see if they have them.

Oh boy, I might have to go this weekend and see if they have a clearance going here.

Nice haul!!

The Michael's closest to me here in Omaha, Nebraska sucks when it comes to cross stitch supplies. Zero kits, zero leaflets. I couldn't even find the cardboard floss organizers there. I went there on Saturday to get thread I needed for the HAED I'm starting, and luckily they were only out of a couple colors. I was able to find them at Hobby Lobby, along with the floss organizers.

Mine also had the packages of dmc variations on clearance for 8.99, but I didn't get any since I hardly ever use them. Here's what the packages looked like (there were 3 different box colors though):
http://www.amazon.com/DMC-Color-Variations-Floss-Pack/dp/B001CE3CGC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1327945749&sr=8-3" target="_blank

My Michaels has almost no kits (which I don't do much of anyway), just some of the really small Dimensions kits, like for coasters etc, no charts or books at all and almost no DMC packs. I think they carry some with the light effects skeins. They also have floss packs of Prism Threads, which I think are for other types of needlework crafts and brackelets and things like that. They have DMC needles and some hoops and some accessories but very few. In the sewing area you can find some things also but not much. It just opened last year and I have been both a little bit pleased but mostly disappointed. Just found out that the local LNS I keep saying I have to go to also does framing so I will be there for sure once my mini is ready to see what they have to say, plus to check out the fabrics for my next few projects. 123 Stitch so far is the most convenient store for me. Once I learn more about fabrics and threads I know I will be going there most.

Carole

Question... was the clearance stuff in the cross stitch section, or a separate clearance section?

Like Carole, I use 123 stitch for most of my supplies, except for thread ($0.44 on 123 stitch and $0.35 on Michaels) which I always go first to Michaels and then buy whatever colors I can't find there on 123 stitch.

At mine it was in the cross stitch section.

Mine was in the cross stitch section as well.

It's good to know that not all Michaels are a dead loss when it comes to cross stitch supplies.
I have visited five of their stores in the cities we go to at random times, and they have all been the same way in regards to their cross stitch sections. I guess that's why I'm so disillusioned. Knowing that some do have decent supplies is heartening!

Talked to the manager again since most of the DMC stuff is what's on clearance and he said DMC is going to be changing their packaging so corporate is trying to clear out the soon to be old DMC packaging and their taking advantage to clear out the stuff not selling.
I was told to look back at the end of spring for grab bags featuring whatever clearance didn't sale.

I also found some more hand towels and only one thread pack at another Michael's.

I will be going to Michael's tomorrow. Ou.r local Hobby Lobby has a lot of stuff, good prices, and great coupons and sales. Of course I am a newbie, so what looks like a lot may actually not be a lot! . They are also building a JoAnne's nearby...which will be a first for us.

christine