Finding my way to grandma's house

What have Cori and I been up to since the retreat? Not a whole lot - and for us, that's shocking! We had decided that for the first time in 10 years of working together, we were going to take a few weeks off. This is just a little of our own time, to rest, and play, and hang out with all of the really great neighbours who I don't have time to talk too. But don't worry, you will be seeing A LOT of projects and half finished projects in the next little while. I have a huge mound of unfinished projects that I am just waiting to dig into. These are the one's that I really love, but were pushed aside for work deadlines, and other commitments. Well, it's time I dusted them off. So keep watching....

One thing that I had at the top of my list, was to make new Christmas stockings for my children. Why haven't I started this yet? Because the weather out here is phenominal! It is the end of October, and southern Manitoba is starting to have spring all over again. Our grass is green, the neighbours flowers are bright and yellow, and we are wearing T-shirts. The rumor is that the snow is just around the corner, but I'm not going to believe that one.

So instead of making stockings (it will take snow to put me in the right frame of mind to start that project) I grabbed my camera, and started on another item on my list. My goal is to photograph, and document the quilts in our collection. We have over 100 that we need to formally organize. I have started on a lot of the bording data, but today, I wanted to try getting some good pictures. The following picture is NOT one of the good shots, but I chose it for a reason.

I took a handful of quilts, and headed down to our little Thresherman's Museum. I spent the afternoon throwing quilts over different buildings and fences, and when I was there, I suddenly remembered that I have some connection to one of the buildings. When I got home, I called my mom, and sure enough, this house is the one where my Grandma Jessie was born, and lived. There was a total of 16 children born into her family. Can you imagine! Not all of them survived, but it still must have been cramped in their little home.

My Grandma Jessie is a really cool grandma. I hope to get down to her place in the next week to spend an afternoon embroidering with her. She has the most beautiful embroidery stitches. I have very long fingers, and I think I inherited them from her, but I can't stitch as well as she can. Maybe with a lot more practice.



So this humble building was the home to a very sweet little girl, who grew up to be a very kind grandma. And you will be hearing more about my Grandma Jessie soon. Last year someone in the extended family gave her a shoebox of old drawings...and to some of us, it is the family treasure chest. I will see if I can sneak the box away from my mother, and show you what is inside.

So I will talk to you again soon....

-myra

The Weekend Review....

My mind is still processing this past weekend, and trying to remember everything that was said and done. Every few minutes I remember another thing that happened, and it just makes me smile. So here is my top 10 list of what I remember so far....(sorry, but if you wern't there, they may not make sense to you.)

* '50' comes in a great looking package

* I never made it to the party in room #203

*You should always bring your own corkscrew to a quilting retreat

* 'Marekans' are 'keaners' they just don't know it

*Smart mothers bring their daughters as their personal assistants

*Mather is a town in Manitoba, and not someone's last name

*Not all houses are created equal

*The Clarion Hotel staff are now familiar with what a quilting reteat entails

*Saskatchewaners don't follow directions...and that's OK

*Autographs arn't just for famous people

And we will post the rest of the commentary along side the pictures. Enjoy the show.

And to all the fellow 'retreaters' don't forget to leave a note about what you remember from the weekend.

Show & Tell

We had an AMAZING show and tell on friday night at the retreat - It really looked like

we were going to have a quilt show. These are just a few photo's featuring projects from past years' retreats.

This was the quilt that Marcy did last year at our 3rd Hometown Retreat - Bohemian Rhapsody.

This was the quilt design from our 2nd Hometown Retreat - Love Joy Peace made by Alice.

Carol attended our Winter Retreat in Fort Frances ON.

I love how she customized the black and turquoise kit with a splash of yellow!

Marlene did the applique option and it turned out beautifully!

The above photos were some of the many quilts that our retreat students brought to the friday night 'Show &Tell'. The interesting thing about these quilts, is that they are all from our past retreats. It was encouraging to see that they all finished their projects, and it was inspiring to see how they changed their projects, to make them reflect their personal style.

Open House Winnipeg MB, October 15th

The above photo is a picture I took, before our guest's arrived, the Alberta room had beautiful sunlight.

We had two fabulous "gift pails" to give away.

We featured our NEW Cape Cod collections, patterns and the quilts

We thank all of quilter's and sewers that met the strickt deadlines!

We also had samples of our Out of the Blue Kids and Baby & kids, Little Lady Baby & Kids,

Autumn Signs, Lemon slice, Exclamtion, Daisy Baby and Calypso.

Ocean waves is pictured above and Nantucket Rose below.

These are the quilt patterns that accompany our fabrics.

~cori

4th Annual Hometown Retreat - Cape Cod

Due to circumstances we had to take the Hometown Retreat on the Road!

This was a little scary, but the Clarion Hotel treated us very well. The food, the amenities, all wonderful. We had the largest group ever this year and the energy and comraderywas incredible. Below is the group picture we took on Friday night after show and tell. We had women from Winnipeg, Portage La Prairie, Washington, Minneapolis, Ignace, Dryden, Fort Frances, Emo, Regina just to name a few. Thanks Ladies for a great week-end, your support and encouragement - you don't know how much it all means to us!

after the show and tell we laid all of the items out and WOW, it looked like a quilt show - which by the way is one of my dreams. To have a quilt show with all of the projects not only that Myra and I have designed and made over the years, but to have our customers display the projects that they have made with our designs. ( I hope that made sense!) Long story short I was amazed and wowed by the talent we had in that room. Projects big and small all wonderful. Then there was Marlys' story about using our Love Joy Peace "word" fabrics in an MCC quilt and ALL the money those quilts raised...brought tears to my eyes. Sometimes Myra and I just work so hard that we loose sight of what this really means to us and Marlys...you reminded me of why we do this!

What fun watching all the ladies sew, be creative and sharing "sewing secrets".

One more sleep!

Tomorrow is the big day...look out Clarion Hotel Winnipeg, we are MOVING in for the week-end!!!! For those of you who can not join us for the Retreat, we will post pictures and fill you in next week on ALL the fun we will had.

The other BIG news, if you live near Winnipeg you won't want to miss our open house on Monday from 4-9:00pm. Go to http://www.bluemeadowdesigns.com to see all of the details. We are unvieling our newest collection ,Cape Cod.

Be sure to visit again next week, when we will have some photo's up about what has all happened this week-end.

~Cori

The countdown....

Cori and I are waiting for next weekends retreat...just like little kids at Christmas. I have not counted the days, until now. We have one week left. One week to prep, pack, and double check everything that we have packed.

For those of you not in the loop, you will not have known that in the past three weeks we have been on a wild ride getting ready for this upcoming weekend. We usually start planning our retreat in January, and follow through with details until the event in October. This year we were definatly ahead of the game, and everything was done at the beginning of September. We sighed out a deep breath, and said 'great, now we can relax.' That was until three weeks ago when we got the news that the hotel we had booked was closing. So, we started again, and headed off to Winnipeg, and re-planned the retreat. But, since this fun weekend is no longer in our hometown, it will mean doing a little more packing. But the good news is that our new location is right next to a shopping mall. And so for all the things we forget (I always forget my dental floss!!) their is always VISA.

And my favorite part of this past week was cutting all of the kits for our friends. There is just somthing about cutting new fabric, and smoothly folding them into neat little piles that I love. Right now all of the kits are spread out over my studio floor, but in a few minutes, I will take one last look at them, and pack them in a box.

I can hardly wait to see all of you!! And it will only be 7 more days.

till then...
-myra

A little peek

We got his back from the quilter last week. We had two lovely ladies working on this quilt, Velma pieced the top and her sister Lorna machine quilted it. ..another SISTER ACT! Of course this quilt is made with our Cape Cod fabrics and will be an upcoming pattern, debuting at our retreat and open house. That leads me to my next announcement.

Myra and I will be hosting an Open House at the Clarion Hotel in Winnipeg in the Alberta room on Monday, October 15th. Browsing begins at 4:00pm until 7:30pm, from 7:30-8:00pm we will be making a PowerPoint presentation "a year in review" followed by more browsing; 7:30 - 8:00pm. If you would like to pre-register for this event, please email cori@bluemeadowdesigns.com and drop me your name and or the friends that will be joining you.
Looking forward to unveiling our new collection with you!

~cori