To make this generous-sized 74″ x 80″ quilt design you will start with the large 36″ x 44″ scenic panel, then add in the 4-block panel for the corners, and rustic railroad tracks for the border. Fussy cut Fall colors in the forest, and piece with a Stonehenge rock texture, setting the forest blocks on point. We’ve added touches of Solid Kona Black to set off the brilliant colors and digital-printed details of this beautiful quilt design.
I think we can all agree that 2020 is a surreal and exhausting year, and somehow we find ourselves in the last quarter of this annus horribilis. (That’s Latin for horrible year.) One season has flowed into the next, and I mark the passing of the seasons here more for myself, because I am still trying to catch up! This last week I was ordering fabrics that will ship in the Summer of 2021, for Christmas 2021. If not for these acts of faith in the future, I’d have a hard time thinking past the end of this year. I know you can relate. But nevertheless I can tell you that we have some gorgeous collections on order for 2021! I’ve previewed some Quilt Market collections and there is some crazy-wonderful pandemic creativity going on out there!
I encourage you to watch the SAQA Textile Talks, which are so inspiring while we are staying at home. eQuilter is not only a sponsor of these weekly online talks, but we are also a sponsor of Dr Carolyn Mazloomi’s new exhibit – “We Are the Story”. The recording for the Textile Talk about this exhibit is now available online.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. As you know, we give 2% of sales to a list of charities, and one of them is for Breast Cancer Research. As of this month eQuilter has donated $312K to this one cause, and I thought it is a good time to talk about why this is one of our 7 charities listed when you check out.
Paul and I are committed to donating to find a cure. Both of our mothers are breast cancer survivors. My mom had it when she was 46, and is still living with the aftermath of her treatments, at age 83. Paul’s mother is no longer with us. She had it twice. I lost a very dear friend who I’d known since I was 19, when she was 52. She left behind 3 bio kids and 7 adopted kids. And then there are the countless girlfriends who are survivors, many of them who are reading this newsletter now.I have another survivor friend who had a double mastectomy, who lost her mother and sister to the disease, and she has 3 daughters who are potentially at risk.
To all of you who have faced this disease, for yourself or a loved one, we continue to send money each month in hope of a cure. We buy every single Pink Ribbon fabric collection that raises money for this cause. We wish our suppliers would make more of these fundraiser collections. Many years ago I designed such a collection for Robert Kaufman Fabrics, and they donated .25 per yard. They raised $27K from that collection. So I also urge designers to ask companies to consider collaborating on projects such as this.
Together, with compassion and commitment, we CAN make a difference.
with Hope for the Future, Luana and Paul
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This week’s Exclusive Free Quilt Pattern features a finely detailed digital-printed panel with a beautiful painting of the Holy Night scene. Baby Jesus is lying in a humble manger, with Mary, Joseph and baby animals, with the Star shining above.
This 67″ x 75″ quilt design starts with an exquisite jewel-tone panel and is surrounded by three rich star coordinates. Corner blocks also includes the three Wise Men with the Star of Bethlehem.
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.
Today I decided to take a Mental Health Day for myself. I haven’t taken the time to drive up to the mountains to see the turning leaves for several years, and I decided today I needed to get away from the email, the internet, and the news…and do some Forest Bathing. Mason our oldest son came with me, so we had time to catch up on some larger topics in our lives.
We drove up Golden Gate Canyon to the Scenic Byway called the Peak to Peak Highway, and continued on towards Longs Peak and Estes Park. Along the way we were thrilled to see a Bald Eagle circling over the forest, and there were many groves of Aspen turning gold.
I have an Annual Pass for the Rocky Mountain National Park this year, as a way to help support the struggling park system. We turned off into Wild Basin, and snapped some photos of a fly fisherman down in the clear mountain stream. We drove along the dirt road and found a place to picnic, and were joined by 2 dazzling Sapphire Blue Jays who undoubtedly were wishing we’d toss some crumbs from our picnic lunch. The sky was blue, the Ponderosa Pines whispered in the soft breeze, the birds twittered, and I was able to leave the world behind for a few hours…
As we descended into Estes Park, we started to see the herds of elk, each one with a large buck, many cows and calves. To the North we saw the column of smoke from the 125K acre Cameron Peak Fire.
The photo above is the biggest buck we saw. He was hanging out by the lake with his harem, bugling to warn off younger bucks circling on the periphery. He limped as he walked – his harem of cows and calves were hard won, no doubt. But wow, he was a big boy.
We drove down towards home, and once we were driving along the foothills, we saw another column of smoke from the Williams Fork fire Southwest of Boulder. Today the wind was blowing due East, and so we are sitting between 2 columns of smoke, relatively clear until the wind changes again. That’s just how I feel after my day out in Nature…in a clear space while the storm rages around us. I hope you are able to find some time to center into a calm clear moment, in Nature, sewing, making art, or spending precious moments with your loved ones.
This hypnotic mandala quilt is a focus point for a deep meditation, and we offer this as an exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern for those of you who are tiring of the ongoing pandemic. Expand your mind and escape from the mundane, with this quilt hanging on your wall. Makes a great nap quilt also…maybe bringing kaleidoscope dreams….
To make this 54″ x 54″ quilt design, you will cut up 3 different digital-printed Mandala panels, then piece with Solid Black Pima Cotton. Joyful rainbow colors really ‘pop’ on that Black background!
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.
Fall is one of my favorite times of year. Here in Colorado it means the Aspen in the High Country are turning gold, the Elk are bugling and the Black Bears are foraging pre-hibernation. We still have fires and smoky haze, but some milder weather arrives tomorrow, and there’s a cool breeze that is whispering through the trees in my back yard. Hallelujah!
The pre-election news cycle is ramping up, so I suggest that we all VOTE as early as possible, and then get back to our sewing and quilting projects to maintain our sanity. I’ve been delighting in my global Zoom sessions with fellow quilters, including my old friend in South Africa who makes our custom African sun stencils, linocut stamp panels, and hand-dyes. She keeps a group of women employed from the local village, and now that their Winter is ending, the warming Spring days mean that they can start production again for us. We’ll let you know when that next shipment arrives in the future!
The last 2 days I’ve spent happily connecting with fellow quilters on the ‘Quilters Take a Moment’ online event. This was a very successful move from ‘in person’ to virtual conference. We used to meet in New York City every September for ‘Quilters Take Manhattan’ but the Quilters Alliance has brilliantly moved the whole thing online as a fundraiser. eQuilter is proud to sponsor this, and other events with the Quilt Alliance. Their S.O.S. project (Save Our Stories) invites all of us to record 3 minute videos to tell, share and save stories about quilts we’ve made, or quilts we’ve inherited or otherwise acquired. A quilt is even more special when it comes with a story, wouldn’t you agree? This is why we encourage you to put detailed labels on the back of every quilt that you make, so your story will be passed on with the quilt.
2020 will be considered a historic year, for better or worse, and I know many of you are making quilts about the things that have happened and the challenges we have faced this year. The Silver Lining is that we can channel all of that into our art and craft, and have a historic quilt that can tell the story of 2020 as it is passed down to the next generation. Your 2020 Story Quilt could end up in a museum some day!
with Hope for the Future, Luana and Paul
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Owls have been an enduring design trend for several years now. Cute cartoon owls make us smile, but life size realistic owls just take our breath away…and this week’s Free Quilt Pattern features our exclusive digital Owl Portrait panel, set in a beautiful rustic pieced frame.
To make this 53″ x 64″ wildlife portrait quilt, you will start with the 29″ x 44″ larger-than-life Owl panel. Then add Wood grain and Stone texture coordinates, with 3 Hoffman Hand-Dyes. The Full Moon shines down on our wise raptor, and brings a luminous atmosphere wherever this quilt hangs.
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.
Tuesday we marked the passing of the Fall Equinox, without many of the pleasures of the season. It was announced that our university will close down for 2 weeks due to spiking Covid. We don’t expect any trick-or-treaters on Halloween, and costume contests are likely to be virtual. Despite our freak snowstorm, days are back up to 85 degrees and evenings are a balmy 55-60 degrees. There is usually an evening in September when we feel that first real chill in the air, but we had it, and then it left! 2020 has been one long exercise in letting go of any and all expectations.
But when that brisk chill arrives, quilters everywhere know it is time to get to work on sewing projects and holiday gifts. Sewing season is upon us. We pick those last few tomatoes, pluck the last Rose of Summer, and put on the kettle.
Our kids are now 18,23 and 30. When they were little, I would sing a list of 3 favorite songs to them every night. They would hop into bed and beg me to sing those songs, and then their eyelids would droop and they would softly fall into their dreams.
Those 3 songs were tunes that my grandparents sang, when they were first dating in the 1920s in Southern California. They would go park on the beach, watch the sunset, and sing popular songs like these, in harmony.
My kids are grown now, but occasionally I will hum those tunes as we prepare a meal together, and we all smile. At times like this, sometimes it is those little private memories that bring us such joy. I wish you those same small quiet moments of happiness as the seasons change and the leaves begin to change color.
with hope for the future… Luana and Paul
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To make this 58″ x 73″ quilt design you will use the main panel plus 4 collection coordinates, and Kona Solid Black. The Pen-and-Ink illustration style calls to mind the famous Edgar Allen Poe supernatural narrative poem.
PLEASE NOTE that we are also well stocked on the Purple version of this collection, so you can redesign this either all Purple, or a combination of Purple and Orange.
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.
We are excited about this email we just received for our beautiful eQuilter.com building in Boulder Colorado which is now 2 years old:
“Congratulations! You have earned EPA’s ENERGY STAR for 6201 Spine Rd, located at 6201 Spine Rd, Boulder, CO 80301, for label year 2020. This property’s 1-100 ENERGY STAR Score is 96, meaning that it is more energy efficient than 96 percent of similar properties nationwide.”
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Many of us are grappling with the loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. No matter what your politics, if you are of a certain age, you are keenly aware of her early work to free women from the shackles of gender expectation in the 1970s. I remember very well that my mother spoke to me several times in high school about how I would have options for my career and my personal future, that she did not have. She urged me to expand into the freedoms that RGB won for us all. To lose the rights that she acquired for us, would be like taking us back 100 years. Her lifelong work for justice, even as she battled cancer in her later years, is an inspiration. If you don’t know about her early court cases, watch the movie! The closest I got to her was at an opera house once – when I went to my seat there was an excited buzz in the audience and then someone turned to me and said “RBG is in the front row”! And there she was, surrounded by admirers.
We hope that those of you affected by the fires and smoke are having some rain and relief this weekend. One of my brothers is a mailman in Portland and he is still delivering mail wearing N95 masks. I have friends whose sons are working as firefighters in these seemingly endless fires. Our hearts go out to all those on the front lines…who have to show up every day no matter what.
This weekend we had to replace several trees around the warehouse, and next week we are having 2 big trees removed at our house. The late freeze this last Spring, and the early freeze and snow last week, have done a lot of damage to the trees here. But it is a small thing compared to those who have lost their homes in fires and hurricanes this year. We hope you are all keeping safe during these challenging times.
My mom had a family motto she would always tell me when things got tough – from her Swedish grandma Anna Sofia who emigrated from Smaland Sweden to Thurston Nebraska in the 1800s. It was passed down through the women in our family – when things get tough you just “Keep a’goin’…” which is a simple mantra but when you are in the trenches it is a mantra that…keeps me going. That matriarch died when my own grandma was a little girl, but my grandma and my mom both kept going through so many life challenges….as we all do. My quilting and sewing and other creative endeavors are what keep me going, along with your friendship, and your support of our charity program. The $1.7 million that we have raised together is something for all of us to celebrate. Together, we are making a real difference for those in need. Thank you.
