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.