We've started working on some new Winter/Christmas projects. I worked on this hanging which could really hang year round. We'll be having our first Christmas in July Saturday
July 24 - more details soon.

Speaking of holidays, we will be open Saturday July 3 and Monday July 5, but closed Sunday July 4.

Shar and I came up with this new crib quilt in flannel. I think we will call it Ric Rac Jungle. We also have a "big girl" version in the works.

We continue our love of and loyalty to flannel. For a little while it looked like the availability was going down, but recently some new quality players have entered the market. We still try to be your best source for flannel.

Lotus brought in her quilt to be quilted. I couldn't resist taking a picture. She made it completely from my fabric line and it really turned out great.

This is number eight in our fourth series of doll quilts. I've had a lot of fun designing all these little quilts (almost 40 now). It gives me a chance to try color and fabric combinations that I might otherwise ignore. Sometimes I find a combination that I love so much I go ahead and make a larger quilt using the combination.

This is a sample I made from one of the patterns we brought back from Quilt Market. It's called the Lily Apron. It is a really cute apron, but I plan to wear it as a top over a black t-shirt. I can imagine it in lots of fun fabrics.

We enjoyed seeing lots of old friends this weekend. Some were here for Walnut's Antique Walk and some came just to visit Prairie Star Quilts.

Here's a new International Harvester tractor panel. At Prairie Star Quilts we have tractor wars. Of the farm women on staff Pam, Mardell and Karen go for the green stuff and Carol, Jackie and I like red. I have to admit there are a couple of pieces of green in Charlie's shed, but mostly we like Red Power. Anyway, we also carry John Deere fabric.

This is the big annual Antique Walk weekend in Walnut, IA just down the Interstate from us. We always look forward to seeing old friends stop in after they've done "the walk." We can offer cool air conditioning and cool bargains.

This is Wyoming Valley the tenth block in our Chasing Stars series for our local access cable channel. We will video show # ten sometime this week, and it will begin airing July 1.

If you go to the Julie's Blog and TV Show page on our website you can see all the blocks and download instructions for block nine. This block will be available for download July 1. On our site you can also purchase DVD's of all the programs aired so far.

Karen is our staff member who has been making all the blocks for our current block of the month. Today sho brought the top 9which is almost complete) so that we can plan the borders. This is really going to be a great quilt. I believe we still have a few memberships left.

I was a busy Saturday. Guess people wanted to get in out of the heat.
I am planning our first Christmas in July. It will be Saturday July 24. Look for details soon of a fun day.

Here's Carol's Sash & Dash. The kit is queen sized and made with some of our best nineteenth century reproductions. Customers tell us they want more kits for larger quilts, so we are making an effort.

Today I met with my third sales rep this week. We bought some beautiful batiks. These are from Island Batiks, but there are quite a few good batik companies right now. When the companies come out with new patterns in batiks there are hundreds of them. It make it really hard choosing them.

This afternoon I pulled quite a few fabrics to put on half price. Tomorrow will be the best selection.

A few weeks ago Carol finished this skinny quilt/runner. I wish you could see the details in the vegetables. She does an excellent job of machine applique, but I'd like to try it in needleturn.



Tomorow I have an appoinment with the third fabric rep this week. Selecting fabric is a hard job, but one that I love.



We still have three or four more memberships in our block of the month. See my blog for April 25 for details.

I made this bag to take with me to Quilt Market. I carried it with an all black outfit. I'm pretty plain in the way I dress, but I think the fun new bags are a way to express individuality. Really many of the contemporary fabrics are gorgeous. I'm starting to enjoy working with them even though I'm not likely to use them in my home - of course, never say never!

I keep forgetting to show you more photos from Quilt Market. I really enjoyed Buttermilk Basin's Halloween themed booth.
When I'm at Market I never seem to take as many photos as I should. It's a little like Christmas - you get so wrapped up in the moment you forget you'll want to remember it.
Many of the patterns and books that we ordered are arriving now - the fabric won't come until later.

Liz is working on a new quilt using mostly my fabric line Prairie Homefront. I love the mis-matched blocks. She's going to add a couple of borders.
We had a storm this evening but I think we missed a lot of the really bad stuff around us.