Black Cats, Spell Books, and Candelit Ouija Boards are featured in this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern…a spooky pieced quilt with a witch’s feline assistants sprawled among the magical tools.
Order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our thousands of fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.
You may know that in March 1999, Paul and I started our business in the basement of our home. We started out specializing in Asian imported fabrics and Bali batiks. My years living in Asia, and having family members in Hawaii, gave us a special appreciation for these beautiful fabrics. Adopting a baby from China deepened our love of Asian fabrics.
Today we still have a special place in our hearts for these categories, but they are much harder to find, and keep in stock. So when we have a week like this, with Hawaiian Batiks,Island prints, Asian Florals, Asian Blenders, and Japanese magazines, it brings a smile to our faces. Since many of our suppliers have cut way back on these categories, we have to dig a little deeper to locate these products, and some of them are exclusive to eQuilter. If you share our love of Asian and Island fabrics and are not quite ready to travel, take a little vacation in our carefully curated Asian Department.
This weekend I had a photo op, to take images of raptors with a local non-profit called Hawk Quest. Many of you know Gail Garber who is the executive director of Hawks Aloft in Albuquerque, and also a brilliant quilt artist and teacher. In fact she is a fellow Bernina Ambassador. The raptor rescue world is a small one – like the quilting world – and so the guy who runs Hawk Quest of course knows Gail. (Hey Gail – Dan says hi!) Anyway I had a fantastic photo session with several owls, a bald eagle and a kestrel. Maybe you will see them in our exclusive fabric line one day.
July 29 – Aug 1 – Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK “For the Love of Gaia” quilt gallery Aug 7 – Zoom lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” for Birmingham Festival of Quilts Sept 27 – Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters Guild – Lecture. Oct 23-30 – Houston Quilt Market & Festival Dec 4 – Zoom lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” – Quilt Canada Jan 12 – Apr 9, 2022 – New England Quilt Museum (NEQM) “For the Love of Gaia” quilt exhibit Sat, March 19 – “International Quilt Trends” power point lecture – NEQM
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To make this 53″ x 64″ quilt design, you will start with this Rubin Studio exclusive 29″ x 44″ panel, then piece Northcott clouds and Stonehenge textures to create the diamond border. This quilt makes a special gift for Bird-Watchers and Harry Potter fans!
Order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our thousands of fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.
It has been a great year to make quilts, read books, bake sourdough bread, and maybe adopt another cat. We know that many of you are bookworms and cat lovers….but how many of you are that exquisite combination of bookaholic and crazy cat lady? (or laddie)
At our house, my stacks of books are often referred to as the Tower(s) of Doom. But I am an avid reader on several topics, and there is often at least one of our 3 cats nearby when I settle in with the evening’s opus. I do collect antique travel books, but my Tower of Doom includes an eclectic range of topics from textile history to indigenous botany and beyond.
Recently I came across the term “Epistolary Book” and had to look up the meaning. It is a book based on letters or diary entries. That sent me off on a exploration of literary terms and I share these with you now for our mutual amusement:
Lectiophile – the love of reading.
Librocubicularist – someone who reads in bed.
Logomaniac – one who is obsessed with words.
Sesquipedalian – one who likes to use long words.
Vellichor – the strange wistfulness of used bookstores.
Bibliosmia – the enjoyment from smelling old books.
And why is there a hint of a vanilla scent in antique books? Lignin, which is in all wood-based papers, is closely related to vanillin. As it breaks down, the lignin gives a hint of the vanilla scent in the aging pages.
When you combine your love of quilting and books and cats, you get an evening snuggled under a book-themed lap quilt, reading an epistolary volume, with a warm purring kitty on your lap.
…sharing your love of fabric, and books, and cats…. Luana and Paul
Quilt Calendar: (fingers crossed!)
June 13 – Zoom Lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” – Quilt National/Dairy Barn
July 29 – Aug 1 – Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK “For the Love of Gaia” quilt gallery
Aug 7 – Zoom lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” for Birmingham Festival of Quilts
To make this 41″ x 58″ quilt design, you will start with the magical 24″ x 44″ panel, filled with luminous butterflies ascending out of a deep Violet and Black background. You will piece the border with 3 collection coordinates plus a Kona Solid Black, which really makes the dazzling rainbow colors POP!
Order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our thousands of fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.
As we slowly work our way through this transitional time, hopefully out of the pandemic, it is normal to go from high gear to exhaustion. A couple months ago I said to Paul – I wish I could take a week off just to sleep. Well, I got my wish but not the way I wanted. After a week at the nursing home managing my mom’s movement to a more intense level of care, the next week I had a pinched nerve and back spasm and spend the holiday weekend and most of last week flat on my back in bed. Yeah, be careful what you ask for. If you’ve been spending a lot of time in a chair on Zoom, be careful that first time you get back out to your pre-pandemic activities!
If you live in Colorado, please visit the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, to see Barbara Yates Beasley’s current exhibit! We’ve put together an interview video with Barbara on our video page – check it out if you have a few minutes. Her animal portrait quilts are amazing.
We’d like to give a warm welcome to Lindsye, our new warehouse manager. She fits in with our brightly colored fabrics, because she has bright pink hair. With her background at the Denver Art Museum, and managing at our local Pier 1 (until it closed during the pandemic), she brings an appreciation for art and textiles to our team. Also – small world – her dad was the conductor for a summer camp orchestra that Sophie attended a few years ago!
Also I’d like to brag a little about Sophie – she has finished her freshman year at CU Boulder as a music education major – and has made the Dean’s List. She’s working at eQuilter over the summer. Tonight we’re going to our first live music concert in over a year – a “Tiny Deck” concert on the back patio of her previous violin teacher’s house up in the mountains. This is the teacher who led Sophie and a group of students on a Swedish Fiddle Tour 3 years ago. We are looking forward to some folk fiddling and Nickelharpa tunes among the pine trees this evening. I hope you are also enjoying some post-pandemic activities this weekend that will fill your heart and soul with creative juices.
Next weekend I will be giving an online lecture “International Quilt Trends” for the Dairy Barn, as a Quilt National fundraiser. I hope you can join us.
…sharing your love of fabric, Luana and Paul
Quilt Calendar: (fingers crossed!)
June 13 – Zoom Lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” – Quilt National/Dairy Barn July 29 – Aug 1 – Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK “For the Love of Gaia” quilt gallery Aug 7 – Zoom lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” for Birmingham Festival of Quilts Sept 27 – Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters Guild – Lecture. Oct 23-30 – Houston Quilt Market & Festival Dec 4 – Zoom lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” – Quilt Canada Jan 12 – Apr 9, 2022 – New England Quilt Museum (NEQM) “For the Love of Gaia” quilt exhibit Sat, March 19 – “International Quilt Trends” power point lecture – NEQM
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To make this 49″ x 62″ quilt design, you will start with a 28″ x 44″ digital printed scenic panel. Then cut and piece 3 Dreamscape coordinates and 2 Rubin Studio Fresco blenders to finish the layered borders. This atmospheric quilt invites you to follow the path, sit on the porch under the big tree, and listen the sounds of Nature.
Order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our thousands of fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.
Most of us are feeling pretty optimistic now, as Summertime has arrived, we are getting vaccinated, public venues are opening up, we are seeing old friends and beloved family IN PERSON after such a long time!
Many of us are tentatively planning travel for the summer….camping under the stars, relaxing at the beach, or hiking in the forest are things that we long to experience again. Many National Parks have put new limitations on them because we are loving them to death, so here in Colorado you have to get a reserved entry time to visit our Rocky Mountain National Park for instance.
Lots of our customers make plans to bring handwork along when they are traveling. This could be the summer when you start to play around with handwork like Kantha stitching, Sashiko embroidery, or Hawaiian Applique. We have all the threads, needles and special thimbles stocked for the summer, to go in your traveling handwork basket!
Or it might be a roadtrip you have planned, and your camera will be your most creative tool in the backpack or around your neck. Those photos can be the inspiration for next Winter’s projects! Maybe there will be a good book in that backpack too…
Perhaps after you’ve traveled and come home, you’ll want to commemorate your travels with National Parks fabric panels, or blocks with the states you have visited. We are well stocked with these now, and we’ll try to keep this category well stocked throughout the travel season.
We know from pre-pandemic travel seasons that you also like to buy fabrics to remember your visits to the coastline, the mountains, the islands, and activities such as snorkeling and horseback riding. Our goal is to carry fabric for all those activities, because we know you love to cut up and sew those fabrics after you create such precious memories.
The best part about these memories is sharing them with the people we love. It will indeed be A Summer of Love.
…sharing your love of fabric, Luana and Paul
Quilt Calendar: (fingers crossed!)
June 13 – Zoom Lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” – Quilt National/Dairy Barn
July 29 – Aug 1 – Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK “For the Love of Gaia” quilt gallery
Aug 7 – Zoom lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” for Birmingham Festival of Quilts
To make this generous-sized 86″ x 86″ quilt, you will combine two ‘Glass Flower’ medallion prints with ‘Chromatic Garden’ coordinates and ‘Reflecting Leaves’ tonals, then finish with an amethyst ‘Floating Flowers’ outside border. The swirling colors remind us of millefiori patterns and the marbleized colors found in the blown glass of Murano. (an island off Venice, where the ancient glass-blowing industry still exists.) Enjoy!
Order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our thousands of fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.
For many of us in the US, the long Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of Summer.
Memorial Day takes on a whole new meaning this year, for those who have lost loved ones in the pandemic year. We remember those who are long gone, and those who were recently lost. It is a reminder that life goes by faster every year, and every day is a gift with those whom we love.
So many of our elders were defined by the conflicts of their time, and we remember those lost in wars, and those who served and lived to tell the tale. Paul’s dad was a WWII vet. Both his parents now rest at the Punchbowl Memorial Cemetery in Honolulu. We thank whoever put a flag on their grave this weekend.
Here in Boulder, and in many other communities, we also remember those recently lost in mass shootings. Last week’s shooting in San Jose prompted the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles to ask us all to help those impacted by donating to Working Partnerships USA ‘VTA Solidarity Fund‘. But I keep asking, when will we say enough is enough? The trauma to the Boulder community continues to unfold, as it does in every other community affected by these mass shootings. Our hearts go out to the San Jose community.
Last night was the Awards Ceremony for Quilt National at the Dairy Barn in Athens Ohio. Congratulations to the 84 artists whose work was accepted into this prestigious and very competitive show. There were 747 entries from 388 artists in 6 continents! Special congratulations to Canadian artist Kit Vincent who won Best of Show with her quilt “Fracas”.
In 2 weeks I will be giving an online lecture “International Quilt Trends” for the Dairy Barn, as a fundraiser. I hope many of you can join us, and please do donate some amount for your ticket.
…sharing your love of fabric, Luana and Paul
Quilt Calendar: (fingers crossed!)
June 13 – Zoom Lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” – Quilt National/Dairy Barn July 29 – Aug 1 – Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK “For the Love of Gaia” quilt gallery Aug 7 – Zoom lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” for Birmingham Festival of Quilts Sept 27 – Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters Guild – Lecture. Oct 23-30 – Houston Quilt Market & Festival Dec 4 – Zoom lecture “Intl Quilt Trends” – Quilt Canada Jan 12 – Apr 9, 2022 – New England Quilt Museum (NEQM) “For the Love of Gaia” quilt exhibit Sat, March 19 – “International Quilt Trends” power point lecture – NEQM
