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

Sister Act.

With everything that has been flowing through our studio lately, it was a real treat to stop and really appreciate some of the work. To help us with our deadlines, we enlisted the skills of some of our former co-workers.

Their is a talented sister pair, who Cori and I use to work with at our local quilt shop. One of the sisters, Lydia, very quickly pieced together a quilt top for us, that has already been sent off to the quilter. You will be seeing in a magazine next spring. And the other sister, Meg, did all of the applique work that is in this picture. It will be the center piece for another Cape Cod project. I really like the way that it has turned out. It has a modern touch to it - because it has a chocolate background, and modern flowers....no roses in my bouquet! Cori is working on the piecing that will go around this center, and you will be able to see the finished piece in a few more weeks. And I already know that is will be one of my favorites.

-myra

Show & Tell

I was at my local grocery store today and came across this magazine...looked inside and found "In stitches" guess who's fat quarters those are on the right hand side? OURS! Bohemian Rhapsody fat quarters are in this months Country Living magazine. This is kind of neat just because this is not a "quilting" magazine. We had sent out some fabric samples and Charolotte at Country living called me and said that they would like to include our fat quarters in a special interest section of this months magazine...Neat.

Another show and tell item is the this totally cool wall hanging! A customer emailed me this picture today and I just had to share. (love getting those pictures!!) It is not that noticable on the picture but there is actually beading all over it. This was a gift...lucky recipient.



"Show and Tell"items (how can you tell I have a child in Kindergarten :) Wether it's something you have done with our fabrics, patterns etc. please do share. I think I can speak for the "whole class" when I say....we would ALL like to see!

I hope you all received our September newsletter. It as full of all kinds of upcoming fun stuff! Go to http://www.bluemeadowdesigns.com/ to add your name to our list!

Have a great day...

cori

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the '7 year' nap

I know Cori blogged last week that all of our kids are now in school...but I couldn't help but expound upon this point. We both have great kids, but my kids were created with a unique characteristic. They never napped. EVER! I couldn't believe it when other mothers would talk about their children having a morning nap, and afternoon nap, and go to bed at 7:00 pm. That was a gene my children definatly didn't have.

And so, in the past ten years, with our four small children under foot, Cori and I designed and published over 100 quilt projects. We created and designed in between feeding kids, washing floors, burning potatos (sorry Cori :) and all the other tasks that had to be done. I don't know if I will be able to design with both eyes on the paper...because one eye is always looking out to see where the kids are.

So, now with every afternoon free, I can see one of two things happening.
A: having more ideas than I can possibly ever draw on paper
B: being very well rested.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but today, I am taking that nap. Because I have waited 7 years for this afternoon.

-myra

Coming & Going


I quickly grabbed the camera today, to try and capture what the past few days have been like. It seams that my office is now a shipping depot, with boxes arriving, and being sent everyday. I also have to thank my amazing neighbours, who have saved a few boxes left on my front step. A few weeks ago a neighbour rescued a box full of the new handspray samples, and thanks to her, we were able to make the Lemon Slice quilt....and yesterday, the real handspray yardages arrived. The colors really are very lush.We will have the new colors available online in a few days, and you can find them under our 'shop' page...just scroll down below the bohemian fabrics. And it also means that we can start cutting the kits for the Lemon Slice quilt. I can hardly wait. I really do love cutting fabric, and folding it into neat little piles.

And the rest of the boxes? Well, we have had a few quilts returned to us, but in the picture, you can see a glimps of a quilt that is being shipped out in the morning. I can't show you any more, you will have to wait to see it next spring in an issue of Quilts & More. It is from the new Cape Cod fabric line, and it is very soft and sweet. The fabrics for Cape Cod should be shipping in a few more weeks, and we will have them online by mid October. There are also a few more quilts being made right now from this line, and you will be able to see them very soon.

So, I am off to pack a few more boxes, and call the UPS guy. And then I get to lovingly unpack the new fabric, and put them in the shelves.

-myra

Happy BACK to SCHOOL

Yesterday was the first day of school in our city. Myra and I both have kids starting Kindergarten, which means half days everyday and our oldest are in grades 3 & 2. This extra half day is going to be busy, trying to soak up every oppertunity to work without kids around - we have NEVER worked without kids around (welll occasionaly we get babysitters to watch the kids while we have a work day) but this is different.(guilt free you could say:) ) Kindergarten is always a extra special busy year, half days means lots of driving, especially for me because I live in the country and my kids take the bus in the morning, but I have to go to town to get my "kindergartener"!!

Well if any of you others have school age children, I hope their year has started off as well as ours did and that everyone stays happy and healthy and learns A LOT!

~Cori

Lemon Slice
I mentioned the un-packing of a quilt. This quilt is for a pattern that we will be releasing the middle of september. It uses nine RJR handspray fabrics. We will also be offering kits in the shop as well. Our friend Karen Greaves (I have mentioned her before) machine quilted this for us and wow. The quilting just makes this quilt pop! Did I mention Karen just uses her regular sewing machine? Amazing !Just thought I would just share a little "slice" of it with you. ~Cori

Happy Labour Day Long weekend!
These last few days have been full. From labeling school supplies, getting a quilt back from the quilter, putting the binding on, getting projects ready for Cape Cod, but one of the highlights of yesterday was getting this rather large box of goodies. You are probably assuming that I received fabrics and quilting supplies ...nope. Our brand new Canon Rebel XTi arrived and needless to say I have been snapping A LOT of pictures. These six are just a few images from my yard that tell me fall is fast approaching! Wild grass, sunflowers, apples, the bottom left is a picture of a humming bird, pumpkin and a bumble bee. I take a lot of pictures...and now with this awesome camera....I will be taking EVEN more and just wait till Myra gets her hands on it!! So you can expect to see a lot more pictures on our blog.

Happy long week-end:)

~Cori

Cover Girl
No not Myra or myself but our quilt has made the cover of Quilts and more!
Many months ago we were asked to submit some designs to Jill, the editor of Quilts and more, using RJR fabrics, So you sew fun too! collection. This was one of those moments were Myra and I needed to "step out of the box". This collection was bolder and brighter than we had ever worked with before. But...you know what, it has made us turn a corner in our designing process AND as it turns out "Exclamation" is one of our favorite quilts!! So we made the quilt and sent it on it's way...then Jill called and asked if we could design some coordinating pillows. You will see those pillows inside the magazine. (I can't give away all the secrets - run out and buy a copy!)

Don't be scared to try something new...I can say that...we did it and it turned out to be a great experience, a new page in our career. We have been in something like 14-15 magazines, but never a cover. Some of you have emailed us already to send congrats our way and many thanks for that.

Today I am working on the next project for Quilts and more using our Cape Cod collection, it doesn't have a definite name yet, but I can say it's pretty and soft. Simplicity has kind of been our thing lately. I will sneak a picture of it when it's a little more complete.

~Cori

Look...

what came today! So excitting to get our cuts of fabrics to make Seven quilts all using our Cape Cod fabric collection. Three are for patterns by blue meadow designs, Three others for magazines, and One for our retreat!

We will post our patterns really soon. I hope you are excitted and the fabrics and patterns will be in our shop in October!

~Cori

a little bit different

I had been wanting to do a layout with our fabrics for sometime and well when there is so much work to do it is hard to just play. Yesterday was the day I decided, work would have to wait a bit! I went through my scrap basket, fired up the sewing machine and away I went.

I made this 12" x 12"layout using 5- 2" x 11" strips of bohemian Rhapsody fabrics, zig zag stitched around each strip, then I layered a 4" x 12" piece overtop and staight stitched on the top and bottom of this piece. I took a 5" x 7" sepia tone photo, chipboard embelishments (which I painted to match), buttons and a personlized journaling block to layer on top of the fabrics and "ta da" my first fabric /scrapbook layout. Not rocket science I know, but I am very pleased with the results. It was a lot of fun playing again too. You should try it.

We also have a project coming out in Quilts and more this fall that is not a quilt, but an interesting spin on a desk calendar.

What types of non-quilt items have you embelished with fabrics? I am working on a new design to re-cover and embelish a chipboard album. Hope you enjoyed this tidbit of inspiration.
~cori

Cruising to Alaska!

We're going to Alaska!!! Do you want to come too? We got a very exciting phone call a few weeks ago, inviting us to teach aboard a cruise ship that travels along the coast to Alaska. What an amazing invitation. We still had a lot of questions, and details to figure out, so we didn't talk about this great opportunity too much, but now that everything is in line...we want everyone to know.

The above photo is the ship 'Serenade of the Seas' and it will be the cruise liner that we will be teaching on. There is more information about the date, the schedule, and the ship under our 'events' page. We have met a wonderful lady named Wendy Smith, who has experience organizing these quilting/cruising events, and she will be taking care of all of the details for our trip as well. Her name and information is also found on the 'events' page, so please feel free to contact her with any additional questions that you may have. We won't be leaving port until next August, but all of the spots to be part of the class will probably be filled by December.

Getting out to new places, and meeting other quilters is the best part of what we do. This last week, Cori and I had a few days of being bogged down by many small tasks, and bookwork, and when we needed a boost, we would just start talking about our upcoming retreat. We are almost to the point where we will start counting down the days. I keep reading over the list of women who are coming, and I can hardly wait to see them again...and to meet the new names who made it in this year.

So, we will be seeing many of you soon! Take care until then.

-myra

More news!




For the quilt related news...check out Quiltmaker. We designed this quilt for RJR fabrics So You sew fun too! collection. This design lends itself to all the beautiful, big and bold prints that are so popular. So don't be scared to buy them, they aren't as hard to use as you think -


just keep the quilt design simple.
Now for the personal news. As you can see this kids are doing okay. This picture was taken last saturday at our local Harvest Festival parade. The kids are adjusting well to their casts and Kierra to her crutches. But when I said I needed a "break" this was not what I had in mind!! :) Thanks for all of the well wishes either on the blog or via my personal email, greatly appreciated. Here's to better luck and a great fall!

~Cori

Deep End of the Ocean

I had to post a blog today, because we not only share our good days with you, but also our bad. And Cori had a really, really BAD weekend.

I will keep it short and sweet, and only post the bare facts. During the weekend, her daughter was jumping on the trampoline, and broke her ankle. After many long hours in the hospital, her daughter was home with a cast and crutches.

The very next day, her son has a simple fall on the backyard slide, and breaks his arm between his sholder, and his elbow. Cori spent 6 hours with him in the hospital while they tried to figure out how to cast this very difficult break.

It will mean a whole new routine at Cori's house for the next few weeks, as both children will need her help. However, I am confident that if anyone can organize, and make a plan of attack on how to handle these circumstance, it is Cori. It just means that her full plate, just got a little fuller.

So her weekend was miserable, and then she calls me today (monday) with more news.....the dog died. I could not make up a story as sad as what this one really is. Unfortunatly I started laughing. Not because I thought it was funny, but because her life now sounded like a country western song. But take this as a compliement Cori - because God does not give us more than we can handle - so apparently you can handle a lot!

So for this entry, I went through some of our old photo's, and I found this one. It was three years ago this month that we first flew to L.A. to meet RJR. And during that exciting and overwhelming trip, we had a chance to walk down to the beach, where we stood in the soft sand, and had a peaceful day out by the ocean.

And so Cori, I pray that your days will get better, and truly be filled with some great surprises. And when you need me, you know the number.

myra.

Trends
Let it be known that I am a Home Decorating Magazine junky! I have a really hard time not picking up a magazine when I am waiting in line at the grocery store. So yesterday I picked up Canadian House & Home, I must admit this has not been one of my favorites... until recently. It's Canadian so I thought I should give it a chance and I am so glad that I did! This is the latest issue on stands now and what might you suppose drew me to this issue? "Quilts + coverlets Roundup" was on the cover and as I flipped through the pages I saw exactly that and not just one article but many. So here I am today sharing my find and inspiration.
The article "Quilt Trip" really made an impact on me "The recent trend toward handcrafted design gives quilts and coverlets fresh cachet." and I said "AMEN sister!" This has always been our goal when designing quilts and fabric, how can we bring quilting mainstream? Quilts need to be a part of everyday life & home decorating. They need to be accessible to people who wouldn't normally walk into a quilt shop. Myra and I interpret the trends in such magazines when we design our fabric collections. We take these trends and create fabrics that transition between traditional and modern, like I said the other day "contemporary".
The other thing I find interesting in this article is two words "Pale Pastels" another thing you will find in our Cape Cod collection, coming soon. I hope you find this information helpful and as interesting as I do. Whether your quilts are antique or modern in style incorporate them into your everyday.

Cori