Another wonderful surprise!!
Remember when we picked a winner for fabric,? But they had to make quilts to donate to there charity of choice? Well Diane was the winner and this is the letter she wrote to the organization. Here is her story.

"Please find enclosed two more quilts that I have completed for Quilts for Kids, Inc.

As with many quilts, these come to you with a story. Back in November, I won a unique contest on the Blue Meadow Designs website (www.bluemeadowdesigns.com). They offered to give free fabric to a few lucky winners who in turn would make and donate a quilt to charity. Cori Derksen and Myra Harder are quilt designers and have also designed several fabric lines for RJR Fabrics. The patterns I chose are also from Blue Meadow Designs. It is with many thanks for their generous donation of fabric that I was able to complete this project.

In October, I lost two dear friends to cancer. One young lady was a relative that was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 17. She battled that as well as other cancers for 11 years. Denean gave her life to God and served her community as a special needs teacher in the public schools. She was just 28 years old.

My other friend, Betty, was a young lady I met 10 years ago in my sewing club. Every month we’d get together to share ideas about our embroidery/sewing machines and, once a year, our group would take on a charitable project, i.e. sewing mastectomy pillows, blankets for the neonatal ward, etc. Betty, too, succumbed to cancer in October.

I thought it was only fitting to choose Quilts for Kids for my charitable organization since one friend touched the lives of so many children and the other shared my love of sewing. It is in their memory that these quilts were made and with much prayer for the two young ones that will receive them. Thank you for your continued work for such a worthy cause. "

Warm regards,
Diane Van Ryn

The other thing that Diane wrote in her email to us was that she took inspiration from Karen's guest posting on quilting ideas - great to hear.

It sincerely brings tears to my eyes, that we could be apart of Diane's mission, a very generous and touching one. Thanks Diane for making us so proud and creating such beautiful quilts! I think they are gorgeous!! I hope Diane's story has inspired you as it has us.

~c

Where our quilt designs land up?

This was a wonderful email that we received this week. (I asked for permission to post these pictures and share her story)

"I would like to say thank you for the beautiful quilt donation that my daughter Kayley received during her four day stay at the Children's Hospital on the May long weekend. After being diagnosed with a very sudden case of pneumonia, Kayley was unexpectedly admitted to the hospital for 4 days in order to receive IV antibiotics. Having a special blanket (in her favorite green color) was very comforting for her. The picture of her with the quilt was taken on her third day. To this day she still enjoys sleeping and playing with the quilt. " grandma Leona.

So I had to email her back, and she went on to tell me that another special friend of ours Barb Hayward had made this quilt for the hospital to donate. What a small world and THANKS Barb for being SO generous!! (this is the turtle twirl pattern and it looks like she enlarged the pattern to be twin size) And the other good news is that Kayley recovered and is doing GREAT!

It is so fabulous when we hear that our designs have touched someone else.

~c

What's in a name?

Tonight, Cori is away from her computer, so what do I do when I need her to answer a question for me? I have decided to take my plight public.

This is the computer generated copy of our latest quilt design. From the day it was on the drawing board, I called it "hugs & a smooch". Then, our insightful friend Judy pointed out that the X is a kiss, and not a hug. Thanks Judy - so we changed the name to 37 kisses.

I have spent the last few weeks, piecing this quilt together for my daughter. Well, while piecing 37 kisses, I made at least 37 piecing errors! I told Cori that I was happy when it was done! Today I finished it, layed it out for the last final look, and realized that one section of blocks was pieced wrong. Grrrrr. Well, I fixed it, and tonight I sat down to finish the project, and write the instructions. Grrrr, I found another error! Did you find it? There are only 36 kisses on the quilt!

So, tonight I threw out the name, and asked my daughter, what should I name it? Her suggestion - 'the kisses quilt'.

And now I am asking all of you. What would you name this quilt? Once it has a name, this project can finally be edited, photographed, and set to print. So for the next week, (until next Sunday night) leave your favorite name for this project.

see you again soon.

myra

Snapshot
It's been uber busy, but I dropped in to share one new photo with you. We gave a pile of quilts to our friend Marcy, and told her to go out and have some fun. And she did! You will be seeing more of her great photography popping up in the future.


It's only January, but we are already starting to move into high speed, so that we will be ready for Market in May. A lot of projects have been underway, so keep checking back to see what is coming and going through the studio.

see you soon.
myra

New year...new projects

It's only Jan. 2nd right? Otherwise I would be late in posting...and that never happens! Today Cori and I spent a FULL day being computer geeks, and getting all of our programs and files transferred, and compatible with our new computers. At one point, when we were almost over our heads with technology and electronic components, I looked at Cori and thought "Arn't we designers? Don't we use pencil and paper, and draw things?? So where did all of this come from?" But isn't it surprising how much electronic do-hicky's are now a part of our everyday life.

But back to the picture. For Christmas, I decided to make several gifts for my kids. The thought came to me this summer, when Cori and I each made up a giant PEACE body pillow. When it was done, I thought it would look really good in my son's room, so I decided it would be a gift for him. Well, then I then I needed to make one for my daughter. Cori and I came up with an equally cute and cool pillow for Robyn. My kids loved these gifts, and have been dragging their pillows everywhere in the house.

And of course, while we were designing this pair of pillows, we accidentally designed a few dozen more...and you will be seeing them pop up on our site really soon.

see you later,

myra

HAPPY New Year!

Welcome to 2010! We have had a beautiful, and snowy Christmas, but I am ready to pack away the tree, and start experiencing all the possibilities of this new year. Cori and I have a lot to share with you, and it will start tomorrow.

For today, I am conducting a test, to see how long it will take Cori to call me after she sees this post. I tried to call her today, but I couldn't get her on her home line, or her cell, so I decided to leave her a message where she would see it. So Cori - Santa left you something at my house.

We have been waiting for these new pieces of office equipment, and they will be put to immediate use. Lately we have been having a few gremlins running through our computers, so we now hope to have a fix to all of those problems. Now I just have to read a few manuals.....or maybe I could borrow Cori's brother....























So tomorrow I will try to round up pictures of all of the new projects that we created over the past month, and hopefully, they will inspire you to try something new in 2010.

see you soon.
myra