Marilyn was the organizer for the retreaat held in the Elk Horn church last weekend. She works almost exclusively in batiks and makes some great quilts. We're always excited to see what she brings for show and tell. She was nice enough to leave several of them to exhibit at our Tivoli Fest Quilt Show which will be Saturday May 29.

The group in our retreat center last weekend comes twice a year and know they can make themselves at home. Her friends tell Marge that she brings everything but the kitchen sink - they also know if they for got something she'll probably have it.

Roberta was working on projects for the bridesmaids at her daughters wedding. The Minkie shower wraps were really great. She also made them each tote bags.

Karen brought her recently quilted feathered star quilt to show us. What an ambitious project.

I coudn't resist showing you this. Kathy (who was at one of the three quilt retreats held in Elk Horn this past weekend) just finished our block of the month from 1998 and brought it to show me. We had evidently just suffered through a bad Winter when I designed and named this one -"It's Iowa, it can snow anytime"! Let's just hope that was an exageration.

The three groups were doing sdome beautiful work. I'll show you some examples in the next few days.

My sister brought some of her new projects to my Mom's house. They are all done in wool or wool felt. I think they are really good and we will probably carry the patterns for all of them when they are ready.

I spent yesterday and today with my Mom and sisiter. Mom had some minor surgery which went well.
She's working on another crazy quilt, and this one is mine! We laid out the blocks to see how we wanted to set them. Once again she used a lot of old neckties - many of them came from those of you who gave trhem to me.

We'll have two sales reps at the shop tomorrow. There will also be three quilt groups in Elk Horn this weekend ) in our Retreat Center, the Town Hall and the church basement. We should be pretty busy.

Carol just completed this cute sample. It makes me smile because I feel like it's an order - can't wait to see gardens again. We do have crocuses blooming on the South side of the Retreat Center.

Charlie and I spent the afternoon hauling limbs away (result of our January ice storm - there's been too much snow until now). We'll have several more days of that then start on sticks. There's so much small trash, too that I know we'll probably have to rake everything. Once again I say we love trees but this year might test us.

A couple of days ago Fabri-quilt sent me small yardages of all my fabrics. I think we should have bolts in about three weeks. I'll use what I have now to make samples for Quilt Market. For the most part I'm really happy with all the pieces and I hope all of you will like them, too.

So sorry! My computer has been down for several days. I ended up having to purchase a new one and of course all my data had to get transferred - all that takes time. Anyway, I felt lost without it. Before we bought our first computer ( back in the middle 90's) Charlie and I congratulated ourselves on the fact that we were so old we would not have to learn how to use computers. How wrong we were. Now neither of us would know what to do without them.

Our Stashbuster class last Saturday was lots of fun. Despite the weather, most everyone came.

I've been doing some re-photographing for some of my older quilt patterns so I thought I'd put in a plug for Shiloh. I made it about ten years ago when my husband was first diagnosed with Alpha-1 (the genetic disease that led to his lung transplant). He had home infusions for several hours every week and I wanted something to quilt by hand while I sat with him. I never see this quilt without thinking of those days and the miracle of his transplant.

The idea came from a book I have, Quilts of the Smithsonian. In it is a Pine Burr quilt in these colors and with a jagged edge. It wasn't exactly a pineapple but it reminded me of one. I have always loved pineapple log cabins and over the years tried all the methods. The only one that was ever true was paper pieced (and I'm not fond of paper piecing). I decided to design an easier method that could also stay true. My Shiloh uses connector squares or flip and sew - I call it a faux pnieapple. Even beginners have been successful with it.

Shiloh has been featured by Fons and Porter in both Sew Many Quilts and the TV show. It is by far our most popular pattern and my most requested quilt.

We had a really good staff retreat this past weekend and most of us got lots done. I took these photos after Carol and Karen had gone home ( I almost forgot to take any at all) so you don't get to see what they were working on.

I've added some more fabric to our half price area - most notably all of our 1930's era reproduction fabric. If this is an interest of yours you'll find some great buys.

Jackie brought her antique flower garden to show us. She purchased the top old top several years ago. Jackie does handquilting with a church group. The top was perfect except that the edges were all ravelly ( is that a word?) A friend finished the edges for her by facing them instead of binding. I think it looks nicer than just cutting them off straight and might even be a good choice if your edges aren't raveled - binding all those tiny hexagons can be intimidating.

The PSQ staff is "retreating" this weekend in our own retreat center. We all bring plenty of projects and snacks. Meals are at our local restaurants.

I'm still working on our new website and spent some time yesterday taking photos of extra wide backings (about 108" wide). Here are just a few of the more colorful ones. We probably have about sixty of them. In addition we have 6 or 7 in batik and even a few flannel (many of these are 100" wide). They average about $15 per yard.
For years all we could get was bleached and unbleached muslin. then shops like us (many with long arm machines) started asking sales reps for more and the fabric companies have really responding.
If you can find something you like, you will really save money for quilts wider than 42".

some examples:
60"X80" two lengths 5 yards @ $9 = $45 extra wide 1 3/4 yards @ $15 = $26.25
95"X110" three lengths 9 3/4 yards = $87.75 extra wide 3 1/4 yards @ $15 = $48.75

When the new site is up we will have many of our backing available on line. Or, if you email a photo of your quilt, we'll be happy to see if we have a wide backing for you.