New Enfield Fabric Shop Aims to Fill Void Left by JoAnn’s Closing

ENFIELD — Becca Finnegan had spent years thinking about opening a fabric shop, but it wasn’t until JoAnn Fabrics announced it was closing last winter that she really put her long-held dream into motion.

Finnegan, now 48, was working at JoAnn’s West Lebanon location when the national chain announced in winter 2025 that it was declaring bankruptcy and closing locations around the country. Finnegan was at the West Lebanon shop until the day it closed, April 22, 2025.

“If JoAnn’s wasn’t going to close, I don’t think I would have had the courage to say, ‘I’m going to open my own fabric store’,” Finnegan said in an interview from Common Threads, her new shop at 78 Main St. in downtown Enfield, which had a soft opening scheduled this weekend.

Becca Finnegan, owner of Common Threads, a new fabric store in Enfield, N.H., pins upholstery samples at the shop on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. The shop in downtown Enfield has a "soft opening" on Saturday, May 2.  (Jennifer Hauck/Valley News)

---

“I felt a deep loss for the community,” Finnegan, of Lebanon, said of JoAnn’s closing. Frequent JoAnn’s customers expressed a similar sentiment to the Valley News at the time, and took to social media expressing their disappointment.

Finnegan started working at JoAnn’s in November 2023 after she got back into sewing during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic when her daughter, now 16, decided she wanted to learn.

She was inspired to apply for the JoAnn’s job by the help she received from employees.

“It opened me up to this whole other community,” Finnegan said about the conversations she’d have with customers about the quilts and Halloween costumes they were planning to make.

The customers’ delight in their creations was something she shared. As a teenager and young adult, Finnegan, who grew up in various Upper Valley towns and graduated from Kimball Union Academy, enjoyed making handsewn individualized blankets for loved ones out of scraps of material she’d collected, which she referred to as “a talisman of love.”

After JoAnn’s announced it was closing, Finnegan began to research starting her own shop.

Finnegan is no stranger to running a business. She ran C. Beston and Company, a home furnishings retail store that offered interior design services, with her mother for 11 years in downtown Hanover until it closed in 2015. Afterward, she worked as an independent interior designer for a few years while her children were young.

She initially viewed commercial spaces in Lebanon, but nothing clicked within a few months, so she put the plans on hold and, in August, went to work at Frank’s Bargain Center, a fabric shop in Charlestown.

But, last fall, she saw a listing for commercial real estate properties in Enfield and connected with town officials, including Rob Taylor, Enfield’s land use and community development administrator, who were eager to help her find a place for her business. It was Taylor who suggested Finnegan reach out to Kim Quirk, who owns 78 Main St., a three-story building located near George’s AG Super Value.

Quirk, who lives on the upper two floors, purchased the building in 2009 and operated her former green energy business, Energy Emporium, on the first floor for around a decade before selling it to ReVision Energy, which stayed in the space until the end of 2024 before relocating to Route 4 in Enfield.

Quirk wasn’t sure what she was going to do with the vacant space and wasn’t actively seeking to rent it out when she and Finnegan connected in November.

 

Bolts of fabric line the shelves at Common Threads, a new fabric store in Enfield.  (Jennifer Hauck/Valley News)

---

The first time she viewed the 1,000-square-foot space with Quirk, Finnegan knew it was where she wanted to open her store. She liked the other new businesses that were getting established in downtown Enfield, including Carpenter’s Cup Coffee and Hoptimystic Brewing, both of which opened last summer.

“I said yes to … not just this space, but to the town,” she said.

For her part, Quirk was intrigued by Finnegan’s proposal and thought it would be a boost for downtown Enfield.

“Becca’s not trying to create the box store,” Quirk, a sewer herself, said. She was impressed by Finnegan’s knowledge and plans for offering a curated selection of fabrics. “I think it’s a great way to bring people to Enfield.”

Finnegan’s focus is on natural fibers, including cottons and linen. She will carry a variety of quilting and apparel fabric, as well as “fat quarters” which are pre-cut fabric squares used for quilting, and sewing machine needles, elastic, thread and other so-called “notions” that people need for sewing. Fabric prices will begin at around $10 per yard.

Finnegan is putting an emphasis on offering fabric from independent textile designers such as Little House Cottons, which is located in upstate New York and will retail at around $17 per yard. She’s also making it a point to carry items that are accessible to people of all experience levels, including animal-themed pillow kits that are directed at beginners.

It’s that ethos that Lisa Brahms, executive director at CraftStudies, a White River Junction-based nonprofit organization that offers classes, resonates with other makers.

“I think it’s something the Upper Valley really needs,” Brahms said in a Wednesday phone interview.

While makers can go to Frank’s in Charlestown and can purchase fabric at nonprofit organizations including rePlay Arts, a nonprofit organization that shares a building with CraftStudies, there really aren’t any other options for new fabric in the core of the Upper Valley.

Since CraftStudies moved to White River Junction in 2022, the organization has seen an increase in demand for sewing classes. While people can shop online for fabric, makers still like to shop in person.

“Fabric is something you want to touch and experience firsthand,” Brahms said.

After May 12, Finnegan is planning on opening Common Threads from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays throughout the summer and will reevaluate hours in the fall. She also plans to offer classes and workshops for people of all ability levels as the business gets up and running.

 

Common Threads, a new fabric store, is set to open with a soft opening on Saturday, May 2, in Enfield. (Jennifer Hauck/Valley News)

---

“There is something sacred that happens when you decide to be creative. You are fully present to that experience,” Finnegan said, adding that she wants Common Threads to be a place that helps people do that. “If they’re having a hard day, they can come in, and … leave a little bit lighter, a little bit happier.”