Sewing in the time of COVID-19 – Week 7

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Luana

How are you all doing?

Who knew that we had a Super Power in a crisis such as this?

Most of us who sew have been involved in the massive Facemask and PPE sewing project going on all across this country and indeed around the world. But many of us are exhausted, and so I hope that our weekly e-newsletter here gives you a chance to rest and enjoy some eye candy amidst the chaos.

This week I have received a flood of emails with cancellations for quilt events through September. I think it is safe to say that nobody knows where we will all be and what we may or may not be doing this Fall. In my 20s I studied Buddhist philosophy, and I must say those concepts are coming in very handy right now. I would guess that for many of us, our connection to a Divine Consciousness is a big part of what gets us through these challenging and very confusing times.

Sophie and I were invited to a House Concert with an internationally-known violinist, and it had to be on Zoom because of the shutdown. She played for us, from her apartment in New York City. After she played, she answered questions about what is happening there. I will spare you the details, but by the end we had joined her in tears. It is hard to fathom how some people are indignant about wearing masks and distancing in public.

Our eQuilter staff continues to work long days to keep mask-making supplies in stock, and to keep up with your orders. Everyone here knows they are part of this nationwide effort to keep healthcare workers and frontline citizens safe. We are still practicing very strict health and safety protocols here, for our staff, and for our customers.

Please do share our Mask-Making info-page with anyone who might be interested in sewing face masks or other PPE for their community. eQuilter is still a collection point for our local sewing volunteers to drop off masks for healthcare and frontline workers in Boulder County. Elastic goes in and out of stock weekly. Contact customer service to be put on a notify list, or search for ‘COVID’ to see what is in stock daily.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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Sewing in the time of COVID-19 – Week 6

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Luana

We send out our love and humble appreciation for all of you sewing furiously to provide face masks for those on the front lines.

As you may know, eQuilter gives 2% of sales to charity, and we have raised $1.65 million over 20+ years. We have very close relationships with our charity recipients.

Previously we asked for volunteers to make masks for the Lakota Tribe in Pine Ridge SD, and send masks or donations to Mission of Love. That need is ongoing.

This week I was contacted by Doctors Without Borders, asking for help sourcing masks for their doctors and frontline workers, and the communities DWB is serving in the US:

Doctors Without Borders will distribute these masks to vulnerable people as part of their COVID-19 activities in the US. In New York City, this includes homeless and those with insecure housing. 50,000 people sleep in the city’s shelters each night and for so for them, self-isolation isn’t possible. The organization has sent teams to assess needs in other areas where communities lack access to COVID-19 response services, this includes Puerto Rico, Florida and some Native American communities in the southwest. It is likely that masks will be distributed in these locations too. Click here for more information about their US response.

Facemask shipments of 100 or more can go directly to their New York office:

Doctors Without Borders – USA
40 Rector St., 16th Fl
New York, NY 10006

We are working with a NYC supplier to identify another address to send smaller shipments, so the packages can be processed (opened and bundled) for bulk deliveries to DWB’s offices. Contact us or watch our e-newsletters for that info.

Please do share our Mask-Making info-page with anyone who might be interested in sewing face masks or other PPE for their community. eQuilter is still a collection point for our local sewing volunteers to drop off masks for healthcare and frontline workers in Boulder County. Our buyers are working hard to keep all the specialty fabrics and PPE supplies in stock for those of you committed to the mask-making effort. Elastic goes in and out of stock weekly. Contact customer service to be put on a notify list, or search for ‘COVID’ to see what is in stock daily.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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Sewing in the time of COVID-19 – Week 5

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Luana

This week is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and for those of you who are home (and probably sewing face-masks) it is a time to contemplate our priorities around the environment, and the future of the planet for the sake of our children and all living things.

For those of you who contributed to my GoFundMe project, you should have received an invite to a private Earth Day webinar at 10 am MDT on this Weds April 22, which is Earth Day. I will send out one more reminder through GoFundMe before then. Thanks to you, we raised over $4000 for Earthworks, and my quilt “Rocky Mountain Poison” (part of the “Water is Life” exhibit which premiered at the UN in Geneva) has been acquired by the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln Nebraska. A very heartfelt thank you to the anonymous donor who contributed an additional $1K to this fundraiser effort.

Because of this quilt, many opportunities have come my way, including an invitation to curate an exhibit at IQM. Right now the opening reception “For the Love of Gaia” is planned for Friday June 26, and we have a stellar list of artists participating in this invitational exhibit. I will be discussing this project with our donors on Earth Day, and discussing how artist-activists can have a powerful voice to communicate conservation messages to their viewers.

Please do share our Mask-Making info-page with anyone who might be interested in sewing face masks or other PPE for their community. eQuilter is still a collection point for our local sewing volunteers to drop off masks for healthcare and frontline workers in Boulder County. I’ve been dropping off masks to the hospital and other clinics, nursing homes, etc. several times a week, thanks to the generosity of our local army of sewing volunteers. We are shipping out thousands of yards of elastic all over the country, and donating hundreds of yards locally. Our buyers are working hard to keep all the specialty fabrics and PPE supplies in stock for those of you committed to the mask-making effort. Thank you.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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An Empty Space

Posted on April 15, 2020 by Luana

As the weeks wear on and more quilt festivals and gatherings are cancelled, I feel an emptiness inside. Reviewing the photos I took in Tokyo and at QuiltCon helps, but still no matter how busy I am, there is an empty space where quilts and quilters once filled me up with the kind of inspiration one finds only at a physical gathering with amazing quilts to admire up close and personal. I miss the joyful hugs when we spy a good friend walking through rows of beautiful fiber art.

So here we are, making the best of this event, Zooming and sharing online….stitching at home…and most of us are making masks instead of quilts. (according to my unofficial survey of quilter friends) How will this translate into quilt exhibits and festivals later this year and early next year? We will all find out together.

This is a detail of a quilt at QuiltCon by San Diego quilter Juli Smith. “Summer Sea Breeze” is part of her series of color gradation studies. She is exploring how color transformation embraces negative space. She felt that the negative space was where the sea breeze would ebb and flow, with the sand below and the sunset above.

Somehow that seems to capture the place we are all in now.

All of us at eQuilter are acutely aware that you are making masks for your community’s healthcare workers, frontline workers, and loved ones. Like the other few online fabric suppliers still open, we are running up to a week behind. My classroom has been transformed into a cutting room to accommodate new additional workers, so we can keep everyone safely spaced. We’ve been practicing health and safety protocols for a month now, and we are following very strict disinfecting and hand washing guidelines to keep everyone safe. Our buyers are working hard to keep products stocked and restocked for your PPE sewing projects – and you will see that elastic goes in and out of stock each week. Contact customer service if you want to be emailed the minute those items are back in stock! Search for “COVID” to see which of these specialty products are in stock on any given day.

We are aware that Military Moms are now sewing masks for those who are serving, and now need protective masks. Fortunately we have a great network of friends who give us a heads-up as these new categories of need pop up. We are doing a very deep restock later this week of specific solid colors for those who are sewing for Police, Army, Marines, Navy, etc.

Batiks and Hand-Dyes have been very popular because they are a higher thread count and tighter weave, as are premium muslins also with the high thread count. As your facemask and PPE sewing needs grow and change, we will continue to work hard to get these products into stock and continue to restock. We are in touch with our suppliers every day and have close partnerships with many of them. I continue to update our Facemask Info page. Let us know what we can do for you!

All of us at eQuilter wish you health, peace and comfort in these troubling times.
We will get to the other side of this…together.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

*This quilt was photographed at the Feb 2020 QuiltCon in Austin Texas by Luana Rubin. For more photos visit her photo page.


eQuilter Classroom:
October 5-9 – Susan Carlson – RESCHEDULED
October 11-15 – Paula Nadelstern – Kaleidoscopes & Quilts – RESCHEDULED
2021 – Jacqueline de Jonge, Betty Busby

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Sewing in the time of COVID-19 – Week 4

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Luana

We send out our most sincere wishes for peace, comfort and health – both emotional and physical health – during this sacred time of Easter and Passover celebrations.

It is a relief to me that the rest of the country has caught up to the idea of wearing a mask to keep self and others safe. Healthcare workers are still asking for homemade masks, and I hear from quilters around the country that those hospitals who said ‘no thanks’ to our DIY masks a couple weeks ago, are saying ‘yes please!’ now. If you are making masks for family and friends, please make every other mask for those medical workers on the front lines. If you are selling masks, please offer to your customers that for every mask they buy, you will donate one to healthcare workers. This is not over yet.

We still encourage you to make masks with ties, which can be cut from fabric. However so many of you have asked for elastic, so we are continuing to stock this item. We are receiving thousands of yards from the garment industry, and then we are measuring and bundling before sending out to you. The elastic comes in and out of stock very quickly. Contact our customer service and they will notify you when it is back in stock every few days.

Our shipping time is taking a little longer than usual, because these are unusual times. If you search for ‘COVID’ you will pull up all the mask-making and PPE items in stock. We are giving these orders priority because we know these sewing projects for our communities are most urgent.

We have 2 trunks outside our front door now: One to receive finished masks, and one with free fabric for those who are sewing with no stash of their own.

eQuilter is a dropoff point for finished masks for our local hospital and healthcare workers. We receive masks and then do a ‘triage’ and divide up the masks for the local and state groups who are requesting them: this week including police, jail, mental health clinic, and more for the hospital and state department offices. Also we have quilters who are donating their stash in our fabric give-away bin, on top of the fabric we are donating to mask makers. Many thanks to all who have rallied to this effort!

Please do share our Mask-Making info-page with anyone who might be interested in sewing face masks or other PPE for their community.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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The Beauty of Our World

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Luana

Here is a quilt from the Tokyo Quilt Festival, featuring the beauty of blooming Iris in the Springtime.

We are challenged to find the beauty in our world now, and yet that is exactly what we must do in the face of this global health challenge. I find beauty on our community bulletin board, where one person asks for help, and a stranger answers with instinctive generosity. Often those who respond can help only because they have been laid off, but they give their free time to help those in need. And so it is in our sewing community – those who have free time now are making protective face masks for their community’s healthcare workers, their front line workers at the grocery store or in the delivery truck, and making masks for those elderly and at risk in their neighborhoods.

It is at times like this when a community rediscovers its heart…and soul.

In the last few days we are seeing a shift from people making masks for frontline healthcare workers, to people making masks for friends, family and neighbors. Understandable, now that the CDC and our governor have advised us to wear masks around others in public.

The mask donations for the hospital have dropped off, but they are still desperately needed. Can I suggest that when you make a mask for a loved one, you also make a matching mask for a health worker who just might save the life of a loved one? Please don’t stop making masks for healthcare workers now. We are also seeing more people who are selling masks instead of donating masks for healthcare workers. Again, if you need to do this, can you make and donate one mask, for every mask you sell? Thank you. Pass it on.

If you are sewing face masks for your community, please check out this page where we have gathered lots of information from around the country and around the world regarding the construction of these masks. I am continuously updating this page so please take a look again.

My deepest gratitude to friends at the Boulder Handweavers Guild who responded to my call for help this week. Sue D. loaned me her large 5 foot high warping mill so we can process thousands of yards of elastic for all of you wanting this for your mask-making. I put the call out to the community and got an immediate response! It looks like a spinning Ferris Wheel in my studio. This is why I left the garment industry and then came into the quilting and crafting world so many years ago…because we are a community of Heart and Soul.

All of us at eQuilter wish you health, peace and comfort in these troubling times.
We will get to the other side of this…together.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

*This quilt was photographed at the Jan 2020 Tokyo Quilt Festival by Luana Rubin. For more photos visit her photo page. The 3 fabrics on the right side are currently in stock at eQuilter.com

eQuilter Classroom:
October 5-9 – Susan Carlson – RESCHEDULED
October 11-15 – Paula Nadelstern – Kaleidoscopes & Quilts – RESCHEDULED
2021 – Jacqueline de Jonge

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Sewing in the time of COVID-19 – Week 3

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Luana

The CDC has announced that we should all be wearing masks when we are out in public, even though we’ve been told not to go out in public. During your minimal grocery store runs, wear a mask. If you know someone who has an essential job, make them a mask.

We are still scrambling to keep special items in stock for those of you sewing masks and PPE items. They come in and out of stock so quickly. If there is something you need please call customer service and get on the wait list. We’ll contact you the day it is back in stock! We have thousands of yards of elastic now, and more on the way. We encourage you to make masks with homemade bias strips, but if you need elastic there will be plenty this week and plenty more in a couple weeks.

Our shipping time is taking a little longer than usual, because these are unusual times. If you search for ‘COVID’ you will pull up all the mask-making and PPE items in stock. We are giving these orders priority because we know these sewing projects for our communities are most urgent.

This week was also about bigger statewide projects for those who remain on the job but don’t have protective masks. We are still collecting your DIY face masks for healthcare workers and government workers here in Colorado. We’ve been making phone calls to match up sewing groups around the state, with groups of essential workers who need masks. You can do this in your community also – check out our info page and see if you know somebody on the front lines of this pandemic who could use a mask.

Mission of Love is asking for masks and help for the Lakota people of Pine Ridge South Dakota. If you would like to help this impoverished community during the crisis, follow the link to Mission of Love and see how you can help Kathy Price with this project on the reservation.

We have 2 trunks outside our front door now:
One is to receive your beautiful donated handmade face masks. The other is full of colorful fabric, strips for ties, and this week we will have some elastic for those of you who are sewing masks but don’t have your own stash. Please take only what you need.

Due to further state shutdown orders, and to give our staff more protection, we have had to stop our curbside pickup. However we send out our most sincere gratitude to those who have continued to make and drop off dozens and hundreds of handmade masks. I am going out about every 2-3 days to deliver another batch to those in need…healthcare workers and government employees. Those of you in this army of sewing volunteers are demonstrating true patriotism, and I wish I could give each of you a big hug. We will get through this, together.

Please do share our Mask-Making info-page with anyone who might be interested in sewing face masks or other PPE for their community.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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We are Sewing!

Posted on April 1, 2020 by Luana

Dear Friends,

How many face masks did you make this week? Every quilter I know has dropped their quilt projects to make protective face masks for their local healthcare workers and community.

eQuilter is a collection point for our community hospital, plus we are gathering and distributing masks for local nursing homes and government workers. We are stocking up on requested fabrics and PPE supplies for those of you who are sewing masks and gowns for local hospitals. Our warehouse remains open as an essential business, but is closed to the public. We have curbside pickup for our local customers.

We will have elastic for masks in the next few days, and you can see what other PPE/mask fabrics and specialty supplies we have in stock by searching for the keyword ‘COVID’. These change from day to day as we sell out of some and are restocked on others. Our buyers are in high gear all day long to keep these in stock for you. If there is something you need give us a call or email, and we will try to get it for you or let you know when it is back in stock.

There was an article in the NY Times today that the CDC is considering advising all of us to make and wear face masks. Sewing volunteers are already making masks at a breakneck pace all across the USA, and all around the world for that matter. We see what has happened in Europe and we are already preparing.

If you are sewing face masks for your community, please check out this page where we have gathered lots of information from around the country and around the world regarding the construction of these masks. I am continuously updating this page so please take a look again.

Both of the Susan Carlson and Paula Nadelstern workshops have been rescheduled for October. We are checking with students and then will let you know if there are any spots open in these back-to-back classes. We will limit the number of students so everyone is well spaced. More on that soon.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

*This quilt “Kawaii” by Rumiko Oiwa was the winner of the big Machine Quilting Award at the January 2020 Tokyo Quilt Festival. Photographed by Luana Rubin. For more photos visit her photo page.

eQuilter Classroom:
October 5-9 – Susan Carlson – RESCHEDULED
October 11-15 – Paula Nadelstern – Kaleidoscopes & Quilts – RESCHEDULED
2021 – Jacqueline de Jonge

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Sewing in the time of COVID-19 – Week 2

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Luana

As many of you know by now, I’ve been working to compile an info-page for all of you who are anxious to help. A week ago we thought our homemade masks weren’t good enough. Now we have hospitals, clinics and EMTs begging for PPE items. (PPE – personal protective equipment) Many thanks to Meg Cox for her mention of our efforts in her “Quilt Journalist Tells All” e-newsletter Saturday.

We’ve spent the week scrambling to find suppliers for the things you are asking for, to make PPE items. If you search for “COVID” it will pull up everything we have in stock that has been in demand for this purpose, and we have thousands of yards of elastic, and hundreds of yards of polypropylene (nonwoven mask liner) on order for next week. We will be selling the elastic at our cost after cutting and bundling in 10 yd and 50 yd packages. These are coming from a garment industry manufacturer and are Latex-Free. If you want to be notified when they come in, please contact customer service Monday so we can judge the demand and order more if needed.

We’ve been asked by the governor’s office to help coordinate making, collecting and delivering masks to the workers who are keeping Colorado running during this pandemic. These are the folks who are still going to work during the shutdown – processing your state tax return checks – running the DMV – and I’ve added these workers to my list of potential mask recipients on my info-page. For all of you making masks out there, look at my list and think about who is still out there in your state working and delivering, and think about who would appreciate a mask this week.

I also have a request from Mission of Love to make and send masks to Pine Ridge SD, the poorest county in the US. (Reservation home to the Lakota people.) Please watch our blog page and Facebook page for updates on all of these efforts.

It has become clear to me in the last few days that anyone who is still working, going to the grocery store, or having other potential human interaction, needs to wear a mask when around others. Period. This is what they do in Asia, where it is 2nd nature. Here in the US we have been spoiled and there is resistance to this idea, but watch this video sent to me from the Czech Republic.

There is now a large sealed trunk for masks outside our front door. Our business is closed to the public to protect our staff, but you can drop off donated masks during business hours. If you have no fabric but want to help, we are also putting fabric in the bin so you can pick up what you can use, when dropping off finished masks. Our local BCH hospital group has listed us as one of two dropoff points for your DIY face masks. We are collecting and distributing to a wide range of groups including the hospital, nursing homes, and state government workers.

We are providing curbside pickup for our local customers. If you live locally and wish to save on shipping but not get out of your car to pick up an order, just let us know when you will arrive and we will bring your package out to your car for a *quick* hand-off to protect staff and customer…maybe on your infrequent trip to the grocery store down the road from eQuilter.

Please do share our Mask-Making info-page with anyone who might be interested in sewing face masks or other PPE for their community. We will get through this together. Sending love and hugs to you and your families during this challenging time.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

See my Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, comment on our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Visit Pinterest, eQuilter’s Instagramor Twitter for more Color and Design ideas.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

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Tokyo Springtime 2020

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Luana

Dear Friends,

We have gone down the rabbit hole and it seems we have a long way to fall before this journey is over.

It doesn’t seem like just 2 months ago that Sophie and I were in Tokyo for the Quilt Festival. Now Japan’s cherry blossom festivities and the Tokyo Summer 2020 Olympics have been cancelled. So I wanted to share one of the beautiful quilts from this year’s festival, along with some seasonal Japanese fabrics. This too shall pass. Spring will flow into Summer, and we can only hope that by Fall the world will have returned to some normalcy.

eQuilter remains open at this time, and we are still shipping out orders. As we’ve mentioned the last couple weeks, we are disinfecting, social distancing, washing hands, and following all virus protocols very strictly. The health of our staff remains a priority. We are in touch with the governor’s office and local hospital, working to support local healthcare workers as a collection point for masks.

We are stocking up on requested fabrics for those who are sewing masks and gowns for their local hospitals. We have curbside pickup for local customers, but starting today we also have curbside drop off for those making DIY face masks for local healthcare workers. Many have requested elastic for face masks and we will be restocked in about a week. If there is something you need give us a call or email, and we will try to get it for you.

Despite the current chaos, the Earth will still blossom with Spring flowers as temperatures warm. I hope that you can find time to step outside and go for a walk in Nature, while social distancing. Many of you are sewing masks like crazy but don’t forget to take a break to fill up your soul with the beauty of the season.

If you are sewing face masks for your community, please check out this page where we have gathered lots of information from around the country and around the world regarding the construction of these masks. I’ve been in touch with many doctors and nurses to put together a page which I hope will be of help. Please feel free to share this page with others who are organizing to help those needing PPEs (personal protection equipment) in your community. I am continuously updating this page and it has received over 50K visits in the last few days.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

*The red and white quilt “2020” above was photographed by Luana at the Tokyo Quilt Festival in January. The artist’s name is printed in Kanji in the top right corner. The righthand border features Spring fabrics currently in stock. For more photos visit her photo page.

eQuilter Classroom:
June 1-5 2020 – Paula Nadelstern – Kaleidoscopes & Quilts – Registration OPEN
July 20-23 Betty Busby – Transfer Dyeing
August 6-9 – Cindy Lohbeck Returns
October 5-9 – Susan Carlson – RESCHEDULED
2021 – Jacqueline de Jonge

Luana’s Travel Calendar:
June 19 – Quilt Canada – “Intl Quilt Trends” presentation
June 26 – Intl Quilt Museum – Lincoln NE – Opening Reception & Lecture “For the Love of Gaia”
July 29 – Aug 2 – “Love Your Mother” Gallery in Birmingham UK (Lecture 8/1)
Sept 26 – Quilters Take Manhattan
Oct 16-17 – Visions Art Museum – San Diego (Lecture 10/16)

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