You will gasp out loud when you see Ira’s artwork in person on this central digital-printed 36″ x 44″ panel…the detail and colors will remind you of the Impressionist Master paintings that we love to visit in the world’s great museums.
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.
This week we are celebrating our 21 year anniversary at eQuilter! In case you are not familiar with the story of our family business, we started the business in the basement of our home, with a little black and white ad in the back of Quilters Newsletter Magazine. I had this idea that I could have a little part time business that I could run out of the basement, and stay home with the kids. However, we had identified a niche of products that was not being provided to the hungry quilters around the world…and the rest is history!
eQuilter is not just an online retailer for quilt fabrics and supplies…we are also a sponsor of quilt exhibits and contests around the world. We support the amazing quilters who create the stunning works of art that are seen at large and small events around the US and the world. Our goal is to inspire and support quilters at every level of their creative development, and to provide those innovative fiber art products that may not be available in a local quilt shop. We advocate for the independent quilt shops in our industry, because if we don’t have those local mom-and-pop quilt shops on Main Street, we don’t have an industry!
All of our kids have worked at our family business, and all of them have traveled to quilt shows with me. Many of you have met our youngest Sophie, when she travels with me to Houston or other quilt festivals. Sophie is graduating from high school in 2 months, and has been accepted into the Music Education program here at CU Boulder. She will come to the opening of my curated exhibit “For the Love of Gaia” at the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln Nebraska on June 26, and she’ll be my gallery helper when we take “Love Your Mother” quilt challenge to the Birmingham UK Festival of Quilts end July. If you come to one of our workshops this summer, she’ll be the classroom attendant.
With your help, our charity program has raised $1.65 million for a variety of non-profits. We give our humble thanks to all of you who have supported this effort, with a special thanks to the quilters who have made and donated comfort quilts for our disaster relief and humanitarian projects with Mission of Love and Engineers Without Borders.
A special thanks to all of our eQuilter staff who keep our warehouse humming, who answer the phones, who wrap your packages and tie them up with a bow. This year we seem to have many new employees with purple, teal and green hair to go with our colorful fabrics!
The world seems to be especially crazy now, but you can count on us to continue to be a reliable source for your creative needs, and we thank you for supporting our dream to be a force for good in the world.
sharing your Passion for Fabric… Luana and Paul
*The beautiful quilt above “I Live On Earth” was photographed by Luana at the Tokyo Quilt Festival in January. The artist’s name is printed in Kanji in the top left corner. For more photos visit her photo page.
eQuilter Classroom: March 28 – Violet Protest & Finish Quilt Tops April 13-15 2020 – Susan Carlson – SOLD OUT June 1-5 2020 – Paula Nadelstern – Kaleidoscopes & Quilts – Registration OPEN July 20-23 Betty Busby – Transfer Dyeing August 6-9 – Cindy Lohbeck Returns 2021 – Jacqueline de Jonge
Luana’s Travel Calendar: May 14-15 – Quilt Market (May 17 – Sophie’s Graduation!) 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)
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 hate to tell you
this, but tonight is the start of Daylight Savings Time. Be sure to
“Spring Ahead” and turn your clock ahead one hour tonight when you go
to bed, unless you live in Arizona, Hawaii, or the rest of the world.
We are having a grand time in the classroom this weekend with MJ Kinman, where
students are making her beautiful new Elizabeth
Diamond quilt. To celebrate her workshop, we are launching a new line
of MJ’s Gemstone products: We are producing her Birthstone Fat Quarter Packets
in Hoffman 1895 Hand-Dyes and the results are going to be luscious! Our
first packet is the Diamond, and we’ll be adding a few each week until
we have all 12 Birthstone FQ packets available in Hand-Dyes, to make one giant
gorgeous quilt!
As you may have noticed, the world seems to gone crazy over the coronavirus.
Things like toilet paper and hand sanitizer are sold out, shelves at
supermarkets are empty, and now people are stocking up on things like beans and
rice. I am concerned for my mom who is in a nursing home, but we all have to
take this one week at a time. I have also noticed the quilters seem to be
stocking up on fabric as if they expect to be quarantined! My advice: don’t
forget to stock up on thread
and sewing
machine needles.
Sophie just received her official acceptance letter from CU Boulder: she will
be a Music Education major at our local university here in Boulder, which means
she can come home on weekends to do her laundry. Her two brothers went to CU,
and I also went there long ago, so she’ll be carrying on a family tradition.
Students come from all over the US and from around the world to attend our
beautiful university, and pay crazy out-of-state tuition…so we feel very
lucky to have CU right here in our home town.
eQuilter
Classroom:
March 28 – Charity Sewing Day – Violet Protest Blocks & Finish Quilt Tops
April 13-15 2020 – Susan
Carlson – Sold Out
June 1-5 2020 – Paula
Nadelstern – Kaleidoscopes & Quilts – Registration OPEN
July 20-23 Betty Busby – Transfer Dyeing
August 6-9 – Cindy Lohbeck Returns
Luana’s Travel Calendar:
May 14-15 – Quilt Market (May 17 – Sophie’s Graduation!)
June 17-21 – Quilt Canada – Edmonton (Lecture 6/19)
June 26 – Intl Quilt Museum – Lincoln NE – Exhibit Opening & Lecture
July 29 – Aug 2 – “Love
Your Mother” in Birmingham UK (Lecture 8/1)
Oct 16-17 – Visions Art Museum – San Diego (Lecture 10/16)
This generous 58″ x 72″ quilt design combines her Horse panel and Horse allover, with a swirly golden stripe and lots of luscious coordinates. You’ll be carried away by this fabulous group of equine fabric designs!
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.
Here is another quilt from QuiltCon, with a
weaving technique and colors that remind me of Guatemalan yarn-dyed fabrics.
The quiltmaker Kyona Nason explains in her artist statement for
“Afterglow” that she is exploring Lorie Cranor’s interweaving
techniques, merging two panels to create an entirely new pattern. (I’ve added a
strip of succulent prints on either side, which we have in stock now.)
I’ve been thinking about Guatemalan textiles since I heard from Kathy Price,
that her next project includes supporting the opening of a textile school to
keep traditional weaving alive among the indigenous Mayan young people.
Here is a letter she received this week. Perhaps you might want to volunteer on
the next Mission of Love trip to Guatemala?
************************
Distinguished Kathleen Price
Director General Mission of Love
We send a cordial greeting wishing you all kinds of blessings and success in
your daily work for the benefit of our dear Tecpán Guatemala.
We are a group of women weavers of textile art with waist cloth, we are Mayan
kaqchiqueles (traditional weavers) fighting to protect, save our textiles that
for us is an ancestral inheritance that we have inherited from generation to
generation.
Since we are proud to maintain our guipiles (embroidered blouses) that carry
history & knowledge, we see that girls & young women no longer cut
their own clothes and we are losing our native costumes.
So we started a school of fabrics and we want to continue transmitting
knowledge inherited from our grandparents.
Our dream is to have a school, shop and a museum linked together to help rural
women and sell their products.
Therefore, we kindly request your help for this project.
Sincerely yours
Rukú´x Kem Iximche
María Florencia Rodríguez.
************************
You might enjoy the photos I took on a trip to Guatemala several years ago,
when we gifted comfort
quilts to children receiving cleft lip/palate surgeries in a hospital
equipped by Mission of Love. This is part of where our 2% donation goes when
you make a purchase at eQuilter. Feel free to donate directly to Mission of
Love, to support their relief efforts in the US and Central America. (or the
textile school!)
Sadly, my trip to India this month for the Wilderness conference has been
postponed due to the coronavirus.
sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul
eQuilter Classroom:
March 6-8 – MJ
Kinman – “Unicorn Rainbow” & “Elizabeth
Diamond” Gemstone
Workshop
April 13-15 2020 – Susan Carlson –
SOLD OUT
June 1-5 2020 – Paula
Nadelstern – Kaleidoscopes & Quilts
July 20-23 Betty Busby – Transfer Dyeing
August 6-9 – Cindy Lohbeck Returns
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)
Oct 16-17 – Visions Art Museum – San Diego (Lecture 10/16)
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.
When I was a kid we
had a thick clothbound storybook, with one short story per page for every day
of the year. I read this beloved book every night before I went to sleep. It
followed the life of a family throughout the year. I will never forget the
story for Leap Day – one of the kids was born on Feb 29 and he only had a
birthday party every four years. No fair!
As a result I have a habit of doing something special on Leap Day, so
today I took a calligraphy class. If you are an aspiring quilt teacher or
textile artist, I highly recommend taking a class in a non-textile arts class
now and then, just to shake loose any ruts one may have fallen into. I’ve got a
Creative Buzz going tonight as a result, and looking forward to applying some
ideas when we host MJ Kinman’s fabulous
Elizabeth Diamond class later this week. (Yes we still have a few seats open if you
want to squeeze in!) We have run 2
kits for this class and they are selling fast, both to students in the class,
and her fans from afar who can’t make it in person.
In the class today, we talked about how calligraphy is a kind of meditation
that can pull us out of the chaos of modern life, and bring us into the moment.
Sound familiar? Many find this in the Slow Stitching movement. I find this when
I am doing freemotion stitching on my machine. The movement of the fabric under
the needle is a lot like calligraphy. You have to be fully present mentally and
emotionally when practicing freemotion quilting, I have found, so it is the
perfect way to shake off the distraction of the outer world. You know what I
mean!
This weekend’s project is preparing a TED-style talk for the World Wilderness
Congress in Jaipur India. I’ll be sharing my ideas as an artist and philanthropist
business owner, with the delegates who gather. We will have a panel discussion
about using
Art to inspire preservation of wilderness to save endangered species, and
ultimately to preserve humanity. I will be sharing that experience with all of
you the last part of this month.
Watch for this Wednesday’s Creative Nudge newsletter – I’ll be sharing
information about Mission of
Love‘s next projects – a new hospital in Guatemala and a Textile School to
preserve the traditional
Mayan weaving techniques for the next generation.
Luana’s Travel Calendar:
Feb 19-22 – QuiltCon
in Austin TX
Mar 18-27 – World Wilderness Congress – Jaipur India – Lecture & Panel
June 17-21 – Quilt Canada – Edmonton (Lecture 6/19)
June 26 – Intl Quilt Museum – Lincoln NE – Exhibit Opening & Lecture
July 29 – Aug 2 – “Love
Your Mother” in Birmingham UK (Lecture 8/1)
Oct 16-17 – Visions Art Museum – San Diego (Lecture 10/16)
To make this 58″ x 65″ quilt design, you’ll start with our exclusive 34″ x 44″ digital panel, then add a jeweltone palm frond print and 3 Hoffman Hand-Dyes. Bring the majestic presence of this gorgeous Tiger into your home with this easy-to-make wildlife 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.
This 66″ x 58″ quilt design is a quick and easy project, with 3 digital bird/floral prints (including a panel), 3 Hoffman Hand-Dyes, and a Stonehenge Gradient textured blender. Bird-lovers and Gardeners alike will enjoy this bright display of feathers and petals in the garden.
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.
