Day 57 - of 100 Days of Quilts

Prairie Acres

Today we are going back to the beginning. Do you remember me talking about the absurdly long village I created when I learned how to paper piece? Well, that long row of houses inspired other villages, city streets, country school houses, and churches. We had so many idea's that we put them all together, and sent them off to Martengale & Co. And that is how our first book was created.

When you send in a book proposal, there is a lot of information that needs to go along with it. You also need to send a sample of your work, so that they can look at your workmanship to make sure that it is up to their standards. This is the project that we made to send a long with our proposal. Well, actually this is the second version of the project.

We have had an enormous education in writing books, and magazines. We first created this book using 5" blocks. As we went through the process of writing the book, we realized that the actual 'print area' on a page is 7" x 9". So if we kept the blocks this size, it would greatly increase the number of pages in the book, which would increase the cost of printing, which would ultimately increase the final price tag of the book. So, we re-created this project using 4 1/2" blocks, so that 2 blocks could be printed on each page. And we also made sure to keep these measurements in mind as we created the other chapters as well. (You can have great quilt creations in your head, but when you have to put them down on paper, you may have to edit your grand idea.)

Our first book 'Down in the Valley' was broken into four very distinct chapters. The first chapter was called Prairieland, and it was very important to us, because it represented where we live. This small table square has fields as the center, and it surrounded by a farm, a school house, a town and a church. It really was fun to create, and looking at it again, I almost get the itch to start piecing houses again.

See you tomorrow.

-myra

Day 56 - 100 days of quilts

Town and Country CD project

We did this CD for Electric Quilt a number of years ago (Myra will remember the year!) You can still get it if you go to http://www.electricquilt.com/

It was a collection of paper pieced projects, inspired by our first book Down in the Valley. We designed 30 projects under the headings; City Streets, Country Roads, Mountain Trails and Prairie Paths. What's so neat about the CD is you can choose a projects, then you can change it and re-color it and then print out the paper piecing sheets all on your home computer - you become a designer. It has cutting instructions and other tutorials.

So now that I have dug up this CD I am inspired to make some of these projects! The nice thing about the CD is we did not have to make all 30 projects because it is all virtual!! But I must say there are some really good ones in there. We did make a few for display so I will post a few more in the next 44 days! Can you believe that we have posted 56 quilts, It has been amazing for us to see all of our projects. When you have so many it is hard to remember. (yeah, I know boo whoo)

Back to the project at hand...Myra made a sample of this quilt when we did the CD but this one I made for my mom and dad for Christmas a number of years ago. It hangs in the stairwell. The whole thing is paper pieced and all of these projects are larger, some full size bed quilts that are paper pieced! This quilt is probably about 50" square, but I think that Myra's version was larger.

Thanks for watching!

~cori

Day 55 - of 100 Days of Quilts
Out of the blue











What kind of quilt can you make for a young boy? Well, how about an airplane quilt. We usually have a subject in mind when we design a quilt, and this is one that we created last summer.

The top quilt is twin size, and the bottom one is baby size. Both quilts use the same size airplane applique template, and they have the striped quilt backs that we love. We created both quilts using the RJR handsprays, but they would look great done in prints as well.




Cori and I have endless kids quilt ideas, but by the time we get all of them made, our kids will be grown.

See you tomorrow.
-myra

Day 54 - of 100 Days of Quilts

Nantucket Rose

This is DEFINANTLY another one of my favorites. (I have a lot of those) We created this large wallhanging to show off our Cape Cod fabric collection, and I love the way it turned out. I think it is a very classic quilt, with traditional piecing, but in the urn, we created a unique flower arrangement, so that it did have a fun little twist to it. We also chose a very classic color combination, keeping everything in the tan/brown/chocolate family, and only adding a spark of burgundy, and green.

If you ask Cori, she will tell you that this project is 'Myra size' which means that it is probably 70" x 70" square. For some reason, I really do like this size. It's an extra large wallhanging, and I love those. Most people do find this an un-practical size, but I enjoy making quilts, they don't always have to be practical. So I have a question for you. Do you choose projects to make, based on their finished sizes? Because with some quilt patterns, the finished size is really odd. So does that matter to you? Let me know what you think, so that in the future, I know if I need to designs quilt to be a bit more practical.

See you tomorrow.

-myra

Sharing Inspiration
We got this picture e-mailed to us, showing us another idea for what to do with a side border.

Diane made this quilt, which is loosely based on our Baby Blessings quilt (day 8 of 100 Days of Quilts) but she added a verse where we had put a baby initial, and she added a side border of piano keys. My first response was WOW, and my second response was 'why didn't I think of that?' So this is a great idea that could be used in combination with our last quilt we posted, or just to add to the side of any of your other quilts.

Thanks for the idea Diane!

-myra

Day 53 - of 100 Days of Quilt

Banded Lap Quilt

Sometimes we like a quilt so much that we do it twice. The top picture is an A-symmetrical lap quilt that we put into our Love Joy Peace book. But when our Cape Cod line of fabric arrived, Cori envisioned this quilt is a new color palette.

What I like about this design, is that is gives an area for creativity. On our first quilt, we left it open, and simply used a print bird print for this large area. But I think this is where you can get very personal. It would be great to fill this area with a long trailing floral vine. Or how about an urn full of fruit? What I suggested Cori put along the side of her quilt was her family name of 'Derksen'. What do you see in the wide border? We love taking a quilt, and re-thinking it, because with every quilt, there really are so many possibilities.

see you tomorrow.

-myra

Day 52 - of 100 Days of Quilts
Turtle Crawl
I am so anxious to start showing you some of our new quilts, that I am literally taking them out of the box, and posting them on the web! Yesterday I was running to the bus depot, and the mailbox, picking up boxes of quilts. This one came in from Indian Head, Saskatchewan, where a very dear friend actually followed directions! (sorry Joan, I couldn't help it) Cori and I had so many projects that had to be finished in such a short time frame, that we asked some quilting friends to help us out. And that has been a very good decision.

So, today I will finish binding this quilt, and then send it over to Cori, who will get it photographed, and have the pattern printed, so that it will be ready when we start travelling in just a few weeks. Is anyone in Dryden counting down the days until your show? We are. So much has to happen before we can go, but we are really looking forward to seeing all of our friends out there in Northern Ontario.

Now I have to run, and catch the UPS guy. I finished two magazine quilts last night, and I have to get them to Fons & Porter, so that you can see them on your newsstands in a few months.

See you tomorrow.

-myra

April Fools!

Even God likes to play tricks sometimes. Yesterday He sent us over an 1" of snow! But it was the most wonderful, gentle snow fall I could ever remember. The snow actually fell down in clumps. It looked like pieces of quilt batting falling down from above. I tried to capture it on camera, but a picture just can't do it justice. In the picture, the bright white spots are the snow that is falling, and you know the snow is thick when you can actually photograph a snow clump in the air.

-myra

Day 51-of 100 Days of Quilts

Daisy Baby

Today's post is most unusual. That is because it is inspired by lack of space.

Cori and I will be traveling, and attending a lot of upcoming quilting events (yippee, yippee, I can hardly wait!) but that also means that stock of kits, bundles, and fabrics is piling up in the studio. I was actually sorting through my pile of quilts, trying to make them fit into an even smaller area, when I suddenly realized, we just have too many quilts. So, without actually checking with management (a.k.a. Cori) I have decided to have an impromptu 'inventory reduction sale.'

Daisy Baby was a favorite quilt of ours, because at the time, it was radically different than other applique quilts. The large daisy's are plopped on the white front, with some of them even being cut off at the edge. The backing to this quilt is a striped backing, representing the daisy colors. This pattern was kitted by RJR, and it was one of their most successful baby kits. We really loved it, and apparently so did many of you.

The three above quilts are amongst our favorites, but they are samples that we made showing the pattern in different colorways. They are hand appliqued, and machine quilted, with all of the work done my either Cori, me, or my mother. And they are a finished baby size quilt. (I believe they are 40" x 52") The kits are available on our website for $74.95 each. So we are making you a great offer, by letting these quilts go for $99 each. If you are interested in any of them, simply contact one of us by e-mail, and we will get it out to you.

So, now it is back to the studio, and searching for other creative ways to make everything fit.

See you tomorrow.

-myra

Day 50 - of 100 Days of Quilts

Paisley Pinwheels

I have actually been stressing over which quilt I was going to post for day 50! This is the half-way mark, and I was over examining, and over thinking the whole process. So I finally just picked this one.

It was designed and made, and it was already at American Patchwork & Quilting for photography, when we got the call. It wasn't going to be used in the magazine. What? Instead, they wanted to use this quilt, and our profile, to help launch their new site: http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/ If you haven't been there, be sure to stop in and look around. It is a global community of quilters, and they have lots of info to share.

And we always get asked 'Do you have a pattern for this quilt?' Nope. But it is available! If you go to the above mentioned site, and you find 'Cori & Myra' under their list of designers, you will find this quilt and it's directions.

And finally, I have to wrap up this day by shouting out a statement that I rarely get to shout. 'We've inspired someone!!' Good friends of ours - Ione and her daughter Karen, have started their own personal quilt show blog. And after only 3 days, I am hooked. I LOVE looking at what others are doing, and getting new ideas for my own projects. You can follow along too at http://www.ioneandkarenquilts.blogspot.com/ So congrats Ione & Karen, and I will be watching!

See you tomorrow.

-myra

Day 49 - of 100 Days of Quilts

Butterfly Blue
Do you ever dream about quilts? Well, I do. And a few years ago I dreamt up this one. I wanted a large quilt, that would just be a collection of butterflies. The problem with dreaming up a quilt, is that sometimes the reality of it doesn't work. It would be hard to applique the butterflies on such a large surface. So the only solution was to break the quilt down into large 16" blocks.

The applique was done by my mother, and some of the staff of her quilt shop. And in the center of the quilt, around the butterflies are large swirls that are embroidered with 6 strands of embroidery floss. The same design in carried into the borders, where it is only quilted and not embroidered.

This is another quilt that I can see in so many different color palettes. I also think that it would be great to do a table center of this quilt, by using four blocks of butterflies, and also the large wide border. I guess I have another project idea to add to my list.

See you tomorrow.

-myra

Day 48 - of 100 Days of Quilts

Is it spring where you live? I guess according to the calendar, it is spring here too, but the weather really makes me question it.

This is one of the four 'signs' that we made for our fourth book. This is a small (9" x 12"?) appliqued and embroidered project that we stretched around a frame. On occasion we love to use this method of finishing a project, because it makes it look like a piece of art, and not just a quilt.

And that is all I have time to post today...Cori is on her way down, and we will get to work on the new projects. But don't worry, you will be seeing them as soon as we finish.

See you tomorrow.

-myra

Day 47 - of 100 Days of Quilts

Cabana

Hello, hello, hello!! Yes - we are all still alive and well out here in the prairies. And today you will finally have a new quilt to analyse. (I bet Irene is just happy to finally see a new one on our site.) I know that it has been a few days since I have been able to post, but I thought that if I would stop counting the days, maybe my birthday wouldn't show up. I was wrong, but I LOVED reading all of the birthday wishes. It made me smile thinking of the friends I know who left comments, and I wondered if I will ever be able to meet all of the new friends who left wishes as well. So Thank-you everyone who gave me a great birthday.

What did we do while we were missing? Unpacking boxes of fabric! Cori has been working on all of the new pattern releases, and I have been working on getting our fabric samples through customs and into Canada. So we have both been swamped under paperwork. (I bet you think designers get to sit in their studios and draw all day...well, your wrong.) The bulk shipment of our new fabric line should be arriving in stores in the next week or two, and we can hardly wait to get our cuts. Right now we got a small sampling of each fabric, so that we could finish some upcoming magazine quilts. But soon, my studio will be over flowing with Completely Kids fabrics. And do you know the funny thing? When I saw the fabrics for the first time last week, it suddenly hit me - 'Cori and I designed this'. We've been doing this for YEARS, but only this week both sides of my brian clicked together, and for the first time, this fabric really felt like it was mine. Maybe all of these deep insights happen when you hit 35.

Well, in honor of Sara who won the birthday draw, I chose to post this quilt today. It is actually an old project of Cori's, but I asked her to dig it up to share with all of you. It was a fun little paper pieced project depicting where we would like to be during our long cold winters. I cropped it in a little on this picture, because Cori hasn't finished the binding! This is a shocker to me, because she NEVER leaves anything un-done, that is usually my department.

So Sara - this one is dedicated to you. Enjoy those umbrella drinks on the beach, and we will see you soon in the sunny, flat, dry prairies!

I will see you tomorrow.

-myra

The inspiration piece




Here is the picture of the wedding cake that inspired the songbirds quilt. It's not your run of the mill wedding cake...I think it's pretty cool.

AND

on to the next task at hand...the WINNER of Myra's birthday draw is.....SARA G!

Sara drop me an email and we will get this fabric to you. I will post a picture of Myra's fabric picks for Sara in a day or two.

Thanks to all who participated in Myra's Birthday and THANKS all for being loyal 100 days of quilts viewers!!

~cori

Happy Birthday Myra!

This picture was taken a couple of years ago in Toronto at a Trend Tex Trade show. Myra in her element...with bolts and bolts of fabric!
As Myra did for my birthday a few weeks ago, I will do the same. To celebrate Myra's birthday, for any one that posts a "happy birthday" comment on the blog, your name will be entered in a draw for 3.5 yards of Myra's choice of fabrics.



























Day 46 - 100 days of Quilts

Songbirds

Because it's a special day I thought I would share a very special quilt. (hope you don't mind Myra)

This quilt is a very special quilt to us. It was a quilt designed with no purpose other than just for fun. It was to be simple yet stunning. We found inspiration in a Martha Stewart wedding magazine. Believe it or not it was a wedding cake with twigs and birds. I know I have a picture of it, if only I could find it. If I do I will post it later. Part of the inspiration was to enjoy the openness of this design, to concentrate on the top of the quilt. But as usual, we would love to use a print in the open area to see how the quilt would change!! You know us, it's all about options:)

And NO there is no pattern available for it, but it is on the list of things to do. The twigs and birds are hand appliqued by yours truly. I love hand applique, in fact I am taking a break from appliqueing cute little flowers to blog.

This quilt was machine quilted by Jacqueline Pohl, unfortunately this picture does not show it very well.

Myra did not know what I was going to post today, so I am sure she will have some words for you about this quilt.

Day 46 - 100 days of quilts

Retreat 2006

First I must clarify something! We have had a few concerned viewers with our 100 days of quilts not being updated for a few days. Thanks for your concern, everything is OK, just knee deep in fabric. Yeah, I know that's not always a bad prediciment!! We have been a little preoccupied with getting our new projects underway.

With our May retreat just around the corner I thought this quilt was appropriate. This was a quilt design from our 2006 retreat for Bohemian Rhapsody. As you can see, this is A LOT of piecing and paper piecing. This quilt does not belong to us but rather one of our AWESOME students . For this particular retreat we had two choices of projects the pieced version and the applique (we have shown that one in a previous post) Oh how I wish we still had these fabrics.

That has been a real struggle for us lately - giving up the last pieces of our fabrics! Silly I know but when it gets to be the last, it's like having to say good bye. I like moving forward but I also know that when they are gone....they are really gone!

Moving forward - we just got the first cuts of our NEW fabrics on Thursday and they are soooooo CUTE. Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks as we will be sharing more with you.

Don't forget to tune in on Wednesday for another birthday give a way!

~Cori

Day 45 - of 100 Days of Quilts

Lemon Bars - Quilts & More spring 2008

It's another busy at in the office, so I am cheating again, and taking a quilt straight out of a magazine. This is our Lemon Bars quilt that is on news stands now. I had almost forgotten about this project (too many quilts to keep track of) when Cori said that a magazine arrived in the mail. I think in the US, you might have seen this copy for a few weeks already, but it just arrived up here in Canada.

We made this quilt a few months ago (I think it was last September?) and we were very happy with it. But true to form, Cori and I just can't leave 'well enough' alone. So, a few weeks ago, Cori took this quilt layout, and changed up the quit block just a little, and chose a completely different color palette, and she came up with a dynamic new quilt. We will share this new version with you in the future, but it will soon be on it's way to the quilter...so it is unavailable to have it's 'close up' taken.

See you tomorrow.
-myra

Sharing...

We got this e-mail a short time ago, and it surprised us in a lot of different ways.

Do you recognize this quilt? That was a test. We posted it back on day 26, when it was featured in Easy Quilts by Fons & Porter. Well, Christina in Ohio saw that magazine article, and knew just what she was going to do with the design. And when she was done, she sent us the pictures, and a short e-mail that had me impressed for several reasons.

First - Christina saw the quilt in different fabrics. In the magazine, this quilt is done in soft pale blues and tans. But she was able to see the design in Halloween fabrics. And I think it looks stunning.

Second - Christina had this top pieced in a very short time, and she is intending to use it for her Halloween bash in October! Can you believe that? Having a quilt top made 8 months in advance? Hey Cori - has that ever happened to us???



















And third - here is the real shocker. Christina is giving it away! No, I am not kidding. Apparently the quilt will be given away at her Halloween party. Don't you all want to know where she lives!!! Can you imagine! All I will tell you is that she lives in Ohio, so now you have less than 8 months to go door-to-door to in Ohio hoping to find the location of this great party. Maybe this year I should go trick-or-treating with the kids, and poke my nose into all of the houses around here, just to make sure that I am not missing out on some great party where they give away a quilt. Actually...this has just created a new idea. What if, on National Quilting Day (isn't that March 15th?) we all went trick-or-treating to all of our quilting friends, and we all gave away fat quarters and charms squares? I would be giddy for days going through a sack full of new fabrics, just like a kid on Halloween.

So have an awesome party Christina, and don't be surprised if a few hundred quilters show up on your doorstep! And thanks for the inspiration.

See you tomorrow.

-myra

Day 44 - of 100 Days of Quilts

Bohemian Rhapsody - McCalls - Bargello
Here is a quilt that is in our collection, that was someone elses' vision. It appeared in McCalls Quilting last summer, and it was requested by an editor. Of course I have a story of how this project came to be.

The November before our fabric line was to be released, we were at Houston Quilt Market, and we met with the McCalls editor, Beth Hayes. We were talking about various quilt ideas, and we said that we would get her some ideas. She suggested a Bargello, because it had been a while since they had featured one in their magazine.

A Bargello? No problem! We colored many versions of this project, and sent them to her to pick which she liked. Beth gave us a surprise. She wanted the Bargello in Black & White, with a shot of teal running through it. Black & White???!!! I almost asked her if she knew what a Bargello was. We are use to seeing these quilts blended with a lot of colors, which gently flow from one to another. What was this going to look like? But we set to work on the project, and when it was done, I was impressed. Beth Hayes saw a new interpretation of a quilt that many of us assume can only be done one way. And in the magazine, it is photographed on top of a beautiful black grand piano. Beth definatly had a great vision for this quilt, and I guess this explains why Beth is a magazine editor, and I am not!

Talk to you tomorrow.

-myra

Day 43 - of 100 Days of Quilts

How does your garden grow? - Four Seasons of Quilts.

















How often do you see a quilt in an 'Action Shot?' This is my daughter, using the special quilt that she knows was made just for her.

This quilt was one of the project in our 4th book, and like all of our quilts, there is a little story behind it. I have always had a fairly large (it's actually enormous) fabric stash. And in that stash, I have had a large stack of pink fabrics. Why would I ever buy pink? My personal style does not lean toward girly, frilly, or pink. Well, that all changed one Christmas Eve. After a very long hard pregnancy, I had a little girl. It was the best Christmas ever, because not many people came to visit - they were all at their gatherings. So it was just me and her, quietly spending our time together, and suddenly, I started dreaming about pink quilts. Before I left the hospital, I had this quilt drawn out, and I had decided that the background had to be soft pink.


And as it turns out, this quilt perfectly reflects who my little girl is. She LOVES pink, and LOVES flowers, and she is defiantly a girly-girl.

I later decided that I wanted to use one of my favorite stripes for the border, and I wanted to format that border in a different way. The top and bottom borders are wider to help make it a more balanced finished size, and they are 'framed' with a narrow border of green.

And I am sorry that I didn't get this quilt posted yesterday, but Cori and I had a very full day of planning new quilts, buying fabrics, and organizing the arrival of the first cuts of fabric from our new line. So in the very near future, my basement will be flooded with fabric, and you will be seeing A LOT of new designs.

See you tomorrow.

-myra

Day 42 - of 100 Days of Quilts

Lone Star - Traditional Quilts to Paper Piece

Today I picked another small, but sunny tablerunner. It was a project in our third book, and it has been hidden away for a while. It has been fun pulling out past projects, and seeing them again. This little runner has lots of little pieces. Each of the stars is paper pieced, in 8 sections! But if you persevere through the work, you will have a great project when you are done.

If you look the project up in the book, it is shown in another colorway of red, white, and blue. So it would make a great little quilt for a 4th of July B.B.Q....and if you start now, you just might get it done in time.

See you tomorrow.

-myra

Completely Kids sneak peak #2
"boy"


I am back and before I get to the picture above I want to give a BIG shout out to all of you have left me a birthday comment!! It was so much fun to read them and see how quickly they came in. As Myra told you, I was gone for a few days over my birthday and the break was lovely. I shopped, ate, spent time with my husband, met my cousin for lunch and just enjoyed my quiet time travelling alone. Anyway, thanks a bunch for making my birthday extra special. Oh and congrats to the winner of the fabrics - we all want to see what you do with it.

Ok back to the picture...this is a few fabrics for our "boy palette". I am quite partial to the turquoise and green palette myself. If only I could remember how to get a graphic of our patterns designs onto the blog I could share the designs with you to. If you get our newsletter you will have seen the mock ups of the covers. Our very first cuts of this fabric should be arriving anyday now and that means our "staff" is waiting in the wings for their projects.

Have a great week-end and we will see you tomorrow with Day 42 (i think).

~cori

p.s I have been busy putting the binding on 3 new quilts and I am finishing up a fourth...can't wait to share them with you, better get back to it then.