We'll be open regular hours on New Year's Eve. We still have lots of good half price fabric left. Don't be caught without something to work on this holiday weekend. We'll be closed Saturday, New Year's Day. Happy New Year.

All of us at Prairie Star Quilts wish you a

Very Merry Christmas

Be sure to visit us on Monday December 27 for our

After Christmas Sale (starts at 10 am)

Thanks to all of you who attended our Christmas Open House and so generously contributed items for the food pantry. We didn't deliver them until yesterday so all of the staff could add to them.
Our local pantry will be making boxes for 27 families and the things you brought will go a long way to helping fill them.

We've been waiting for these new Case IH fabrics for quite a while. You could still have time to make a little something for your favorite collector before Christmas.

We had two well attended sessions for our Christmas Open House workshops yesterday. Everyone did a great job on their projects. If you didn't get to come we had a few kits left. They are available for $7 each (plus tax and shipping). you'll get both little pillows in the kit.

We also put all our Christmas Fabric and kits on sale at 25% off and will continue the sale until Christmas.

These are the projects for our annual Christmas Open House which will be Monday December 6. We'll have a sale and lots of demos for easy gift ideas.
The workshop will be held two times (2 pm and 5:30pm) in the Retreat Center. Cost is $7 or a donation for the Food Pantry. You will need to register for the workshop (712-764-7012) so that we will know how many kits to cut.

I've been waiting for this fabric from Alexander Henry to arrive. I know how hard it is to find fabric for guys. This would make a fun throw or even pillowcases.

We had a busy day yesterday with all the people attending Julefest in Elk Horn and Kimballton. Our "surprise" (not a surprise any longer) Julefest Sale this year is 25% off red or green fabric - I'm amazed at how many fabrics have red or green. Julefest conotinues today in both towns.

Shar, Karen and Sarah (Jackie's daughter) braved the cold yesterday to put up some outside lights in preparation for Julefest in the Danish Village next Friday and Saturday. It's our opening of the Christmas shopping season. After taking time to celebrate and savor Thanksgiving on Thursday, why not come here for fun shopping, easy parking and good food instead of braving the Black Friday hassle?

There are two great boutiques at the town halls in both Elk Horn and Kimballton. I started the Prairie Christmas Boutique in Kimballton 32 years ago. In 2000 I sold it to Cheryl Rosenbeck one of my folk artists. She has done a great job of carrying on the tradition. One of her current artists is my sister, Jan Speed. Many of you are familiar with her patterns for wool, wool felt and embroidery at Prairie Star Quilts.

At the shop (we will open early both days at 9am) we'll have a surprise sale. We'll also be doing ongoing demos of fast and easy gift ideas for you to make. All of the staff at Prairie Star Quilts make our great samples. When we are done displaying them the staff members don't always want to keep all of them. Once a year we display and sell the excess samples in our Retreat Center. Opening day for this is the first day of Julefest (Friday after Thanksgiving) at 9am.
the show and sale will continue until Christmas.

Click here for a schedule of events.

Yesterday i put the binding on one of our latest samples. This photo is for the kit Moda puts out. Mine looks like it except I cnanged the diamonds to easily pieced half squares. The fabric is the new Collection for a Cause, Hope. We used layer cakes for all the stars and will have a kit available soon.

PSQ sponsored a couple of categories at the Nebraska State Fair. Ann brought her winning entry in the miniature star division to show us. She tells me her inspiration was an antique Texas star quilt. This little quilt represents one corner of the quilt (oautside the large Texas star). there were four of these in the original.
We also sponsor the Traditional Star Bed Quilt.

I just finished quilting this "convenience fabric" runner from Jo Morton. I know I've said it before, but I like hand quilting "cheaters" - no marking, no seams to quilt through, no hassle. I call it a stress buster. Sometimes in the evening I just want to sit in a quiet place and quilt by hand.

Mary brought in her latest project. It was fascinating. It's made almost entirely from the striped fabric in my Prairie Homefront collection. There are certainly a lot of striped fabrics that would work for this.

I'm starting work on a project for our annual Christmas Open House which will be Monday December 6 this year. We'll have two workshops at 2:00 or 5:30 pm. You'll need to pre register if you'd like to attend because we'll need to know how many kits to make.

Mardell finished this new sample, Union Blue. It's really a striking design. Of course we are making kits.

Carol just finished these two new Criss Cross quilts. The'll make great table toppers or small wall quilts and take very little time to make. The pattern is a good one when you just don't want to cut up a spectacular fabric.

Shar is starting work on our quilt for Runaway Quilter's Retreat. This is our twentieth retreat and will be on January 14 and 15 2011.

Halloween is almost here. Just in time we're having a 50% off sale on Halloween fabric, patterns and kits. This cute little fusible with handmade button is easy enough to finish for this Halloween, but you can always put some things away for next year.
Shar Pam and I planned new samples and kits today in between customers. We strive to keep all the walls full of great samples and we're almost out of kits for several samples.
I'm really proud of all the new samples we have right now for baby and kids quilts.

Carol's fun new throw is made from flannel and chenille - nice to cuddle up in this Winter or plan ahead for a graduation gift. It's fun to mix textures in a quilt. Think about adding Minkie or Cuddle to flannel.

Karen just finished this flannel throw using Moda's new Moonlight Lodge collection. It has to be the softest flannel ever - just like velvet. I'll bet the men on your list would love it.

I just finished the last doll quilt in our fourth series. It's been fun.

We've had a fun few days with lots of quilters stopping by on their way to or from the AQS Show in Des Moines. There are still some good bargains left in the Retreat Center.

Sue stopped by to choose borders for her sampler. It's going to be a real keeper. I love making quilts with lots of different fabrics and blocks.The piecing never really gets boring and it's certainly not boring when you're finished either.

We spent yesterday getting everything ready in the shop and retreat center for our big sale the rest of this week. We have $1, $2, $3 and $4 a yard fabric and half price kits, jelly rolls and charm packs in the center. In the shop, selected kits are 25% off.

Remember, you don't have to be attending the show in Des Moines to get in on the sale.

This Jolly Jungle quilt is perfect for baby and later makes a great play mat.

My Mom had knee replacement surgery last week, so I've been back and forth to Des Moines. She's really doing quite well.

We're getting ready for the AQS show next week. We usually have lots of quilters visit us on the way to or from the show. We have lots of new samples and we'll be having a big sale in the Retreat Center. We hope you'll stop by, too - you can come for the sale (Wenesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday) even if you're not attending the show.

Many of the quilts I picture on this blog are available as kits. I don't always get them on the website right away, but you can always call the shop 712-764-7012 to order.

Here's that doll quilt that I started the other day (the next to the last in our current series). It's been fun coming up with the designs for these, but with the four series that's over forty quilts!

Little quilts are so versatile. I doubt very many are actually used for dolls. I hang mine, use them as table toppers and put them on the backs of chairs. Because they are small and don't take very long to finish you can try out fabrics and patterns that you might not usually think of.

This is the newest version of our popular Wedding Quilt made in Moda's Lumiere De Noel by French General. It's such an elegant fabric line - sure to be an heirloom quilt.

I just went out to feed my cats. It's almost cold this morning. Fall is certainly in the air. I'm home today and will probably work on the design for the next Doll Quilt. There are only two more in this series.

Wow! They did it. Everyone at the retreat finished a quilt top and we actually found time to have fun, too.

2010 Pumpkin Gathering started last evening. After dinner we went back to the shop to "harvest" fabric for the quilts we're going to make today. This was a change as usually everyone chooses fabric earlier and has it cut before they come to the retreat. We just selected a focal fabric (like the pumpkin fabric in Pam's sample) and went from there. It's so much fun to see the thought process. Then we took it all to the retreat center and began cutting - it took no more than an hour. This morning they'll start sewing and I bet there'll be some tops finished by the end of the day.

We just recorded the last in our series of twelve local access TV shows. This is the setting I've chosen to use for my blocks. It's been a fun experience. For those of you who were not able to follow along, if you come to the shop I'll give you the block patterns. Instructions for this setting are available on the TV Show Page of our website www.prairiestarquilts.com

If you are looking for a modern baby quilt kit, this one really fits the bill. It's made from Moda's Wee Woodland flannel in the Baby I Do pattern. It could also be a great Kindergarten nap quilt.

We will be closed Monday for Labor Day, so come see us today for your weekend sewing needs. I like to use Labor Day to kick off my Fall quilting projects. This year I've designed a new needleturn applique that I will start on Monday.

Mary just completed this top using Sandy Gervais' Awesome fabric for Moda (there are a few other pieces added in). This pattern is the one we will use at our Pumpkin Gathering next weekend. We'll have fun because on Friday night everyone will choose a fabric for the interior sash and then search for the perfect fabrics to go with it. There is still time for you to sign up and join us.

We're busy making baby quilt kits again. I designed this easy pattern for a quick quilt that "shows off" the main print. These two happen to be flannel, but it works equally well in cotton.

We really have lots of new baby and child prints right now.

I've been working on quilts for three of my nieces who are expecting this Fall. I'll post photos as I finish them.

When I have time, I like to make extra baby quilts to have on hand. They don't take much time and it's an unbeatable gift or donation.

I just finished Doll Quilt #10 in our fourth series. I'm really starting to like blue again. It used to be my favorite for quilts and then I sort of got tired of it. I especially like it with brown.

Have you seen the latest issue of Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting? That's my Prairie Star Baskets on the cover. Earlier this Summer, I "hot needled" the sample to make the deadline. The photography that they do for publications is amazing. Our kits for this should be available next week. Let us know if you'd like us to save one for you.

Registrations are coming in for this year's Pumpkin Gathering Sept. 10 and 11. See the events page on our website for details.

I just finished the binding on this fun convenience quilt aka. "cheater". The colors really say Fall. I can see lots of uses for this fabric - a "pieced" border without the piecing? an easy runner? How about cutting it into sixteen patch blocks and sashing them?
"Cheaters" might seem like a new invention to us, but really they go way back. Antique quilts from the Civil War era have been found that use pre printed quilt fabric as backing.

Pat brought her quilt to show us. It's her version of our Christmas Star which I showed you a couple of weeks ago. I love the half-square

units she added and her color choice is great. Blue has really become popular again.

Purple for Halloween! Carol came up with this cute little quilt that's been getting lots of comments. It's called Haunted House.

Today I made a presentation at the Danish Immigrant Museum. I chose to talk about quilts made by groups - album quilts, friendship quilts, fundraising quilts, etc. I enjoyed doing some research for it.

We recently received this fun fabric. It would make a great bag. We have at least thirty bag pattens and lots of the "good stuff" to go with them - trims, handle webbing, the right interfacings, rings, snaps, magnet closings, handles, zippers and buttons, buttons, buttons.

I've been showing you lots of Christmas samples and have almost skipped Fall and Halloween. That's kind of because for the most part the Christmas fabric arrives at the shop before the other two. I've never been able to figure out why. Any way, this year there are some particularly beautiful Fall prints.
We've had a nice group from Nebraska sewing in the Retreat Center this weekend. It looked like they were getting a lot done and also having a good time. I'll say it agsain, quilters are the nicest people.

We have realy been working on Christmas samples. Nadine made this one using a really nice panel, Noel from Benartex.

We're getting ready to mail out registration forms for this year's Pumpkin Gathering. Here are photos of Shar and Pam's samples of Pumpkin Bar.

Please visit the EVENTS page of our website for details and a printable registration form.

Gisselle is a new fabric line and we've made a new runner using it. These Modern projects are a fun way to try working with the new fabric in small amounts.

One of the newest things at Quilt Market this Spring was cotton knit. I bought a few pieces from Michael Miller. It was being shown for garments, mostly for kids. It really is nice quality, but because it is 100% cotton it must be pre washed ( supposed to shrink almost 20%). It is extra wide. We'll be trying to make some up soon.

Just received this eighteen wheeler fabric from Alexander Henry. This is an impressive large print. The whole semi is about 16" long -very realistic.

This is my sister's Christmas Wool Crazy runner. I really think it is one of the nicest things she's ever designed.

Our Christmas in July event was nice. We had a good time. In our spare time, Pam, Shar and I started scheming about Pumpkin Gathering which will be Friday evening September 10 and Saturday the 11th this year. Watch for details.

This Saturday (July 24) we'll hold our first Christmas in July in our Retreat Center from 10 am to 4pm. All day long we'll present demos of fast and easy gift ideas. You may just watch or if you'd like to particiapate, bring your machine and basic sewing supplies.

Don't forget, most of the 2010 Christmas fabric is in. You can also see all the new samples we've been making.