Beloved SLO County fabric store is closing after 56 years
Quilters, seamstresses and knitters are among those mourning the recent news that their beloved 56-year-old store, The Cotton Ball in Morro Bay, will close forever on this month.
For now, the store’s owners are offering a 30% discount on all retail items, according to their Facebook and Instagram pages, and their open hours will vary as needed. The closure date is set for Aug. 25.
The Cotton Ball is located somewhat off the beaten path at 2830 Main St., north of San Joaquin Street in North Morro Bay.
Longtime customer Gail (who didn’t want her last name published) went to the store recently “just to buy a couple of snaps. I was devastated to learn that the store is closing,” she told The Tribune.
Despite already having a closet full of fabrics waiting to be used, she said, “I came away with a batch of really beautiful, colorful and joyful materials which inspire me to create.”
Among her purchases were limited edition, custom batik fabrics with Morro Bay-oriented motifs. They were designed by store co-owner Alison Virge.
But there’s hope for fans of The Cotton Ball and the Bali-made batik fabrics, Virge said Thursday.
Her sister and store co-owner Lori Stollmeyer is taking them online, and is designing the new website thecottonball.com, which should go live within a month or so.
That’s good news for the more than 60 people Virge already has signed up on an email notification list for when the next order is due in from Bali, now expected in September.
Those specialty fabrics are among the things that have made The Cotton Ball’s brick-and-mortar store so unique and kept them going during an apparent nationwide downturn in the fabric/sewing industry.
Among their aces in the hole have been their decade-long emphasis on quilting and “the customer-service level we offer,” Virge said.
They’re there to support their customers, not just to sell to them, she said.
“We help them get their quilts together, offer help with binding, backing, borders and designing a quilt,” she said.
Home-sewing trends are changing
The decline in home sewing popularity has been noted repeatedly in industry and other media.
For instance, Joann Fabrics was set to close all of its remaining stores by the end of May after filing for bankruptcy twice in a year, according to USA Today and the Akron Beacon Journal. The company, which sold to a liquidator, had already closed over 250 stores in April.
Also, “the legacy sewing-pattern brands Simplicity, Butterick, McCalls, and Vogue, commonly referred to as the Big 4, have been sold to a liquidator,” according to Craft Industry Alliance.
The Cotton Ball has a long history in Morro Bay
Lori Stollmeyer has owned The Cotton Ball since she bought it in 2012 from Judi Appell, who had bought it from founder Debbie Linker. She opened the store in 1969.
Soon after the sale, Stollmeyer’s sister Virge moved with her 10-month-old son from Tennessee to be a partner and learn the business.
She’s now the store manager.
Her son, Jeremiah Henderson, was raised in the shop, Virge said.
“Customers remember that he’d nap upstairs. Then when he was a little older, he’d come here after school to sweep and vacuum,” she said.
There was precedent for that, she said. “The same thing happened with Judi’s son Rob Appell.”
But the heart of The Cotton Ball’s business for about 35 years has been Becky Rogers, a color and quilting expert who led Cotton Ball classes for decades and is now a certified quilt appraiser.
Good news for her fans: “Becky will continue to teach classes through the Morro Bay Community Center,” Virge said.
The sisters and Rogers began to specialize in quilting fabrics, supplies and instruction in 2015 when they moved from The Cotton Ball’s second location (1199 Main St., on the hill at Surf Street) to the present North Main Street site.
For decades before that, the store was downtown at 475 Morro Bay Blvd., across from the Bay Theater.
Now, The Cotton Ball’s in-store era is coming to an end in Morro Bay. Customers can still find fabrics in some specialty and mega stores and online, but it’s not the same, customer Gail said.
For details, check The Cotton Ball’s Facebook and Instagram pages or call 805-772-2646. And keep checking for the newly reconfigured website.
This story was originally published August 9, 2025 at 12:00 PM.
