Boxing Day and Cleansing Tears

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Luana

Sewing in the time of COVID-19 – Week 41

Many of you already know that today is Boxing Day – a day-after-Christmas holiday that started out as a day to give to the poor, and has evolved into a shopping day (similar to Black Friday in the US). It is observed in the UK, and countries that used to be part of the British Empire.

It is also the day that Santa Claus takes a well-earned long Winter nap after his trip around the globe, distributing toys to children. Not to mention Santa’s helpers and Mrs. Claus who stay up til 3 am wrapping gifts and stuffing stockings. (*wink*)

Although the holiday season was different this year, the most important part was thrown into sharp relief: that Love and Family are the bottom line for how we spend Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and the Winter Solstice…depending on what traditions you observe. There was an article in the New York Times today about the Jewish tradition of going out for Chinese food on Christmas Day, because the restaurants in Chinatown were open but nobody else was there on the holiday!

I remember doing this on Christmas Day when I lived in Hong Kong (and New York) because there were so many Jewish friends in the garment and textile industries there, and we’d go out for 15 course lavish holiday dinner parties because we were far from home and without family.

Last night after everyone went to bed, I stayed up and watched 2 Christmas re-runs of Call the Midwife on PBS. One was about the Chinese orphans from Hong Kong, and the other one was about the pregnant mom who couldn’t go into labor until she had talked to the midwives about all the other children she had lost before birth…who were all living in her heart as her children. Both of those Christmas episodes made me cry like a baby because they hit so close to home.

It was good to have a good weeping session at the end of this stressful year, just to have a therapeutic cleansing sob to wash the sadness out of my heart so I can prepare for the new year. Today I found myself full of creative energy and had a profound brainstorming session. I invite you to think about what needs to be cleared out this week, so we can all greet the New Year together with hope and creative defiance a week from now.

with Hope for the Future,
Luana and Paul

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in COVID | Comments Off on Boxing Day and Cleansing Tears

eQuilter Free Pattern – Big Hugs

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Luana

A quilt is a big hug for the bed, and this eQuilter Exclusive Free Quilt Pattern will make the perfect centerpiece to make your little one feel loved when they are under the weather.

You’ll start with a Big Hugs panel, a coordinating book panel, a border stripe, and friendly kitty and mice allover prints. This 61″ x 70″ quilt makes a perfect gift for that special child or grandchild.

… from the ‘Big Hugs’ collection by Jonny Javelin for Henry Glass & Co.

Don’t miss the popular ‘Christmas Eve Pets‘ and ‘Bunny Meadows‘ quilt patterns!

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Free Quilt Patterns, Quilt Pattern, Quilts | Comments Off on eQuilter Free Pattern – Big Hugs

All is Calm, All is Bright….

Posted on December 23, 2020 by Luana

Humans are genetically disposed to look for connections, as we travel through a life full of ever-increasing complexity. We see faces and animals in the clouds. We thrill to the discovery that we have a famous distant ancestor in our genealogy explorations. When we go to a quilt show and start chatting with the strangers next to us, it is not long until we find many things in common, sometimes startlingly so. When we make those connections, it rings a bell. We love to ring that bell.

During this year which defies being tied down by any limited combination of adjectives, we are missing those connections, and therefore when that bell rings, it has so much more meaning. So when the Kilauea volcano explodes, as we are having a once-in-800-year planetary alignment, on the Winter Solstice, we want to see and understand the connections. When we’ve gone through a year of losses and isolation, having to let go of all our expectations, the holidays bring a bittersweetness and a deep yearning for…connection.

For those of us who have suffered a deep loss, such as a beloved spouse, or a child, the hole that is left in one’s heart may be too raw to make a connection. But with time, we realize that in order to heal, we must give to others….the one thing that we crave the most. That sense of being connected.

When we quilt…when we sew all those pieces together to make something greater than the sum of its parts…it is a meditation of connecting. 25 years ago today, we lost our baby daughter Hanna, and I started my journey to heal our hearts. Quilting was part of that journey, but starting this business and then committing 2% of sales to charity, was also part of that healing process. Back then, 30,000 children around the world were dying every day for lack of basics like clean water, basic nutrition and minimal medical care. So we decided to honor Hanna: we would try to do something about those children being lost…and those mothers whose hearts were being broken.

By the end of this month, we will have raised over $1.75 million for a variety of charities and non-profits over 21 years. I write this with humble astonishment, but I share this with you on the Eve of Christmas, because I feel that this year we are all contemplating the true spiritual meaning of the holiday. We wish to express our gratitude for your support for our family business and our charity program, but we also thank you to have trusted us with this vision that we can truly make a difference for those in need.

Wishing you the blessings of Peace and comfort in this holiday season,
Luana and Paul

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Charity, COVID | Comments Off on All is Calm, All is Bright….

Free Quilt Pattern – Solar System Collection

Posted on December 22, 2020 by Luana

To celebrate tonight’s planetary lineup of Jupiter and Saturn, and the Winter Solstice today, we are offering you this exclusive Free Quilt Pattern featuring…The Solar System!

This is a very simple 59″ x 59″ quilt design, using our panel with portraits of 25 planets and moons from our Solar System, plus coordinate prints and Kaufman Kona Solid Black. It is the perfect gift for the budding young astronaut who dreams of visiting the moons of Saturn one day.

… from the ‘Space’ Collection by the Rubin Design Studio, designed exclusively for eQuilter.

Don’t miss the popular ‘Christmas Eve Pets‘ and ‘Living Coastal‘ quilt patterns!

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Free Quilt Patterns, Quilt Pattern, Quilts | Comments Off on Free Quilt Pattern – Solar System Collection

A Christmas Star on the Winter Solstice

Posted on December 21, 2020 by Luana

Sewing in the time of COVID-19 – Week 40

This weekend I am humming that sweet song – “This little light of mine…I’m gonna let it shine…” – inspired by the “Let Your Light Shine” collection at the top of this newsletter.

If you are an astrologer, you are excited about Saturn and Jupiter going into Aquarius in the last few days. If you are an astronomer, you are excited about the conjunction of these 2 planets, creating a “Christmas Star” effect on December 21st, the Winter Solstice.

So as we approach the longest night of the year, we will have this beautiful sight in the sky. I’ve been watching these 2 planets in the Southwest sky, tracking them moving closer and closer every single night. Astrologers know that Pluto is has been lining up with these 2 planets also, but it is not visible to the naked eye. And hey, astronomers don’t care about Pluto anymore, since it was decided it is no longer a planet. But in astrology it is a big deal.

Jupiter passes Saturn about every 20 years, but they are usually one degree apart in the sky. (about twice the apparent diameter of the moon) This time they will be so close together, they will almost merge into one star. This hasn’t happened for at least 400 years, and some say for 800 years. Either way, it is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime celestial event so I hope you have clear skies to enjoy the view, and the beauty of this inspirational lineup.

I also note on my ISS tracker app, we’ll be able to view the International Space Station gliding across the sky here in Colorado at 1:08 to 1:15 am in the early hours of December 21st. Or wait?!? Could it be Santa doing a test run with his reindeer? Download the ISS Detector app so you can watch too!

Christmas is now less than a week away, and I am sure you feel like I do. It is just surreal, and I don’t really feel the holiday mood yet. But I got an early Christmas gift – a call from my mom’s nursing home – asking for permission for her to receive the vaccine in the near future. That light at the end of the tunnel is just a little brighter now.

with Hope for the Future,
Luana and Paul

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in COVID, Trends | Comments Off on A Christmas Star on the Winter Solstice

Free eQuilter Pattern – Bunny Meadows

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Luana

Christmas and New Years are just a heartbeat away….and that means that Springtime is just around one or two corners…depending on where you live. Baby animals are the sweetest harbingers of Spring, and right now is a good time for a triple scoop of cute baby bunnies!

This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern features adorable Baby Owls, Ducklings, Chipmunks, and Bunnies….plus petite Songbirds, Butterflies, Wildflowers and Toadstools.

To make this 60″ x 60″ quilt design, you will use a central large panel, a block panel, 2 collection coordinates, and a Hoffman Hand-Dye. This charming quilt can be a baby quilt, a lap quilt, or a wall hanging for someone special. The added extra is the fun you will have working with these delightful fabrics!

… from the ‘Bunny Meadows’ collection by Kayomi Harai for Studio E Fabrics.

Don’t miss the popular ‘Christmas Eve Pets‘ and ‘Gnomes in the Woods‘ quilt patterns!

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Animals, Free Quilt Patterns, Quilt Pattern, Quilts | Comments Off on Free eQuilter Pattern – Bunny Meadows

Feeling Blue

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Luana

I am feeling blue tonight. In case you haven’t heard, due to the pandemic, the International Quilt Association (IQA) is calling it quits. This is the non-profit organization that has put on the quilt contest in Houston every Fall, for 41 years. eQuilter has been a sponsor of this show, and contributed to the cash awards, for many years now. I know it will be hard to comprehend for many of you, but I will share part of their announcement with you:

“Many of you may wonder if this means there will be no Judged Show at International Quilt Festival, but we have received a commitment from organizers of Festival to add a quilt competition. So, although details remain to be worked out, ‘the show will go on.’ “

You can find the full announcement on the IQA page, and I’ve also posted on our eQuilter Facebook page, and my personal Facebook page.

We have communicated to Quilts Inc today that eQuilter will remain a sponsor of whatever new form the quilt exhibit and contest may take in the future. We know that all of you will continue to make quilts! So although this is a loss, we hope that as this one door closes, another will open in the not-too-distant future.

In the meantime I want to share with you one of my favorite videos made at last year’s International Quilt Festival in Houston. It is the Sapphire Celebration – a 3-D exhibit marking 45 years of the quilt festival. You can view my photos from past Houston Quilt Festivals on this page, and videos on this page.

Thank you for supporting our family-owned business, so we can continue to sponsor quilt exhibits and contests, and also to help those in need through our charity program. We were a sponsor of the Virtual Quilt Festival last week, and we are a Gold sponsor for the virtual version of QuiltCon in February. We are committed to helping the quilt industry and these quilt events survive the pandemic, and we look forward to the day when we are all together at a quilt show again!

with hope for the future…
Luana and Paul

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Color, Quilts, Trends | Comments Off on Feeling Blue

Free Pattern – Iris Dream

Posted on December 15, 2020 by Luana

Clever piecing is part of the secret of this glowing Free Quilt Pattern, using alternating strips of 2 panels to make a 67″ x 67″ quilt design.

To make this quilt design, you will start with 2 different colors of the 60″ x 60″ Iris panel, then sew 3 Hoffman Hand-Dye colors to make the border. It looks complicated, but it is easy-peasy, and the results are stunning!

… from the ‘Iris Dream’ collection by Oasis Fabrics.

Don’t miss the popular ‘Living Coastal‘ and ‘Joy Love Peace‘ quilt patterns!

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Free Quilt Patterns, Quilt Pattern, Quilts | Comments Off on Free Pattern – Iris Dream

I’ll Take What I Can Get

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Luana

Sewing in the time of COVID-19 – Week 39

The big news this weekend is that a vaccine for the Covid virus is finally going to start being distributed. Our frontline hospital and nursing home workers will receive the first doses. I hope and expect that my mother will receive a dose in the nursing home soon also. Beyond that, it is still uncertain. Paul and I are in our early sixties so we will be at the end of the line along with almost everyone else under 65. However I am focusing on the positive, and thinking about what might be the New Normal this time next year.

It is cold here in Colorado today, and we got a couple inches of snow. It helps to get us in the Christmas mood. We are going into the darkest time of the year, with the longest nights and the earliest sunsets of the year. It is a good time to stay inside to sew, bake, and sip hot drinks. I am going to make soup and bake bread this weekend. Snowy winter weekends are a good time to take a nap. I am exhausted from this year, and am glad to see the end of 2020.

We learned a lot about ourselves, our communities, our healthcare systems, and our governments this year. In the darkest times, there is a light of illumination that shines on us, revealing things we would never see otherwise. I am thinking about how I can write down these things that I learned, in a journal, and then perhaps to remember in a 2020 quilt.

Or maybe it will just be an “I Survived 2020” quilt. A hundred years from now maybe your 2020 quilt will be in a museum, and school children will wonder about what it was like to live in these times. Perhaps they will collect digital ephemera and construct 3-D holographic scrapbooks. We can only imagine. But I am pretty sure a quilt will still be something you can wrap around a loved one on a cold Winter’s night….

with Hope for the Future,
Luana and Paul

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in COVID, Quilts | Comments Off on I’ll Take What I Can Get

Free Quilt Pattern – Gnoming Through the Snow

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Luana

Celebrate the season with this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern, featuring whimsical Scandinavian Gnomes who are out enjoying skiing and sledding in a snowy landscape.

To make this 42″ x 46″ quilt design, you will cut up the Gnome panel and stripe, and piece with 3 colors of Hoffman Hand-Dyes. The Gnome details in these prints will make you laugh…including Gnomes on a Ski-lift, Gnomes on a Squirrel-drawn sled, and Gnomes Ice-fishing. This colorful collection is seasonal which means when it is gone, that’s it! (We literally grabbed the last few bolts from the manufacturer.)

… from the ‘Gnoming Through The Snow’ collection by Hugo Edwins for Blank Textiles.

Don’t miss the popular ‘Christmas Eve Pets‘ and ‘Gnomes in the Woods‘ quilt patterns!

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Free Quilt Patterns, Quilt Pattern, Quilts | Comments Off on Free Quilt Pattern – Gnoming Through the Snow