Another game

So hopefully you all have your copy of American Patchwork and quilting already. So now we can play another game! In about 2 weeks you will see another design by yours truly, for McCall's quilitng.

Here is a tear sheet that inspired the project in McCall's. This is the game...what in this picture do you think has inspired the project? Have fun and be creative.

Things are still buzzing about, working on ALL kinds of new stuff . I hate to say it you won't have to wait too long to see the new fall releases....not that we have actually had summer weather yet.

oh well, I hope you have fun with the guessing.

~c

is that your final answer?

Well Jill was right...but she saw the magazine! I loved the guessing, you guys are so creative. But
"ahead of the curve" is the final answer.

This queen size quilt is made up of Bold prints and bright white to make this stunning quilt. We took a traditional block and mixed up Heather Bailey's fabric collections Bijou and pop garden and came up with this modern looking bed quilt. Our friend Jaqueline Pohl did an amazing job with the quilting. We took the inspiration from one of the fabrics for the funky floral motif.

To top it all off...Electric Quilt emails us today and wants to feature our design on their blog! They saw the quilt and they know WE EQ, so they want to share with their readers how we design. I think that's cool.

So if you don't have this issue, October 2009 Issue 100...go out and find it because kits will be available on our website for $135.00(includes shipping).

Maybe Myra can write a new riddle for the next release...what do you think? Good idea??

~c

Where oh where?
has all the time gone? Summer is just slipping away so fast. It sure hasn't been Hot in Southern Manitoba, but at least the sun shines. It is so hard to be inside when it's finally nice out but work still goes on.

Over these next few weeks I will share you you some of our newest projects and there are many!

The 2 quilts in the picture are for a pattern we developed for Robert Kaufman Fabrics called Heartstrings. It features a new collection of fabrics, chick-a-dee and chick-a do by SEI. For those of you who are scrapbookers you will notice the name! You can see the quilting very clearly in the photo, but in the boys quilt there are "strings" of stars and in the girls quilt there are "strings" of hearts.
The pattern will be available by August 15th in our shop.

I hope your summer is going well.

~c

Coming Soon

We have mentioned that their will be a lot of our projects featured in magazines this fall, and you will be seeing them on shelves very shortly. It has been hard to keep all of the 'insider info' to ourselves, so we have devised a way to give you a few hints.

This is actually the method my brother and I would use on each other in our teenage years. We would never write out the other person's phone message, we would draw a riddle instead...and if you couldn't figure out the riddle, you never got your message. (Here's an example. If John called, by brother would draw a toilet.) There were some pretty creative drawings going on in our house. However, we will take it a little easier on you.



+ 2



you will find our project in an issue of









And the name of the project is:











And it features the fabric from this designer.

Anyone want to take a guess?

See you soon.
myra

Figgy Pudding in Time Square













Here is your skill testing question for today. What does this quilt, and the Nordic quilt from the last post have in common? Answer - they were made using fabrics from the same collection. Both quilts were done using Figgy Pudding by Moda fabrics.

When we looked at this large collection, we could see many different things being done with it. I have a tiny pet peeve about quilts representing a fabric collection having every print in one single quilt. When you break collection apart, you can often achieve a greater range of design. I think Nordic and Times Square show this concept. If we had used the same prints in both quilts, they would have looked the same, and neither of them would have stood out.

Nordic is a quilt with large open spaces, that handle bold, large scale prints. Times Square is a quilt with a lot more structure, and you would not see it's great lines, if you used bold, large scale prints. This quilt is an example of where great supporting prints can make an equally great quilt.

And if you would like to make a Times Square for yourself, we did put one kit into our Etsy shop. And for the locals, you can run over to Annie's Sewing Center, and see this quilt hanging beside the Nordic quilt. You will be able to compare the quilts, and see what can be done with a wide range of fabrics from one collection.

So which one grabs your attention? The big and bold Nordic quilt? Or the smaller structured Times Square?

Thanks for dropping by, and I will see you again soon.
myra

Christmas in July

I am very happy to report that we haven't had a snow fall in the past 3 months (knock on wood) but there was an occasion several years ago when it did snow in July.

However, what does pop into quilt shops this time of year is Christmas fabric. Most shops place their orders for Christmas prints back in March, and they are shipped out over summer.

This past spring, Cori and I got to play with a fabric line from Moda called Figgy Pudding by Basic Gray. If you are a scrapbooker, you may recognize the name and prints, because they were first available in paper. Cori and I were asked to take these great prints, and create quilted projects with them....and here is your first look.

Nordic is an easy favorite of ours, because it is so very different. We had first designed this layout to use at a different time, so it was originally designed with large flowers, and bright colors, but when we saw these fabrics, we changed our theme. Cori is the daring one who decided to do brown snowflakes, and I think that it is a great (and certainly not traditional) choice.

We first showed this project to our retreat students, who had first chance at buying a kit, but we have now put the last few up for grabs. We have put one Nordic kit up for sale in our Esty shop.

But if you happen to be a local you can run down to Annie's sewing center here in Winkler, to pick up the other kit, and to see the quilt first hand.

Enjoy your summer sunshine!

See you soon.
myra

Preaching to the Choir

I wanted to take a quick minute to share a blog that I found the other day. It is a great clothing pattern company called Oliver + S.

They had a wonderful article about how they do not use lead prints in fabric collections in many of their products. This is something that Cori and I have in common with them. Very often it is the supporting or the secondary prints that are more usable than the leads. However, you will have a very hard time convincing a fabric company of this. Through our personal past experience, there is a huge importance, and pressure on you to create a lead print for your fabric collection. Cori and I both struggle with this, because we feel that it is equally important to have workable supporting prints. Fabric company exec's need a lead, so that they can give the collection a name. Sale's rep's need a lead print, so that they know what is the 'theme' of the collection. But quilters need something deeper. How many leads can you put into one project? Often it is the quiet, over-looked support prints, that ultimately are needed to create great projects.

And that's my sermon for tonight.

See you soon.
myra

Happy Canada Day!!!














I am sure that I use this picture every Canada Day, but I just haven't made anything new with the Canadian flag on it for a long time. Maybe that should be one of my new challenges this summer.

So I don't know where we will end up today, but I am sure that it will involve kids, ice cream, water, games, and fireworks. Let me know where you spent your day, but where ever you are, take a quick minute to appreciate being Canadian. We live in a country where we have free medical care, freedom of religion, vast beautiful wilderness, and beer.

What a great country, EH.

See you soon.
myra