Free eQuilter Pattern – Perfect Pups

Posted on March 22, 2019 by Luana

Do you dream of snuggling with adorable puppies when you go to sleep at night?
This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern can give you a head start on those sweet doggie dreams!

This KING SIZE (93″ x 121″) quilt features 16 different dog breeds as delightful puppy vignettes, from our exclusive eQuilter line of digital fabrics. We’ve framed them with paw prints, and a Hoffman Hand-Dye sashing, to make a generously sized bed quilt that will bring Puppy Smiles (the best kind!) every night.

You can send this out to a longarm quilting service, but if you are quilting at home, you might want to pick up Batting and Backing now as well. We’ve suggested a coordinating 108″ Backing, but you can of course choose from our 250 backing prints to match your bedroom decor. (And as always, you can change the color of the Hoffman Hand-Dye sashing if desired.)

… featuring the ‘Perfect Puppies’ collection by the Rubin Design Studio, designed exclusively for eQuilter.

Don’t miss the popular ‘Jungle Giraffes‘ and ‘Great Horned Owl‘ quilt patterns!

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

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Creative Nudge – HAPPY SPRING EQUINOX!

Posted on March 20, 2019 by Luana

Can you believe it?!?
We made it to the Spring Equinox!
And…it’s another Super Moon to dazzle us.

I have so much news, I don’t know where to start.

Last year at Road to California, I followed this woman around who had the most amazing embellished coat. When I caught up to her, we discovered we have many mutual friends, especially in Mexico. Her quilts and coats were so fantastic, I just had to ask her to come teach at eQuilter.

So Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli is coming for 3 days in June. Click through to read about her workshops, and her Bio, and then sign up to join us in a few months. If you love our Day of the Dead, Frida and Guadalupe fabrics, you’ll love Jane’s style.

BIG NEWS:
Have you been dreaming about joining me on a trip up to Churchill to see the Polar Bears? I have secured a limited time $1000 discount for eQuilter friends to join me this October. We now have only 6 spots left and they are going fast, so if you are ready to sign up, click through and call our travel specialist Aly right away to guarantee a seat on the Polar Rover. These discounted spots are First Come, First Serve.

Sunday night I flew back from Atlanta, after attending Sunday School with Pres. Jimmy Carter teaching that morning. People start lining up at 4 pm to get a seat in the little church in Plains Georgia, but I was part of a group with reserved seating. The day before we heard him speak at his boyhood home & farm which is now a National Park. I am typing up my notes this week, to post on my blog about the experience over the long weekend.

Usually we sponsor 3 exhibits in Houston, but this year somehow we have ended up sponsoring 5 exhibits. One was delayed from last year, another was moved up to this year, and now we will have a very big presence at the Quilt Festival Oct 31 – Nov 3. Please plan to attend so you can see these beautiful quilts by incredible quilt artists.

Above is a collage with my photos of a vintage quilt at Jimmy Carter’s farm, Polar Bears in Churchill, Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli and her Embellished Jacket, and a Hydrangea Digital Print.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

eQuilter Classroom & Travel Calendar:
Mar 28-30 – ‘Love Your Mother’ exhibit at Spring Quilt Festival in Chicago
Apr 1 – Quilting Arts TV, Cleveland
Apr 12-14 – Jean Wells for FRCQ workshop – in eQuilter Classroom
April 20 – Charity Sewing Group – EWB Nepal Presentation – RSVP
Apr 23-29 – Nantes France (lecture Fri 4/26)
June 27-30 – Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli – Altar Quilts & Embellished Garments Workshops
July 11-14, 2019 – Cindy Lohbeck – Shibori, Ice-Dyeing and Ombre Dyeing Workshops
Oct 8-10 – Jacqueline de Jonge – eQuilter Classroom
Oct 17-22 – Polar Bear Tour – REGISTER NOW!



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Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Luana

This week I am writing to you from Atlanta, where I am attending a conference at the Carter Center. Later today I will be in Plains Georgia, and have a chance to visit with Pres Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. After learning more about the work that the Carter Center does as a nonpartisan organization, working for peace and eradication of disease around the world, I am very honored to have been invited to this event. (Due to eQuilter’s charity program.) The Carter Center also engages in conflict resolution in war zones, and monitoring elections in emerging democracies. They work to end violence against women through education. The dedication of the staff is an absolute inspiration.

You may have heard about our ‘Bomb Cyclone’ last week. Our giant blizzard did not hit quite as hard in Boulder, but it paralyzed the Denver airport and much of Colorado. Yes we had a one-day hiccup in processing and shipping orders, but we are back on track now! Getting to the airport the next morning was an adventure. My flight was delayed 2.5 hours, but our son also had a flight that day and was delayed 10 hours and ended up at the wrong airport. (He is running a piano sale and music fundraiser event at Seton Hall University in NJ this weekend.) Such are the joys of travel.

For those of you coming to the Spring Quilt Festival in Chicago in a couple weeks, please be sure to look for our “Love Your Mother” quilt exhibit. I will be in the exhibit much of the day on Saturday, and several of the artists are coming also. The exhibit has already been seen in Houston and Mexico City, and we are negotiating future venues at this time. Hope to see you there!

They say everybody’s Irish on St Paddy’s Day, but I really do have an Irish branch in my family tree. I’ve been doing more research on our genealogy lately, tracing back Scottish, Swedish, English, Irish, German and French branches. I’ve been as far back as the 1400s on a couple branches. I am continuing the genealogy work my mother started. Like quilting, it is addictive!

In case you are not aware, we have a couple Family Tree panels that make a great starting point for your own genealogy projects!

Thanks for helping us to celebrate our 20th Anniversary over the last week.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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Free eQuilter Pattern – Great Horned Owl

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Luana

This very special eQuilter Exclusive Free Pattern celebrates the beauty and grace
of the Great Horned Owl.

Start with our exclusive central digital panel featuring a detailed closeup of this majestic animal, watching and waiting in the forest. Then add the elegant ‘winged’ borders, composed with Northcott Stonehenge tonals.

This 64″ x 72″ quilt captures the nobility of this beautiful and dynamic creature and will be treasured by your bird watcher and wildlife enthusiast friends and family.

We’re also highlighting Northcott’s new Stonehenge Ombre Backing fabrics; they match perfectly with this exquisite quilt design.

… featuring the ‘Wildlife Wonders’ collection by the Rubin Design Studio, designed exclusively for eQuilter.

Don’t miss the popular ‘Full Heart‘ and ‘Mystic Ocean‘ quilt patterns!

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

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Creative Nudge – Snow Day

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Luana

Tonight we are waiting for the big blizzard to hit. They are calling it the Bomb Cyclone. The airport has already cancelled flights tomorrow, and the schools are going to be closed. It is a good day to quilt! Maybe a little hot chocolate too….and a nice long game of Scrabble.

Many thanks to those of you who wrote kind words about my mom. She is out of the hospital and now in a rehab nursing facility close to our house. She is still very confused about what happened last week (in the ER and hospital) but she seems to be out of the woods for now.

Thursday I am supposed to fly to Atlanta for a private event at the Carter Center, and then I’m invited to a smaller event in Plains GA. You may recall that 5 years ago I was invited to meet the Carters because of our charity program. Then I made a quilt portrait of Rosalynn Carter that is now traveling in the “HerStory” exhibit. Last time I was invited to this event, I had to cancel because of the hurricane! So now I am hoping I won’t miss my flight Thursday because of the blizzard. I have just finished a quilt of the White House so the timing is perfect.

Most people think of Habitat for Humanity when they think of the Carters, but that is not their organization. The Carter Center is a nonpartisan organization committed to human rights, alleviation of human suffering, working on health issues and supporting democracy. I particularly like their programs to stop violence against women in developing countries, through education.

We are celebrating eQuilter’s 20th Anniversary this week, and are thrilled to be settled into our new headquarters. Please take a look at our upcoming class dates and perhaps you can join us in our beautiful classroom this year!

The image above is a collage from fabrics we have in stock now, including the 3 “SNOWDAY” words which are made from our new Scrabble panel and other alphabet panels. Now I think I’ll go make that cup of hot chocolate.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

****************

eQuilter Classroom & Travel Calendar:
Mar 14-17 – Carter Center in Atlanta
Mar 28-30 – ‘Love Your Mother’ exhibit at Spring Quilt Festival in Chicago
Apr 1 – Quilting Arts TV, Cleveland
Apr 12-14 – Jean Wells for FRCQ workshop – in eQuilter Classroom
Apr 23-29 – Nantes France (lecture Fri 4/26)
June 27-30 – Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli workshop – Alter Quilts & Embellished Garments
July 11-14, 2019 – Cindy Lohbeck – Shibori, Ice-Dyeing and Ombre Dyeing Workshops @ eQuilter – REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Oct 8-10 – Jacqueline de Jonge – eQuilter Classroom


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Free eQuilter Pattern – Mystic Ocean

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Luana

Fans of Aquaman and the Little Mermaid will appreciate this week’s Free Quilt Pattern, featuring a dazzling Mermaid riding a huge Seahorse! (Remember the giant Seahorse steeds in Aquaman?) Her hair streams out behind in an undulating rainbow of wavy locks as they glide over a colorful coral reef.

This 44″ x 50″ quilt design uses a gorgeous digital-printed panel with coordinates from the same luscious collection. It looks even better in person – those digital textures and colors are absolutely fabulous!

… featuring the ‘Mystic Ocean’ collection by Josephine Wall for 3 Wishes Fabric.

Don’t miss the popular ‘Full Heart‘ and ‘Moonlight Plume‘ quilt patterns!

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

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20 Years of Fabric and Friends

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Luana

Daylight Savings starts the morning of March 10th, so don’t forget to “Spring Ahead” and turn your clocks forward an hour, if you are in a state that participates in this bi-annual exercise.

March 10 is my mom’s 82nd birthday, and eQuilter’s 20th Anniversary!

20 years ago Paul flipped the switch on our website, and we welcomed the world to visit our webpages full of colorful big bold fabrics! Back in those days quilt shops were full of mostly small scale “ditsy” prints that were washed out or dirty colors. I went to about 40 quilt shops around the country and decided there was something missing. We opened our business with contemporary, ethnic, wildly COLORFUL fabrics and the rest is history!

There are so many people to thank for our 20 years of success, but I’d like to start by thanking our wonderful staff who make this possible by showing up 5 days a week, and sharing your delight in these beautiful fabrics.

I’d also like to thank all of those in the industry who have supported us through the years. Your friendship and guidance as we grew, and as the industry changed, has been a great gift. You know who you are.

My biggest thanks goes to my husband and partner Paul, who left his manager position at another company to come run eQuilter. You don’t see his face, but you see his creative and technical genius on every page, and in every brilliant tool on the website. He also runs the Free Pattern program and has become quite the quilt designer!

Unfortunately I’ve spent the week going from ER, to hospital, to a rehab nursing facility with my mother. Here at the end of the week she is stable and there was a place at a great facility 10 minutes from our home, so I am looking at the bright side. We are spending this weekend moving her things out of assisted living.

We are approaching $1.6 million raised for charity, and all of us at eQuilter thank you for supporting our charity program, and our family-run business. This week I have an invitation to a very special event in Atlanta and Plains GA, thanks to our charity program, so I will be sharing that with you in a week.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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Free eQuilter Pattern – Diaphanous

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Luana

This breathtaking Free Quilt Pattern is an eQuilter Exclusive, made with the wildly popular Diaphanous collection designed by Jason Yenter. This collection is now back in stock so if you love this, snap it up today!

Jason’s dreamy collection features a cool analogous color story, with an atmospheric dotted ombre used for the border. The tonal blenders used for the Circle and Diamond insets, have Celtic and Floral themes.

Your exquisite 63″ x 74″ quilt is filled with rich, saturated hues that add liveliness to any room.

… featuring the ‘Diaphanous’ collection by Jason Yenter for In The Beginning Fabrics.

Don’t miss the popular ‘Full Heart‘ and ‘Moonlight Plume‘ quilt patterns!

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

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Creative Nudge – Classic Indigo

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Luana

One of the colors we love best is Indigo Blue. This beautiful color appeals to almost everyone, and is based on a fermented plant-based dye. The ancient natural dye was used to make the original denim cloth for blue jeans. One of the places we think of when we say Indigo Quilts…is Japan.

This year there seemed to be less of these traditional pieced Indigo quilts in the Tokyo Quilt Festival. In past years we’ve seen these quilts made from recycled and vintage Indigo yarn-dyes, shibori (tie-dyes), stencil prints and yukata remnants. Quilters will go to temple flea markets and buy up these vintage indigo pieces. Perhaps now most of these fabrics are tucked away in quilters’ stashes?

Fortunately we have contemporary fabric manufacturers who reproduce these fabrics so we can collect and sew with a new generation of Indigo fabrics. They are factory-printed instead of dyed with fermented Indigo plants, but they are colorfast and beautiful! We are loving the new Cotton/Linen Indigo yarn-dyes from Kaufman, and the Sashiko Sampler Panels in the Nuno collection from Moda.

Many customers are surprised to find out that we carry a full range of Sashiko Threads, Needles and Thimbles. After years of traveling to Tokyo, collecting Indigo Boro quilts and vintage Sashiko samplers, I decided we should support a new wave of Sashiko stitching.

The collage image above features a detail of an Indigo quilt from the Tokyo show, surrounded by Japanese-inspired Indigo fabrics in stock now. This includes the new Cotton/Linen Nuno Sashiko Sampler Panels. Enjoy!

(The quilter’s name is shown in the Japanese characters from the artist statement.)

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

****************

eQuilter Classroom & Travel Calendar:
Mar 14-17 – Carter Center in Atlanta
Mar 28-30 – ‘Love Your Mother’ exhibit at Spring Quilt Festival in Chicago
Apr 1 – Quilting Arts TV, Cleveland
Apr 12-14 – Jean Wells for FRCQ workshop – in eQuilter Classroom
Apr 23-29 – Nantes France (lecture Fri 4/26)
June 27-30 – Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli workshop – eQuilter Classroom
July 11-14, 2019 – Cindy Lohbeck – Shibori, Ice-Dyeing and Ombre Dyeing Workshops @ eQuilter – REGISTRATION NOW OPEN


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Free eQuilter Pattern – Faith Saved by Grace

Posted on March 5, 2019 by Luana

This week’s Free Quilt pattern celebrates Faith with Dan Morris’s magnificent and ornate collection.

The ‘Grace and Joy’ panel frames are cut and pieced together with coordinating fabrics: Blessed Crosses, Religious Icons, and Cumulus Clouds, creating a spiritual work of art.

This generous 93″ x 93″ Queen Sized quilt will bless your home with luminous colors, peace and devotion.

… featuring the ‘Faith’ collection by Dan Morris for Quilting Treasures.

Don’t miss the popular ‘Full Heart‘ and ‘Call of the Wild Bighorn‘ quilt patterns!

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

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