This week’s Free Quilt Pattern features an eQuilter Exclusive digital printed panel, with a dazzling image of a wolf silhouette against an aurora borealis sky.
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 is Fire Season in the West, and I am just now looking at a Colorado News website that seems to say we have 4 fires burning over 100,000 acres. Huge columns of smoke are towering and streaming over Boulder this afternoon, to the South and the North. The air quality is terrible, and we are being advised to stay indoors. We never used to have fires like this when I grew up here. The fires in California are in the news also. It is hot and dry, and when the wind kicks up, all bets are off. Our warehouse is about 5 miles East of the Boulder foothills, and there are no fires nearby at the moment, so we are mostly concerned about air quality….and our fellow Colorado residents who might be in harm’s way. When the forests burn we don’t see how it affects the wildlife, but we know is a threat to the deer, elk, moose, bears and mountain lions who live in our precious forests. I hope all of our friends in the vicinity of these fires can stay safe!
If not for the pandemic, Sophie would have been moving into the freshman dorms at college in a couple days. Her classes start a week from Monday. She has chosen to take mostly online electives, plus just an orchestra rehearsal in person, and a violin lesson in person, so she’ll be home most of the time. (And will continue to work at eQuilter part time.) Honestly we expect CU Boulder to be forced to shut down a few weeks after opening. I know that most of you have either family members or friends with kids who are struggling with education decisions now. My friends who are teachers really do not want to be in the classroom and be exposed. So everybody has a story and all I can say about this school year at this point is….hang on, it is going to be a bumpy ride.
I feel like we are in a ship traveling across the ocean, and we are at the midpoint. The departure shore has disappeared long ago, and the shore upon which we will arrive is still too distant to see clearly. We are all on this journey together, and I am so glad we have each other. My friendships and business relationships in this industry are what have kept me up on deck throughout this journey, and your emails and letters are the breeze that fills our sails. Thank you for your kind notes – I am hoping to catch up on my correspondence this weekend!
You may notice we have a brand new category of Cotton Knit Jersey this week. I have had requests for cotton knits from those who want to make neck gaiters to wear instead of masks. Just make sure you are making them double-layered and if possible with a filter added, so they are still effective. I have recently updated our Face Mask Info Page with links to pages with Neck Gaiter instructions, plus a fantastic Japanese YouTube channel that will excite those of you tired of making the same old Face Mask design.
with Hope for the Future, Luana and Paul
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This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern delves into Scandinavian folklore, which is rich with stories of woodland and magical creatures such as Gnomes. (Also known as Nisse, Tomte or Tonttu.) These forest elves are believed to protect family and home/farm from bad luck. Mischievous gnomes might play tricks on you if you didn’t leave them little presents of sweets and drink. (Like the elves in Will Ferrell’s latest movie about Euro-Vision)
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 have found over the last 21 years that Nature-themed fabrics are often the most popular. Wildlife, flowers, forest, birds, ocean, sky, fish and bugs make up a huge percentage of the fabrics that we cut and ship out to you. We know that when it is snowy and cold outside, these images bring us joy and comfort. When we look at trees, water, and mountains, it brings a sense of peace. We can almost hear the water lapping on the shore, the birds calling from the forest, and the wind rustling the leaves. Just as a scent can bring back a childhood memory, the colors and images of happy times can be captured in a quilt when we choose fabrics that touch those memories.
My family moved from California to Colorado when I was 10 years old. I was a Brownie, then a Camp Fire Girl in California. Then I was a Girl Scout for awhile in Colorado. So I had plenty of camping outings in the California woods and the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Later I went to a music camp near the Continental Divide. We would sneak out at night and walk to a nearby meadow, spread out blankets in the damp wildflowers and watch the shooting stars. For those of us who have a fierce love of Nature and wild things, we’ve tasted the elixir of Mother Earth and she whispers to us from the cells of our very being.
Right now it is fire season in Colorado. The smoke is now mixing with the ozone pollution and making it difficult to breath outside. The mountains are full of baby animals now, and I think of them when I see the smoke. My love of Nature has led to my adventures as a wildlife photographer, and after many close encounters with wildlife (including babies) my concern for the creatures in the forest and the ocean is very personal.
If you’ve placed an order with us before, you know about our list of charities. We support the Ocean Conservancy and the Wild Foundation because of their advocacy for critical conservation issues. I’ve gone to speak at federal EPA hearings, and I was invited to go to Washington DC this summer to lobby for Endangered Species, but of course the trip was cancelled due to the pandemic. I was to speak at the World Wilderness Congress in Jaipur India, but that was cancelled also. I’ve been asked to participate in a virtual lobbying effort on August 20th, and I will go and speak on behalf of species threatened with extinction, and will speak for all of you who care about these things. Feel free to send your thoughts about this to me and I will speak on behalf of you as well. Together we can continue to be a force for good on t he planet.
eQuilter is a sponsor for the ‘SAQA Textile Talks’ each Wednesday, and I urge you to register for these free weekly discussions about art quilts and textile arts. Like Nature, it is a balm for the soul.
This 67″ x 86″ quilt design uses 2 Hoffman digital panels, a snowflake coordinate, and 2 Hoffman Hand-dyes to create a rustic quilt scene in a snowy setting. Make this as a small bed quilt or large quilt hanging to bring the ambiance of a wild mountain landscape into your home.
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 you probably know, the eQuilter Charity Program is one of my favorite things about our business. We’ve been giving 2% of sales to a list of charities for over 20 years, and we are getting close to $1.7 million raised for those in need. Our recipients are carefully vetted and in fact we try to have a close relationship with these groups, so we know how our contributions are put to use. Over the years it has led to some interesting conversations with fascinating people who have led lives that we can only imagine.
Today I had a socially distanced meeting with the founder of Engineers Without Borders, and a retired administrator for Doctors Without Borders. (2 of our 7 charity organizations.) I wanted them to meet because I knew they had so much in common…working with refugees and indigenous people in developing countries…often during outbreaks similar to what the world is experiencing now. Honestly I just wanted to be the fly on the wall while they traded a few stories about trying to help others and stay alive while working on the edge of disaster. I have traveled to 49 countries in my life, but these two have a collection of passport stamps and stories that will never be published but always capture my imagination. It is a gift to know there are people willing to spend time in the most desperate places to help those with no hope. Kathy Pri ce from Mission of Love is another one of those people.
I am thinking of the people of Beirut this weekend, and I know we cannot even comprehend what is happening there in the aftermath. eQuilter is sending donations this week to help with this urgent disaster relief. With your support, together we are a force for good in the world, despite these troubled times.
We have updated our Face Mask Info Page. Many of you have started new businesses making masks. We continue to stock all of the supplies for Covid Mask-making. Just search for ‘Covid’ on our site and you’ll see what we have in stock.
with Hope for the Future, Luana and Paul
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One of our greatest pleasures as quilters, is the opportunity to collect luscious floral prints, and then spend time making them into beautiful quilts.
This 71″ x 71″ quilt design is based on a collection of lavish florals that bring to mind the 17th and 18th century Dutch still life paintings. These hyper-realistic paintings developed parallel to botanical watercolor illustrations of naturalists, and inspired 18-19th century textile designs. The more you have explored and delighted in art history, the more fun it is to think about the influences that we still see in textile design today.
This Free pattern uses a 42″ x 44″ block panel, a lush Baroque floral, and a coordinating stripe. We’ve added in a Solid Black plus 2 digital stone textures to make this garden fantasy quilt design for you. This digital-printed floral collection has incredible detail and depth…you might have to admire and pet the fabric for awhile before you cut it up!
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.
The news is full of families and teachers making impossible decisions about the start of the school year. Here in Boulder our 2 school districts (K-12) just decided yesterday that the school year will start 100% online. Meanwhile kids everywhere are wondering what happened to Summertime.
In the next few weeks we’ll be harvesting from our gardens, hopefully finding a way to support our local organic farmers, and watching our Fall flowers unfurling in the late Summer light. (Sunflowers, Dahlias and Chrysanthemums) Maybe we will think about planting bulbs, picking apples, or going for a hot air balloon ride on a chilly morning. It is still summer now, but very quickly Autumn will creep up on us and we will find new ways to social distance in yet another season of this strange year.
I find solace in the turning of the seasons, at a time like this. My rosebushes will put forth one more explosion of color, we’ll have that first chilly breezy evening that feels like Fall, then before you know it we’ll be bringing out the extra quilt to layer on our beds. This year we are not making quilts and pies to enter at the County Fair. We will not have an end-of-summer neighborhood street party. But we are thinking of our friends who live alone, and calling them to make sure they are ok. We are baking for the family who has lost their income and have mouths to feed. We are still sewing facemasks to sell or give away. We are discovering parts of ourselves that we never knew existed, and there is the hidden treasure in the midst of these troubled times.
Through it all, I find I must create every day to maintain my mental health. We hope that in some small way, by supporting your creativity, we can help many of you to find your way from Summer to Fall with a full heart and a clear head.
with hope for the future… Luana and Paul
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To make this 64″ x 52″ quilt you will start with the exquisitely detailed 30″ x 44″ digital panel with a Barred Owl and a songbird sharing a bare tree branch. Add a Stonehenge Gradation and 4 Hoffman Hand-Dyes for a pieced border that matches the subtle tones of this hushed Winter landscape.
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.
If this was a normal time, Sophie and I would have been in Birmingham UK for the Festival of Quilts this week. We had a gallery space to exhibit our “Love Your Mother” quilt project, and it was to be the final exhibition of these quilts. Instead they have all been sent home to the artists, or their new owners.
I know that many of you attended the virtual opening reception for my latest project “For the Love of Gaia“, and if not please watch the video recording when you have an hour to see these beautiful quilts in a virtual gallery, and to hear the artists speak about their work.
This week the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln Nebraska is opening up with the Love of Gaia exhibit, plus a Nancy Crow exhibit of her Monoprint quilts. I saw these quilts a few years ago in Birmingham, and it was a fascinating counterpoint to the pieced quilts we think of when we hear ‘Nancy Crow’.
This last week I had the honor and pleasure of being interviewed on the new Quilting Arts Podcast, on the top of Color Trends. It will be airing August 19th, so keep an eye out for this new podcast for creative quilters! (I’ll share the link as soon as it is available.)
Also, I have updated our Face Mask Info Page. As this pandemic continues, the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of Face Masks continues to evolve. They are becoming ubiquitous around the world now, which means those of us who sew have discovered our superpower and suddenly are very popular with friends who need masks. Many of you have started new businesses making masks from our colorful fabrics, especially the novelty prints for specialty masks. We continue to stock all of the supplies for Covid Mask-making. Just search for ‘Covid’ on our site and you’ll see what we have in stock.
