My mom.s garage sale went well despite a downpour on Saturday.
I spent today finishing the set up for this weekend's Junkstyle opening. I think you will be amazed at the selection and prices. Hope to see lots of you there.

I'm in Des Moines helping my mom with a garage sale. At the same time we are pricing items from her textile collection for next week's Treasured Textiles Junkstyle show in Elk Horn at the Annex.
As you can see, Lilith was a lot of help.

Our Eclectic Garden Junkstyle Show was a success. It was fun seeing so many of you.

We've been so busy sorting through my Mom's sewing room and I've moved lots of things to the Annex for our next sale Treasured Textiles Junkstyle.

Mom loves to make crazy quilts but she's not taking all of her supplies with her to Florida so there will be on abundance of silky tie fabrics and some velvets. She's also selling a lot of her stash at ridiculously low prices. I decided to clean out my vintage closet. I found quilt tops and lots of sets of blocks. I always favored pre 1900 things so I think if you have the same interest, you will love what I'm selling.

Of course we still have a lot of vintage furniture and decorative pieces. We're holding this sale the same weekend as the Walnut Antique Walk so you could attend both. We are only about 10 miles NE of Walnut and will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Hope to see you.

My sister, Jan (www.apieceofworkdesigns.com) has just released her newest pattern Cat Crazy. I love it!

Jan will be a part of our Eclectic Garden Junkstyle show May 23, 24 & 25 at the annex in Elk Horn. I have been busy working on displays. It's kind of fun playing store again.

Shar and I worked in the Annex yesterday. We're starting to get set up for our Eclectic Garden Junkstyle show (May 23, 24, 24). I cleaned out a small shed at the farm over the weekend and found a lot of the display pieces I used to have for the Prairie Christmas Boutique - quite interesting. I hope to convert the building to a potting shed someday soon.

Just playing around with some ideas for the Eclectic Garden Junkstyle show. this is really upcycling - the rug I cut up for the backgrounds was made from rags in the first place.

Last weekend we celebrated my mom's 90th birthday. Here she is with my brother, sister and I. Jan's the youngest, I'm the oldest and Tom's in the middle. We had a great time. Many of her grandchildren, great grandchildren and her great great grandson were able to be with her.
Mom is very independent. She lives alone, just got her driver's license renewed for two more years and loves to stay busy with her crazy quilts and crafting. Yes, we know how very lucky we are.

Mom will be moving to Florida in the Fall. My brother and his wife Barb are already there. Jan and Jim will be retiring there too. I will spend 5 to 6 months a years there also.

We've been busy cleaning out Mom's Johnston townhouse. I'll have a lot of her antiques at our Eclectic Garden Junkstyle in May. Then, June 13-15 we'll open up the annex again for Treasured Textiles Junkstyle. Mom will be selling a lot of her fabric, craft and quilting supplies at this sale. Shar and I (and probably other staff members) will add quilts, fabric, patterns, books and antique quilt blocks from our own collections.

I'm back

It's been such a long time since I posted here. I named this a quilt blog when I started it and I have not really been quilting. Yes, I made that wedding quilt back in the fall of 2012 and I finished quilting a couple of old projects on the new machine that I bought for my retirement, but I have not felt like quilting. That probably sounds crazy for some one who lived and breathed quilts. The only explanation I have is that losing Charlie took EVERYTHING out of me. Unfortunately some of you will know what I am talking about as you have been through it, too.

The reason for closing the shop was so that Charlie and I could enjoy some time together. When he died (a month into our sale) all of our hopes and plans for the future died too. Many things that I had loved before (like quilting) simply lost all meaning. When I start to quilt (or try to) all of those memories come back. Maybe time will change that. If I ever do really quilt again I think I might try some art quilts.

In the last year the Prairie Star Quilts staff and I have tried to get together monthly. We sew, we eat, we talk. We all miss the friends that we made when the shop was open.

At any rate, I do miss blogging, so I think I will try again. I know that quilting brought us together but maybe just friendship will keep you coming here.

I have decided that I need to find something I like to do. I seem to be attracted to the new "junk" craze. I still have our classroom building and have been storing many of our shop fixtures there. Some of you know I was also an antique collector so I've brought some things from home and I'm crafting a little. Shar, Lori, my sister Jan, my mom and a new dealer friend have held a couple of occasional sales there and it's been fun We plan to keep doing it once in a while.

I'm including a poster for the next sale which will be Tivoli Fest weekend in Elk Horn (May 23, 24, 25). Watch this blog for more details.

Jan started a website for our sales    Just this poster is on there right now, but we will add more. By the way, Jan is still designing great embroidery and wool projects and will be featured in an upcoming issue of Primitive Quilts. See some of her new ideas at apieceofworkdesings.com