This week’s Exclusive Free Quilt Pattern is Angel-Approved, with an inspiring Celestial view that catches your breath and opens your heart. This digital panel is inspired by Genesis Chapter 1, with the Biblical quote super-imposed on a Heavenly backdrop.
To make this 49″ x 67″ quilt, you will use 4 different colors of the “Star Studded Heavens” coordinate. These are pieced as the border around the 24″ x 44″ panel.
In case you didn’t hear, the big news this week was that Houston Quilt Festival has been cancelled. They are planning an online event in the future, but no details yet. This was a very difficult decision but considering what is happening in Texas and around the country, it seems like the obvious thing to do.
QuiltCon is transforming into an online event, and Quilters Take Manhattan will be Quilters Take a Moment. We are also transferring our sponsor support for these events, into online sponsoring. We will continue to support all of the organizations who are putting their exhibits, classes, etc. online…wherever possible. The Tokyo Quilt Festival announced its cancellation for January 2021 just a few weeks ago. So we are all in this new world together, learning to Zoom and click on links to watch videos and admire quilt images on our computer screens. The photos I took in Tokyo and at QuiltCon earlier this year seem even more precious now.
When we started our business 21 years ago in the basement of our home, we did not envision the importance of a well-stocked warehouse and an online presence during a pandemic. What we DID envision was giving quilters a place to come to be inspired and delighted – and in addition to the Baby Yoda prints this week – this one will definitely make you smile. This is the vibe I try to keep on the weekends.
My mom is having a bad week so I am on my way over to the nursing home to have a glass door visit with her. I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe indoors during these challenging times. Sending hugs and love to all of you ….can’t wait to see you again in person when we get through this!
with Hope for the Future, Luana and Paul
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My friends, these are very difficult times for those of us seeking to keep our families and communities safe. It is time to stay home and wait for this storm to pass over. It is time to distance from those in your circle who are not taking this pandemic seriously.
It is perhaps easier for us to stay home because we have a deeply engaging hobby that keeps us busy for long periods of time. The quilt collage above hints at other activities one can do from home or your back yard – bird watching, cocktail mixing, raising orchids. We are baking bread, walking our dogs, playing with our cats (who ‘help’ us with our quilts). We are watching Hamilton and other live-streamed performances from artists who are now out of work. We are zooming with loved ones who we have not hugged for months. But some of us have suffered terrible losses. Some of us are living with the aftermath. Some of us are on the front lines of this battle, and we can’t even imagine the service you are providing to your communities. We thank you.
So what can we all do to help? Reach out to someone who is alone, stressed, sick, or poor. Let’s all practice a Random Act of Kindness this week. When I feel helpless, or down, I do something to help someone who is suffering. To those of you struggling now, I am sending each of you a gentle hug and a genuine wish for peace and comfort. We will get through this, together.
sharing your Passion for Fabric… Luana and Paul
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Escape to a Tropical Sunset in this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern, featuring a soothing beach scene that will have you kicking off your shoes and leaning back in a lounge chair. All you need is to turn on the Ocean Waves sound track and maybe grab a Pina Colada!
This absolutely stunning digital scenic panel has incredible details and luscious colors, and we’ve placed it in a rustic and very realistic wooden windowframe so you can imagine this is the view from your beachside shack. We’ve also added in a couple Hoffman Hand-Dyes and 2 beautiful collection coordinates, to make this 70″ x 53″ quilt design.
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.
Sophie is supposed to move into the dorms here at CU Boulder in a little over a month. I have not been able to hug my mom for 4 months now. I did have our 3rd ‘window visit’ today which was so much better than the Zoom visits. As we read the news, things seem to change from week to week. For many of us it is hard to think about the future in any way.
However I’ve had some of my most meaningful interactions with fellow quilters and artists in the last week or two. That thing that binds us together – our passion for creativity – is so precious right now. Those friendships and connections are so nurturing at times like this. I’ve been watching the Textile Talks presented by Quilt Alliance. (We are a sponsor for this organization.) I’ve delighted in seeing friends on Facebook Live presentations. I am appreciating the renewed interest in African-American Quilters and African fabrics. eQuilter is sponsoring online events like Quilters Take a Moment (was Quilters Take Manhattan) and QuiltCon.
One of the things that has come up in many conversations with friends, and even at the 2 Color Marketing Group online conferences I attended, was the importance of paying attention to mental health…not only in the midst of this pandemic, but also for a long time afterwards. I call it Pandemic PTSD. Mental health experts are saying that many people will have a hard time returning to normal life when this is finally over. But what will ‘normal’ be then? Nobody knows.
I know that being creative and staying connected to the quilting and art community is going to be a foundation for my mental health for the next year or two! But then, it always has been. That’s why I’m here. We want to be a part of making that available to the quilting community, which is why we are transferring our sponsorship to online events where possible. I hope you can stay connected to your quilting tribes, both small and large, as we travel through this storm together.
with Hope for the Future, Luana and Paul
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This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern has an absolutely luscious color combination of Purple and Gold Metallic, with a rich Green accent. The theme of Hummingbirds and Morning Glories is a celebration of Summertime, taking us out into the garden to enjoy the fragrances and sounds of the season.
You will make this 55″ x 66″ quilt design with the central bird/floral panel, a Hoffman Hand-Dye, and 6 shimmering Northcott coordinates dusted with more gold metallic. This makes an uplifting lap quilt for those cool evenings that will come in a couple months, or an inspiring wall hanging to remind us of sunny garden days on long winter nights.
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.
I’m guessing that a lot of you have had to cancel vacations by the ocean this summer. When you watch the news it seems like everybody is rushing to the beaches, but we know that is not true. Many of us are staying safe at home and avoiding crowds. So for those of us opting to pass up those coastal vacations, this one’s for you.
A big chunk of my childhood was spent going to the beach in California, before we moved here to Colorado. My mom was born in Southern California, when Orange County actually had orange groves. My grandparents met in a coastal community there in the 20s, and they would go on dates to watch the sunset and sing songs in harmony while sitting in the car enjoying the view. They lived in Hermosa Beach, and later my family lived in Hermosa Beach in the 60s. So there are deep family roots there. It took a long time to get used to watching a sunset over the Rocky Mountains, instead of a sunset over the ocean.
In the 80s I had a cassette tape with the sound of the waves. I would go to sleep with that cassette tape playing. Once a year I make a pilgrimage to the healing waters, and I try to have a day to just sit and look out at the water, put my toes in the sand, and listen to the waves. Then I sleep with the window open and the sound of the ocean puts me to sleep.
My most exciting moments by the ocean have been when I have an encounter with wildlife. One morning at dawn I watched a pod of dolphins swimming all the way up the coast along the shoreline. I’ve had amazing encounters with sea turtles in Hawaii, and I am always thrilled to see whales just off the coast, migrating or tending to their playful calves. When the kids were young and we visited Paul’s family in Hawaii, we’d go snorkeling at dawn with his octogenarian aunt and uncle at Hanauma Bay.
From what I hear, we are the only fabric store in Colorado that buys ocean, beach, Hawaiian and lighthouse fabrics. That’s because I know we all leave a piece of our heart at the coast when we have to pack up our beach towels and sunscreen and head home. I still like to listen to the sound of the waves before I go to sleep…especially at times like this. How about you?
Fans of Lavallee’s illustrations will delight in her Inuit family members (including sled dogs), plus the Arctic wildlife and marine life details including whales, sea lions, and polar bears!
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 those of us living in the US, I am sure we can all agree this is the strangest 4th of July we’ve ever had. No fireworks show here in Boulder, due to the pandemic and fire danger. Normally I would go out and get watermelon and corn-on-the-cob for this holiday weekend, and then we’d go to our fireworks-viewing spot that we’ve gone to for 25 years, to eat ice cream and watch the show. For years we did this with my mom and my kids. But this year we have Hamilton streaming instead!
This is a time to ponder what it means to be an American, and what it means to be patriotic. It is a time to think about what ideas and messages we want to put in our current artwork as well. There are many people suffering from depression now, so it is also a time to reach out to those who live alone or who don’t have a support system, to make sure they are ok, and that they are loved.
When we make a quilt and give it away, the recipient is wrapped in our love. Last Fall I gave a quilt to my friend who was dying of brain cancer. I saw her the day before she died, and she thanked me again for the quilt and told me how comforting it was to be under or inside that quilt. Now it is with her husband and kids, and I hope it is a comfort to them too. When we make a quilt that has our love in every stitch, and we give it to someone who is suffering, our arms are around them even if we can’t give them a hug in person.
In case you missed the Virtual Exhibit Opening of “For the Love of Gaia” last week (I am a guest curator for the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln NE for this project) here is a link to the video recording – Enjoy!
This 54″ x 60″ quilt design is centered around a stunning 36″ x 44″ digital printed panel featuring the American Bald Eagle in flight, and the USA flag rippling in the breeze. We’ve combined 4 coordinates from this Stonehenge collection, plus a Hoffman Hand-Dye, to make this proud Fourth of July quilt.
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.
