Star-Spangled Saleabration - July 1, 2, 3 & 4!

Yes, we're extending our Saleabration an extra day and we'll be open July 4th! So stop in and stock up on fabric for your many upcoming quilting projects & save 20%. Happy 4th!

Harvest the Savings!

Harvest is in full swing here in western Kansas. It's always an exciting, hot, long, stressful time. Deb and Sharla are in the harvest field, while Janet and Belinda are keeping things running at the shop.

While we're busy harvesting wheat, you can harvest the savings at our Star-Spangled Saleabration! Several collections of red, white and blue, and civil war fabrics (plus several more fabrics) will be 20% off July 1, 2 & 3. Be sure to stop in & stock up for your future quilting projects!

To get you in the harvest mood, here's a couple of views from the combine driver's seat:

Faberge = Fabulous!

Here's the latest to arrive at the shop. Jinny Beyer's Faberge Quilt Kit. We only have 6 of these, so they'll go fast. We also purchased a bolt of matching backing fabric, so get both at the same time. Stop in before they're all gone!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

....or at least winter! This week our flannel started arriving! As this post is typed, it's cool, cloudy and rainy, just the right type of weather to start quilting for your Christmas gift list. And we have the perfect flannel collection for all your holiday projects - Red Rooster's Snow Wonderland Flannel by Whimsicals.
Snuggle into winter with Whimsicals "We can build a snowman" toss and primitive-style snowman border stripe. Have fun with the holly leaves; winter flower and leaves; pine bough and berry stripe; tweedy stripe; geometric; and texture in muted reds, greens, browns, winter grays, and beiges. These charming prints will be perfect in traditional and country quilts with touches of applique.

Love the Whimsical's look, but rather have cotton? Then check out our new Vintage Homestead collection that arrived this week also.

This line features framed folk art vignettes of primitive angels, crows, quilt blocks and flowers, all in the country palette of muted reds, greens, browns, grays, tans and beiges that Whimsicals is famous for. This fabric line is featured in the new quilt pattern by the same name.

Machine Quilting Class

Would you like to learn how to quilt on your sewing machine? Now's your chance. Betty Mae Jantz of Country Dumplings will be teaching a machine quilting class on Monday, July 13 from 1 - 5 p.m. at the shop. Class size is limited, so sign up soon!

Thanks Gals!

Yesterday 20+ ladies from the Ulysses Quilt Guild visited the shop. What a fun bunch! I brought my camera to take a group photo, but was so busy I forgot. You'll just have to imagine all the fun. Thank you ladies for a great day!

By the Numbers

For those people who like numbers, here are the stats from our website since our shop was featured on Moda Bake Shop 16 hours ago:

• 350 total visitors (235 yesterday evening, 115 today so far)
• from 34 US states
• from 16 foreign countries

We've Made The Big Time!

Our Moda Bake Shop is now featured on the Moda Bake Shop website! Visit the site to see our feature and to see all the awesome free patterns and tutorials Moda provides. Each of the patterns use a Moda precut....jelly rolls, layer cakes, turnovers, honey buns, etc. So check us and Moda out!

We Won!

Yeah! Our Moda Bake Shop display won in Moda's first monthly contest. You'll have to stop in and see our winning display. Then you'll have to participate in our Christmas in July Mini Shop Hop event on July 17 & 18 to see what we - and you - won (we're using our 'winnings' to buy goodies for our customers). Moda will be posting a link to our shop and photo, so we'll let you know when that happens. Don't you just love everything about Moda - we do!

Kansas Profile

The audio version of this week's Kansas Profile featuring Prairie Flower Quilt Co. is now online. Click here to hear the spot.

Moda Bake Shop

We finished our Moda Bake Shop & have sent these photos in to Moda's Bake Shop contest.

Our Moda Bake Shop features the new Moda Christmas collections of Frosted Memories by Holly Taylor, Crazy Eights by Sandy Gervais & Figgy Pudding by BasicGrey. We also have quilt kits of Moda's Holly Jolly Snowmen by Kathy Schmitz. And, of course, we have Kansas Troubles new holiday collection called Kansas Winter. Stop by the shop & get a jump start on your Christmas gift making!

Now That's Rural

Ron Wilson, with the Huck Boyd National Institute at Kansas State University, has a weekly radio show called Kansas Profile. This week his show is called 'Now That's Rural' and profiles the quilt shop! When the audio file is posted on their website, we'll post the link here. For now, here is the text version:

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

Blogspot. That sounds to me like a stain you would try to wash out of your shirt, but instead it refers to a way of having a kind of virtual conversation online. A blogspot is a website where a person can post his or her comments in a web log, or blog for short. Now imagine combining the high-tech blogging process with something as classic as your great-grandmother´s quilt. It combines high tech and soft touch.

That´s a formula for the success of this quilt shop in rural Kansas.

Sharla Krenzel is the co-owner of Prairie Flower Quilt Company in Leoti, Kansas. As a kid, Sharla grew up learning to sew in 4-H. In 2008, Sharla took her mother to a quilting class in Colby, and she noticed that half the women in the class were from her hometown of Leoti. She thought, "Hmm, there might be an opportunity here."

So Sharla, who is also the Wichita County Economic Development Director, started exploring the possibility of creating a community-owned quilt shop in Leoti. It turned out that Belinda Oldham, the Family And Consumer Sciences agent for K-State Research and Extension-Wichita County, had been successfully offering quilting classes in the county since the late 1980s.

Building on this local interest, Sharla worked on establishing a quilt shop in Leoti so that people could get their supplies locally. Eventually, a core group of five women decided to set up the shop themselves. These women included Sharla Krenzel, Deb Case, Belinda Oldham, Marilyn Wilbur and Krenzel's mom, Janet Droste.

The women identified a store site in Leoti and went to work. Along with Sharla's husband Alan who handled most of the carpentry work, the women remodeled the space by painting, building displays and counters and processing inventory for the new business. They covered the windows with brown paper to create some curiosity.

Sharla says, "Everybody fell into the niches that fit them." For example, Sharla was good at marketing and Marilyn was good at keeping the books. Belinda was an expert at quilting, Deb enjoyed ordering the supplies and Janet enjoyed getting craft-related items.

One of Sharla´s ideas was to start a blog. She says, "At the economic development meetings, all they talked about was online stuff like blogging and social networking." So for the quilt shop, Sharla set up a website with a blogspot on which they could post their accounts of what was happening with the store. Every few days they would post a report on how the store was progressing. It read kind of like an online version of a daily diary.

On Jan. 1, 2009, the store opened for business."Opening day was packed. You couldn´t even move in here," Sharla says, so the store was launched successfully.

Then came Jan. 20, 2009. Marilyn Wilbur, one of the founders, passed away suddenly in her sleep. It was a huge shock, but the other women kept on working.

Prairie Flower Quilt Company offers a full-line of quilting supplies, including fabric, sewing notions, sewing machines, patterns, and books. The store also has a machine which can make custom quilts.

The store is drawing customers from all over southwest Kansas, but one of the especially interesting factors is the visibility that their blogspot has received. Their blogs are posted on the web at www.prairieflowerquilts.com. Visitors have come to their website from more than 30 states coast to coast, and from such countries as France, Norway, Turkey, Spain, Australia, The Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Wow.

Using the tools of technology, those with an interest in quilting can be connected world wide - all the way to the rural community of Leoti, Kansas, population 1,613 people. Now, that´s rural.

Blogspot. No, it´s not that coffee stain on your shirt. It´s a modern way of communicating online. We salute Sharla Krenzel, Deb Case, Belinda Oldham, Janet Droste, and the late Marilyn Wilbur for making a difference with their entrepreneurial interest. If more rural communities can establish businesses and extend their reach using technology, we can be like a gifted quilter who creates a beautiful pattern.

Moda Bake Shop

Stop in and see our new Moda Bake Shop display featuring some of our new Moda Christmas lines....Frosted Memories, Crazy Eights & Figgy Pudding! Once our display is complete (in the process of making a stack & whack Christmas Tree Quilt using a Crazy Eight layer cake), we'll be submitting a photo of our display to Moda for their Moda Bake Shop contest!

Machine Applique Class

Back by popular demand, Carol Miles will be teaching a Machine Applique Class on Saturday, June 13 beginning at 1:00 p.m. You will learn all of Carol's techniques to create beautiful applique quilts, pillows, and more with your sewing machine. Class is $20 plus supplies. Hurry in and sign up!