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.
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 was the first time I saw my mother in person, in six months. She has declined into a wheelchair since I saw her last, but there is still that spark of love and decency that she has had all her life. It was a very bittersweet visit. We sat at opposite ends of an 8 foot table, and so I could not hold her hand or give her a hug when we said goodbye. But we got to look each other in the eye and speak face to face…not over the phone and not over Zoom…so I will take what I can get. When I got back to my car I burst into tears. I know most of you are facing similar challenges, or worse.
Our warehouse is filled with the jeweltones of the Kaffe Collective, so I thought I would share these with you, because they make me happy. The lovely fuzzy bee in the center was photographed at Hidcote Gardens in the Cotswolds, the site of the photo shoot for Kaffe’s book “Quilts in the Cotswolds”. (I visited there while in the UK for the Birmingham UK quilt festival.)
I have had several inquiries as to whether we will organize a comfort quilt project, or other relief project, but the requests are for several different disasters in different states or countries and some of these disasters are still in the early stages where we need to just focus on donating money for the basic needs of survival. I am very aware of what is happening on the West Coast because I have many friends and family affected by the fires. Even the little town where my mom grew up (Molalla, Oregon) was evacuated.
We are of course continuing to donate to relief organizations like Mission of Love, Doctors Without Borders, and Engineers Without Borders. There are environmental and endangered species disasters as well, so we continue to give to the Wild Foundation and the Ocean Conservancy. I have been in touch with my friends from DWB and EWB and also have information about 2 organizations on the ground on the island of Lesbos in Greece where one of the most miserable refugee camps in the world just burned down.
So feel free to write to me and I will let you know in our e-newsletters what we can do together to help those in need. I also suggest that you keep in touch with local quilt guilds in the regions affected by fires, hurricanes and floods, because so many of these guilds are attempting to organize to make quilts for those in need. There is just so much going on now, we are going to focus on sending money while the need is so raw and urgent in terms of basic survival.
We are missing Disneyland, but we can still capture the magic of Mickey Mouse and Fantasia in this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern. This beautiful quilt captures the spine-tingling moment that the Sorcerer’s Apprentice discovers his power over all that he surveys.
To make this 58″ x 50″ quilt design, you will start with this Thomas Kinkade digital 36″ x 44″ panel. As you peer into the depth of this idyllic landscape, you’ll see the range of colors and detail are just incredible!
We just received a shipment of this very special Fantasia digital panel so snap it up before it is gone – it is even more stunning in person. This just might be the perfect holiday gift for that favorite Disney fan in your life…
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 Summertime come to a close, we pick the last few flowers from our gardens and bring them indoors to enjoy the bittersweet end of the season. Perhaps you have purchased blossoms in Mason jars from the farmers market, as we have, and enjoyed a wild bouquet that includes the last blooming of Summer. The uplifting words at the center of this quilt is a special touch, to be shared with others who enjoy a positive message.
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.
