Progress?

Our first shipment of fabric has arrived! It arrived sooner than we had hoped as we do not have the building ready yet. This will be a big work weekend for us as we try to finish the walls, make ceiling repairs and prep the floor so that the carpet can be laid next week. The internet was installed today and the telephone will be installed on Monday. Hopefully the electrical will be finished at the beginning of the week also. Slowly, but surely, we are making progress!

Windshield Time

One benefit of driving all the way to Houston for quilt market was that we had plenty of time to make plans for the quilt shop. We determined our shop hours....

Mondays: 12 - 8 p.m.

Tuesdays - Fridays: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Saturdays: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

We also set our opening and grand opening dates....

Thursday, January 1, 2009: Opening Day - "Football Widows Event" - 1 - 5 p.m.

Saturday & Sunday, Jan. 31 & Feb. 1: Grand Opening

We also began planning some of our classes and programs....

• Block of the Month featuring the Square in
  the Square technique: Second Saturday mornings and following Monday evenings
  beginning in February
• Breakfast Club: Fourth Saturdays beginning
  in January from 8-10 a.m. (each month you'll get instructions for a new
  project)
• PIGS (Projects in Grocery Sacks): Every 1st
  & 3rd Thursday, bring in your PIGS and work on them with friends
• Kansas Troubles: A quarterly project program beginning in March

We also planned some single classes, such as paper piecing, handbag classes, beginning quilting classes, etc. You'll be able to sign up for these classes beginning in January when we open, so clear your calendars girls!

Name Dropping

We had a great time at quilt market. One of the most fun things was seeing and meeting all the 'famous' quilters in the industry. Some of the people we met or saw include Eleanor Burns, Jodi Barrows, Nancy Zieman (Nancy's Notions), Ricky Tims, Robin Pandolph, Lynn Hagameier (Kansas Troubles), Rachel Pellman, Marti Michelle, Jinny Byers....just to name a few.

Jodi Barrows demonstrates her 'Square in a Square' technique. We'll feature this technique in our first Block of the Month program beginning the first Saturday in February!

The Prairie Flower Quilt Co. crew poses with Lynn Hagemeier of Kansas Troubles Quilters. We'll kick off our Kansas Troubles quarterly quilt program in March.

P.S. Be sure to go back and visit our previous posts about quilt market - we've added photos!

Proud Owners

Second day of market found us going back to the booths we were interested in.......including the Gammill booth. We are soooo excited, we purchased a Statler Stitcher for the shop! It will arrive mid-December and the sales rep will train us sometime in January. Soon, we'll be able to provide machine quilting services for our customers at the shop.

Home Again, Home Again.....

.....jiggady, jig. We left bright and early this morning at 6:30 & made it home this evening at 10 p.m. We had a great time at market and came home with lots of ideas, but we are tired. We'll tell you more tomorrow and share some of our pictures. For now, though, it's time to hit the hay!

Our luggage loaded with market finds!

OMG.......Day 2

OMG......our feet hurt! Today was the first day of the actual trade show at quilt market. We started off the day taking another class, we each took a different one. Then, the rest of the day was spent at the trade show. We walked and walked and walked - and we're only half way through the vendors! We saw several pattern designers and companies from Kansas - who knew there were so many! We picked up lots of vendor information and tonight we're going to go through what we have and decide if we want to go back and order anything. Tomorrow we'll have to go faster than we did today or we won't make it through the whole show. When the market closed, one of our sales reps and the owner of the company took us out for supper. Food was good, but the restaurant was so noisy we could hardly hear each other.

The highlight of the day (for Sharla) was we met "Moda Home Mom" in the Moda booth. She's the one who talked about our wordle quilt on her blog which resulted in all the visitors to our site (yesterday we had a visitor from Tel Aviv, Israel!) Here's Sharla & Angela....

We have one more day of market, then we'll head for home on Monday.

A Fat Quarter is NOT a Body Part!

Today was the first day of quilt market for us. The day was packed full of classes - we each took 16-17 different 30 minute classes. We saw lots of beautiful quilts and lots of ideas for classes and fun kit ideas. So many ideas, too little time! Then tonight we went to Sampler Spree. People started lining up at 4 p.m. to get into the event at 8 p.m. I guess the hot item that everyone races to is the Moda booth to buy the jelly rolls, fat quarter bundles, etc of the new fabrics so they can go home to make their shop samples. If you buy something, then you get a free Moda bag. Of course we had to do that! So we each have new Moda bags to tote our quilts in. We also bought t-shirts for all of us to wear for the grand opening of the shop. We think the saying is a hoot - "A Fat Quarter is NOT a Body Part". We also bought a little something for our hubbies who are home working on our shop....koozies that say "My Wife Quilts Therefore I'm BROKE".

After Sample Spree, Belinda, Deb, Marilyn and Janet couldn't resist peeking in the windows at the market show area.

Sharla, Marilyn, Belinda, Deb and Janet sporting their t-shirts!

Greetings From Houston!

We made it! Deb, Marilyn, Janet and Sharla left yesterday afternoon for quilt market in Houston. We picked up Belinda near Lyons on her way home from KSU Extension Update in Manhattan. We drove to Denton, Texas last night, arriving around 10 p.m. Today we were up and on the road by 7 a.m. so we could get to the Moda warehouse in Dallas early to shop! We got lots of fun fabric (114 more bolts to add to what we bought a couple of weeks ago) and can't wait to get home to start making shop samples.

Shopping @ Moda

We are most excited about the 'cheater' fabric (fabric already pieced in a crazy quilt pattern) that is in the same color scheme as we are painting the shop. We're going to make table squares for our coffee tables with it. We also bought a couple of coordinating bolts of fabric to make valances for the windows and tablecloths for under the table squares.

Our shopping carts loaded!

Tomorrow our day is packed. We start classes at 8 a.m. and have classes scheduled solid until 8 p.m. We have both fun classes (Schoolhouse Series which is 6 hours of mini classes of new techniques and gadgets) and business classes (anything from how to package fabrics to developing shop procedures). Then from 8-10 p.m. is Sample Spree. We're not really sure what all is available at the spree, but we've found pictures on the internet of women loaded down with goodies for their shops.

It's been a fun, but long, day and now we're in our hotel rooms winding down. If we're not totally exhausted, we'll tell you all about our first day at market tomorrow night!

To market, To market

It's finally here! Today we load up the van and head out for quilt market in Houston. We're stopping in Dallas on Thursday to shop the Moda warehouse on our way to market. Friday, we'll take in all the classes they have to offer and attend Sample Spree on Friday evening. We've heard different (conflicting) stories about what exactly happens at Sample Spree so we're excited to see what it really is. We're hoping we to get shop samples and items for door prizes for our grand opening. Saturday and Sunday mornings we are each scheduled to take one class, but the bulk of the day will be spent visiting sales reps and wholesaler booths at market. Then we load up the car and drive all the way home - 16 hours - on Monday. We should have lots of car bonding time to iron out the details of classes, hours, etc for the shop. When we get back, we'll fill you in on all the details!

Cute Jewelry

Recently, we found the cutest jewelry made from old buttons and old quilts. We purchased one of each - wouldn't it be fun to find someone to make them for the shop! The ring is made from two buttons stacked and then wired together with jewelry wire, which also forms the ring. The pendant is a piece of an old crazy quilt sandwiched between two pieces of glass, then the edges are finished with silver metal.

Give Us Your Ideas!!!

In one week, Prairie Flower Quilt Co. goes to market & we still haven't heard from you! Let us know what you'd like for us to carry in the store....what are your favorite fabrics, colors, designers, patterns, notions? Either comment on this blog or email us at prairieflowerquilts@yahoo.com. We want to be your quilt shop!

Wordle Quilt/Blog Travels The World!

Our blog is a world traveler! On Sunday, Angela of ModaHomeMom blogged about our Wordle quilt featured in a previous post on this site. Since Angela works for Moda, she has a huge following for her blog which has brought many visitors to this blog. In the past two days, we have had people from 31 states and 4 countries visit our blog! What fun!!!

Since our blog's stat counter wouldn't let me post the map showing the locations of all of our visitors, I'll list them....Colorado, Nebraska, Utah, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Idaho, North Carolina, Montana, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Washington, Texas, California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Georgia, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hawaii, Louisiana, Alabama, Nevada, Wisconsin, Missouri and, of course, Kansas. We've also had visitors from the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Canada.

So our visitors don't have to search for our Wordle blog, here again is the picture of our Wordle mini-quilt.

Sold!

Economic Development held their sealed bid sale yesterday to sell the restaurant equipment and arcade games that were in the building. The biggest fear was that no one would bid on the items and then we'd have to figure out what to do with them. Luckily, all but two small items received bids! And most of the stuff has been moved out already. The last batch of things will be removed on Monday evening. The space sure does look bigger now.

Mmmmmm! Sweet Rolls, Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes & Turnovers

This week we met with the Moda rep and ordered lots of goodies. Not only did we order several collections of fabrics, but also charm packs, jelly rolls and two new items: sweet rolls and turnovers. Sweet rolls are like jelly rolls only in 1 1/2" strips. Turnovers are like charm packs only the squares are cut again into triangles. Of course we got several fun patterns that use all of these items.

Progress

We've made some progress on several fronts in the last few days. Belinda and Sharla had meetings in Wichita on Monday and Tuesday, so had to travel there on Sunday. They left in the morning so they had time on Sunday afternoon to look for and price items for the store. They found black shelving units to display bolts of fabric in at a great price - the black will really make the fabric colors pop! (And our husbands will be so happy that they won't have to build them!) They also priced items that are needed to either fix or replace things in the building that are broken- and, of course, they found time to stop at a quilt shop or two. They also found a great deal on carpet, which will not only make the shop more warm and inviting, but will also keep the fabric from getting dirty.

While Belinda and Sharla were gone, Marilyn, Deb and Janet began painting in the building. They got primer on most all of the walls - except for the west wall which has issues that need to be addressed first, and got at least one coat of paint on most of the walls. We love the color - the sage green will really look great against the black trim. Plans are to paint the back wall a brick red color as the accent wall. They also determined that the remains of the moldy wall had to go. Once the sheetrock was removed, it was discovered that only a few nails held it in place and was too unstable. It really opened the space up and looks soooo much better!

On Saturday, the restaurant and arcade equipment will be sold by sealed bid. Hopefully, there will be someone interested in each of the items and everything will sell. Stop by Saturday between 10 and noon and place your bids......please?!

Elbow Grease

Today we started tackling the building. Since its been vacant for several months, it is really dirty. And, it really needs some improvements made to the building. The last few businesses in the building have been restaurants, and since we won't be needing any of the equipment, we asked the owners of the building (the local economic development group) if they would remove the items. They said yes, and are having a sealed bid sale next Saturday. So, today we started unhooking the equipment and fixtures....and in the process discovered the smell that so many people in the community commented about. Under the fountain counter was old carpet and padding that was wet and molded, which in turn molded the sheetrock behind the counter. After a quick call to the eco devo prez, we started ripping out the sheetrock and loading it into a pickup. The stench coming from that pickup was awful!!! Now we have to decide if we want to keep a wall there and re-sheetrock it, or just take the wall out and make more display floor space.

Marilyn washing windows.

Deb washing chairs and removing the seats.

There are several round tables and chairs (39 to be exact) that came with the building that we are keeping. All of the seats on the chairs are ripped, so we are making quilt squares and recovering them. I think they'll really look neat and we'll use them for our quilt classes.

Fabric Fun and Notion Numbness

We completed another lengthy meeting with another sales rep. Started out looking at more fabric and making selections to fill the gaps in our previous purchases. That only took about 3 hours....then came the notions. After another mind-numbing 3+ hours, we finally made it through the basic list of notions. I'm sure we'll need to order more things once we think about it more.

Belinda & Marilyn discussing a potential fabric selection.

Janet, Deb, Belinda & Marilyn finalizing purchasing decisions.