Store Policies

We are sorry, but we are unable to take any returns on cut fabrics, books, kits, patterns or notions. If any item is damaged, we will offer a return or store credit within 30 days with original receipt.

We do not cut fat quarters, but do offer them in single form or in bundles.

Our minimum fabric cut for regular fabric is 1/4 yard and sales fabric cut minimum is 1/2 yard.

See our Classes page for class policies.

We cannot allow any photography of the quilts without our permission.

Prairie Queens Staff

From Left to Right: Marie, April, Eli, Mary, Annette, Mark and Debbie

We had a very special visitor, Mr. Moda, Mark Dunn. He visited the store and loved our fabrics and decor.

 

PRAIRIE QUEENS INSTRUCTORS

We are thrilled to offer our customers high quality classes with top-notch instructors. Please look through our instructor's bios and see who they are.

Teacher Bios

Elisheva Bailey
Elisheva has been quilting for about 15 years, but sewing all her life. She has had award-winning quilts in the Morgan Hill Quilt Show and several quilts published in various quilting magazines. Elisheva is an employee of Prairie Queens and loves her job. At home, she has a wonderful supportive husband and two children, Rachael and Sarah, aged 11 and 9.

April Basuini
April has been quilting for 19 years. As one of Prairie Queens earliest employees, she is both an employee and valued teacher. She finds joy in teaching others how to quilt and helping them create their own family heirlooms. She enjoys many different types of quilting and has had award-winning quilts displayed in Taste of Morgan Hill. She is married and has three beautiful children, 20, 16 and 13 years old.

Mary Berthiaume
Mary has been sewing most of her life but she has been quilting since August of 2000 because one of her daughters bought a beautiful mountain home in Colorado and said to her, "Mom, my new home would look great with lots of Quilts in it, do you know how to quilt???"  Well, with help of a friend, she made her first quilt which was a King Sized Double Wedding Ring for her daughter and she had so much fun doing it, that Mary was then hooked on quilting for life. In the six years since then, Mary has made over 150 quilts of all sizes and now every one in her family has at least several in their homes. Mary has given lots of them away, but now she makes more challenging quilts and keeps them for herself. Her kids can have them much later.

Annette Kelley
Annette has been behind the sewing machine since age 10 and started with garment construction.  Once her two children had grown up and no longer needed Halloween costumes, she knew that there was more!  Quilting has been her obsession for the last 18 years (much to her patient husband's chagrin!) and teaching for the last 8.  No longer able to keep count of the charity, auction and personal quilts made, she guesses she's covered the state of Delaware twice!

Dee Matthews
While raising 7 kids, you need to have an escape that is all yours. My passion
for that escape was needlepoint. It gave me an excuse to retreat into my own personal world without being insensitive to what was going on around me. It can be done while cuddling with a four year old, watching TV with a teen or being a passenger on a road trip. It goes back well over 30 years and has afforded me great pleasure. I took classes for the first 6 years at evening classes and then at more specialized classes because I truly enjoyed the class setting and meeting with my girlfriends. When the empty nest syndrome finally got too much for me, I went to work a few days a week at the Exclamation Point in Saratoga, CA. I worked there for almost 5 years before the owner offered me the chance to buy the shop so that she could retire. It took me about 2 minutes to respond with a “yes” (I had a very supportive husband and family), and knew that a very private desire of mine had finally been presented, and I was not going to let it slip by. I owned the shop for almost 6 years before I felt ready to move on to other
things. Exclamation Point was sold again. What a journey that was. Now my plan is to teach, consult, mentor and coach other needlepoint lovers and wanna-be needlepointers at any level.

Nancy Nemec
Nancy is a self admitted fabricaholic. Her lifelong love of fabric and sewing led her to graduate from Penn State University with a degree in Clothing and Textiles. She began quilting in 2000, and was involved in the retail end of quilting while working at Whiffle Tree Quilts.  She began teaching classes nearly 4 years ago with Dolores Roseveare. She loves trying new patterns and techniques and has designed a few original patterns of her own.  Her favorite classes to teach are easy curves, paper piecing, and anything with floral fabrics. She and her husband Randy are new empty nesters, so she spends her time happily doing what she loves, quilting, reading, playing with her dogs, teaching quilting classes and adding to her fabric stash.

Dolores Roseveare
Dolores and her sewing machine have been the closest of friends since they met back in third grade. Making clothes went by the wayside when she discovered her passion for quilting in 2000. Since then she has become a class junkie, learning tips and techniques from "The Greats." She and Nancy Nemec have been team-teaching since 2003, bringing creativity, skill, enthusiasm, and fun to their classes. In addition to designing quilts for several fabric manufacturers, her quilts have been featured on the websites of Jane Sassaman and International Artisans, Inc., and in the May/June 2007 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine . Her grown children affectionately gave her a license plate that says it all, "QLTHEAD" (Quilt-head).

Debbie Thornton
Debbie has been quilting for over three decades and is the owner of Prairie Queens Quilt Shop. Her expertise in color and design makes her the owner of a quilt shop as well as an instructor. Debbie is also a master on the store's long-arm and her award-winning quilts have been seen at a variety of local quilt shows.

Penny Tucker
Penny Tucker has been a quilt instructor for the past 9 years, primarily teaching hand-applique and medallion quilts. She teaches a variety of applique techniques in her classes and often uses her own original designs for the project. Penny received a bachelor's degree in textile design in 1982, and has a particular interest in historic quilts. Her original designs have been included in several publications, including Quilter's Newsletter Magazine and Quilt It for Keepsakes.

Beth Upstill
Beth started sewing as a kid with her Grandmother. Her mom got her started quilting about 13 years ago. She has a small hand-dyed wool business and loves crafts, wool appliqué, punchneedle embroidery, knitting, and scrapbooking. Beth has two daughters ages 10 & 12 who are her little quilting apprentices!

Michelle Zeiler
Michelle has been sewing since she was 5 years old. Michelle received a scholarship to attend the Los Angeles Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising where she received an Associate Arts degree. She managed fabric stores and is a clothing and costume designer. Michelle has also been the Santa Clara County Girl Scout Sew-EZ program coodinator for the past 7 years. She holds a full time job as Fabric, Notions, Crafts sales representative for over 26 years.

 

Open House Events

We have Open House events three times a year. During these events, we unveil the class schedule for next several months; have the instructors here showing their classes samples; and have lots of food and giveaways. Here are some photos of our teachers from our July, 2009 event.

Instructor: Penny Tucker and our ever faithful Phyllis.

Michelle Zeiler, Julia Thornton (Debbie's granddaughter) and Beth Upstill

Carole Hanlon and Carol Irving

Dolores Roseveare, Suellene Petersen, Kathy Hilton and Clarene Dunivin

About our store

We have a huge inventory of the latest fabrics with over 7,000 bolts. We carry the latest patterns, books and notions to satisfy your quilting needs. Come visit our beautifully decorated store.