Treadle Yard Goods in St. Paul closes after 49 years as owner faces cancer
Treadle Yard Goods on St. Paul's Grand Avenue has closed as the shop's owner focuses on battling cancer.
Saturday marked the end of the beloved sewing shop's 49-year run, with owner Michele Hoaglund announcing the closure Sunday.
"All good things come to an end, and it's time to say goodbye," she wrote. "My battle against cancer has taken much more time and energy than I anticipated. My focus must be on my health and getting well."
Mary and Paul Daley opened Treadle Yard Goods in 1976.
Hoaglund began working at the shop in 1994, teaching many of the sewing classes that established the business as a hub for sewing enthusiasts and beginners alike. She took over ownership from founder Mary Daley in 2015.
"People run into each other here who haven't seen each other in years, but they were best friends in another life," Hoaglund said in a blog post from 2017. "We share our joys and sorrows. It's a gift Mary created. We will always carry beautiful fabrics, but we are focused on community."
The knowledgeable employees, sometimes known to customers as the Treadlettes, helped customers shop for fabric and patterns, fix sewing machines and more.
"I have enjoyed getting to know so many of you over the years and loved seeing and hearing about your sewing projects," Hoaglund wrote. "I am especially grateful to work with the lovely Treadlettes!"
"Please continue to enjoy what the local sewing community continues to offer in beautiful fabrics and classes," she continued. "I am sure Sew Inviting, Sewing Lounge, Lakes Makerie, and Knit & Bolt have many goodies for your next project."
The announcement on Facebook was met with an outpouring of appreciation and support from customers.
One student, Susan Marsnik, described Hoaglund as a "remarkable and inspirational teacher".
"When I needed inspiration, purpose even, your shop was my therapy," wrote Ann Piepel. "There was nothing like it."
This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Coca-Cola, Amazon, Google, And Nvidia Have Used This Startup's AI Avatars — Inside Jeff Lu's $40M Rise To America's Fastest-Growing Company
In the same Palo Alto, California, building where Mark Zuckerberg grew Facebook in 2005, Jeff Lu now leads Akool, the generative AI platform that has created lifelike avatars for Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Google, and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). The company ranks No. 1 on this year's Inc. 5000 list, Inc. reports. From Microsoft Intern to $40M AI Founder: How Jeff Lu Built One of America's Fastest-Growing Company Lu, 35, began his career as a Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) intern before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. Inc. says he later joined Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to work on Face ID technology for the iPhone, then moved to Google Cloud to focus on video processing services before leaving in 2020 due to what he described as restrictive policies on generative AI at the time. Don't Miss: The same firms that backed Uber, Venmo and eBay are investing in this pre-IPO company disrupting a $1.8T market — Bill Gates Warned About Water Scarcity. Lu launched Akool as a side project, generating just over $100,000 in revenue in its second year and quickly building a 10-person team. Using eight graphics processing units, the startup trained specialized AI video "human models" in weeks, enabling the creation of digital avatars from photos, videos, or fully AI-generated characters, Inc. reports. How a Coca-Cola League of Legends Campaign Catapulted Akool Into Global Marketing Fame Akool's breakthrough came in early 2023 when it secured a project for Coca-Cola through a marketing agency that had benchmarked its technology against other tools on the market. Inc. says Coca-Cola selected Akool for a campaign promoting Coca-Cola Ultimate, a product collaboration with the video game League of Legends. The campaign used Akool's AI face-swapping technology to let users place their faces onto the main character in a promotional video by uploading a selfie. It ran for six months in more than 80 countries and generated several million face swaps, Inc. reports. Trending: Kevin O'Leary Says Real Estate's Been a Smart Bet for 200 Years — Akool turned the project into a case study and used it in an email campaign targeting marketing agencies, which Inc. says helped the startup gain new business through word-of-mouth in the industry. Streaming Avatars and AI Video Translation Push Akool's Revenue In 2024, Inc. says Akool launched two high-demand features: a streaming avatar capable of real-time conversation and a video translation tool that converts videos into other languages while syncing mouth movements to the translated audio. According to Inc., the video translation tool accounts for about 30% of company revenue, while streaming avatars generate roughly half of business-to-business sales. The company partnered with Amazon Web Services, Google, and Nvidia to showcase these capabilities in technology demonstrations at their conferences and developed retail-focused avatars for companies in Asia to interact with shoppers, Inc. Akool's Live Video AI Technology That Rivals Google, OpenAI, and Adobe By 2025, Inc. reports that Akool's revenue had reached $40 million, supported by a hybrid workforce of around 100 employees, two-thirds of whom are in engineering and a third on the business side, with about half working in the office. The company's live video tools enable real-time speech translation during meetings and can replace a person's body with a responsive avatar that follows their movements. Lu told Inc. that Akool's live video expertise is ahead of competitors such as Google, OpenAI, and Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE), although the market remains highly competitive. With strong cash flow, Inc. says Akool plans to build larger AI models, including its own video foundation and voice-generation systems, with the goal of making avatar-generated videos indistinguishable from real life. Read Next: These five entrepreneurs are worth $223 billion – Image: Shutterstock Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Coca-Cola, Amazon, Google, And Nvidia Have Used This Startup's AI Avatars — Inside Jeff Lu's $40M Rise To America's Fastest-Growing Company originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.


Chicago Tribune
6 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Caring for the homeless a stressful job that needs all our attention
Attitudes toward the homeless population make Joe Jackson sick. As executive director of Hesed House, Aurora's homeless shelter, he not only has a front row seat to the growing problem – locally and across the nation – Jackson is well aware of the misinformation and lack of empathy so many people have toward this vulnerable population. But it was while watching President Donald Trump on television Monday declare he was moving all homeless people out of our nation's capital that Jackson suddenly became sick — literally. As the president delivered the White House briefing, Jackson's right arm started getting numb. Within a few minutes, his entire right side, including his face, tongue and legs followed. A call to wife Tricia, who is a nurse practitioner, informed him he needed to get to an emergency room as he could be having a stroke. On the way to Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora – yes, he drove himself, not a good thing – Jackson became more alarmed when, at a red light, he gave himself a quick stroke screening test – he placed both arms out in front and noticed the right arm drift downward. 'That's when I finally realized,' Jackson told me, 'I'm really glad I'm going' to the hospital. Fortunately, testing, which included a CT scan and MRI, ruled out that Jackson had suffered a stroke. And after two days 'of getting poked and prodded' at the hospital, he was sent home with baby aspirin and an appointment with his primary doctor, who advised that counseling would help him figure out ways to deal with the anxiety that brought on this stress-induced episode. The problem is, Jackson takes his job to heart. As he was lying in the hospital dealing with his own health problems, the Hesed House leader posted a compelling Facebook plea that paints a bleak picture of what is happening to the population he's dedicated his career to serving. Declaring that 'I've learned the hard way' how dangerous stress is, he put the focus on record-high homeless numbers, including among families. He pointed to shelters being full across the country, and how funding is running out for offsite hotels for families, which have seen numbers double in a year. He pointed to how the crisis in affordable housing continues to be 'ignored or pushed aside,' and how budgets are eliminating funding for critical social services, which are the safety nets that, among other things, provide desperately needed mental and behavioral health services. Jackson, who himself was on his own at age 18 and couch surfing, deals with these issues both internally and externally each and every day. Which, no doubt, landed him in the hospital. Still, his concern remained on those far more at risk. 'This stress is nothing compared to what people experiencing homelessness or on the brink of losing their homes are going through,' Jackson pointed out in his Facebook post. 'With shelters full, where do I sleep tonight? Where will my next meal come from? Do I pay my sky-high electric bill or let it go to collections so I can put gas in my car this week?' How, he asked, 'do I break it to the kids' all they can take when we leave our home must fit in a duffel bag? 'The need has outpaced the capacity for years and it is getting worse by the minute,' Jackson wrote, a statement that is reflected in a recent report by the Kane County Continuum of Care that highlighted 'urgent housing needs' in our communities. Key findings from this group of nearly 30 local agencies collaborating to tackle the problem noted over 1,700 people experienced homelessness in the county in 2024, with seniors, those with disabilities and families dealing with domestic violence facing significant barriers. And the report declared 'an urgent need for more permanent supportive housing, expanded emergency shelter capacity, increased access to mental and behavioral health services for those experiencing homelessness and workforce development.' Homelessness, of course, is not a new issue here or anywhere else in the country. But what's different now, Jackson told me after he was back at work following his health scare, is that the 'level' and 'the complexity' of the need 'has grown exponentially.' And what's not grown, he quickly added, is 'the public level of education and empathy toward the problem.' It seems more than ever people believe homeless people 'just need to get a job, pull themselves up by their bootstraps,' Jackson continued. 'And most are not taking into account how incredibly traumatic this all is, or how deep the barriers are these days with few resources out there to help.' And it's not just housing, he insisted. 'People are starting to see it is a problem just to get in for an initial psychiatric appointment. With Medicaid, it takes six months-plus for the initial counsel … that's if you can get in at all,' Jackson said. 'And every day not on meds you get worse and worse.' Jackson describes homeless shelters and other social service agencies as 'the safety net for every crack in society.' But the problem, he continued, 'is we are not equipped to be at this level of service … no one is.' It is 'all that together,' he admitted when we spoke, 'that is becoming overwhelming.' And so, as good as Jackson is at verbalizing the problem, this panic attack that landed him in the hospital means he needs to figure out a better way to internalize all he sees, all he deals with. On his Facebook post from a hospital bed and in this conversation with me back at work on Friday, he wants people to know he's OK. But rather than send good wishes or lasagna, his wish is that you contact your elected officials and ask what they are doing to resolve the affordable housing crisis. He asks that you support (donate, volunteer) local shelters and social service groups, which are 'drowning with the overwhelming need' that is out there right now. And he asks that you recognize and reinforce the humanity in the people experiencing homelessness. 'I am worrying about them,' he said of the residents of Hesed House. 'But they are worrying about their survival.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
A former consultant built a 7-figure Amazon business selling septic pods. He explains why sellers should avoid 'sexy, fad-driven products.'
Alex Yale spent years in the corporate world before launching a cleaning brand, Uncle Todd's. He listed his first product, septic pods, on Amazon, and then focused on getting into retail stores. He says he believes in building businesses around everyday products that solve problems. Alex Yale does more than $1 million in annual revenue selling septic pods and other cleaning products. A winding career path that began in consulting at Deloitte, featured years at Facebook, and included a stint at Amazon aggregator Thrasio, a unicorn-turned-cautionary tale, eventually landed him in the business of cleaning products. At Thrasio, Yale managed a pet odor eliminator brand called Angry Orange. Once it was clear that Thrasio's rocketship trajectory had stalled, Yale left in March 2023, confident that he had the skillset and network to launch a business of his own. "The first thing I did was sit down with these suppliers that I had built a really good relationship with over time, who were supplying the Angry Orange products," Yale told Business Insider. He was particularly interested in the products that used bacteria and enzymes to clean stains, and wondered what other applications there were. "I just did a bunch of research to understand what types of consumer products I could actually adapt or develop with these enzymes and bacteria in mind, and then looked on Amazon to see what companies were doing it already and could I do it better, cheaper, or in my opinion with better packaging?" The first product he launched under his brand, Uncle Todd's, was a package of 12 septic pods. He started on Amazon, which is "the place where I can launch a product the fastest and with the least amount of friction," he explained. But his intention all along was to get his product in retail stores. "My focus is really to build a much larger consumer product brand, and Amazon is just a small piece of that puzzle," he said. "A lot of consumable and cleaning products in my category are still purchased in Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc., and so I think it'd be shortsighted just to look at the opportunity size from a digital, Amazon-type of marketplace." Building a seven-figure business selling everyday products Yale's decision to sell septic pods and other cleaning products was influenced by many factors. One was his connections in the space. He also wanted to sell a consumable product. "Selling a one-time product that you can't get repeat purchases on is really difficult," he explained. "My hope is that if somebody buys it once, that in six months or 12 months they're going to come back and buy it again, and I don't have to keep acquiring that customer every single time." Another factor was the total addressable market. Yale used software tools like Helium 10 and JungleScout to confirm that there was strong demand for his type of product online. But a less obvious component of his product selection strategy is leaning into everyday, borderline boring items. "Sexy, fad-driven products — products that have any kind of risk of technological obsolescence, like in six months there will be a faster, cheaper, lighter, better version — they're sort of flash in the pan," he said. "If you hit it right, you can grow your brand and expand it really quickly and grow sales, but they burn hot, they burn bright, and they burn out." He's playing the long game by selling products that solve problems. "If you start a brand and you're chasing a fad, you might have a couple of great years, but over time, your sales are going to slide with the fad," he said. "So, if you're looking for a medium- or long-term exit from a brand, you might make some quick money, but there's not going to be a lot of equity that you're building into a brand if the sales start to decline after 12, 18, 24 months. I'm trying to build a brand that will be worth quite a bit and have some staying power, and I feel like you do that by solving everyday problems with everyday consumers." Yale did seven figures in Amazon sales alone between July 2024 and July 2025, according to a screenshot of Uncle Todd's sales dashboard viewed by BI. His products are in more than 3,000 retail stores, including Walmart, Home Depot, and Piggly Wiggly. He also runs a second Amazon brand, Flip-It! Cap, which he acquired in October 2023. It's more than just product selection that has contributed to his business success. "I think at the end of the day, the most important thing is selling a good product at a good price point," he said. "A lot of e-comm entrepreneurs think so much is in the marketing and the advertising and the brand aesthetic that they forget about the core product performance — they almost overlook the quality of the product." If your product doesn't work, it won't last, no matter how many viral videos you create, said Yale: "You might hit it big on TikTok and see a whole bunch of sales, but then when people realize the product doesn't actually work or it doesn't solve a problem or it doesn't have the efficacy they're looking for, you're going to be as dead as quickly as you came alive." Read the original article on Business Insider