You will enjoy this flute-playing story teller from Southwest Native American cultures, representing the joyful spirit of Music. The earliest known petroglyph of Kokopelli dates to about 1000 AD!
The rich Southwest colors of Terra Cotta, Turquoise, Cactus Green are also found in the pottery and Navajo rug patterns of this 56″ x 75″ quilt design. The geometric stripe is used to make the clever border. The last time we had this panel in stock it blew out, so we want to make sure you have another chance to dance with Kokopelli now that he is back in stock.
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.
O.M.G. I am so crazy about this group of fabrics, I just had to make a quilt design concept and share with you tonight. Lately I have felt like the market has been so oversaturated with plain flat childlike artwork, but this is the antidote. It reminds me of those richly indulgent Dutch Still Life Florals, that are fairly dripping with saturated color…set on a black background which makes them actually glow. Do you agree?
This is why I am so nuts about this tsunami of digital-printed brilliance that is coming out of the industry now. This is what really gets my gears turning and my brain crackling. And guess what? They look even better in person!
I appreciate that I can share my special kind of crazy with you (Yes I am a fabriholic and I am powerless…) but I love sharing with you and making you smile. We are in this together.
Now I can share some big news…I’ve been hinting at this for awhile…we have two huge names coming to teach in the eQuilter Classroom in 2020! Susan Carlson and Paula Nadelstern are going to be coming in the Spring, to share their special kind of creative genius with us. I am pretty sure you have heard of these 2 incredibly talented artists, but just in case, here are some interviews we have done with Susan and with Paula…over the years.
We only have a few spots left in Cindy’s classes. If you signed up for one of her classes, you will be receiving a special party invitation from us soon. Watch your email!
Jacqueline’s class registration will open up this weekend (watch for the Saturday night newsletter) but the class is already half full with an anxious wait list. Check out the class dates below, and pencil in on your calendar if you might want to join us.
Starting in August Sophie will start her senior year of high school, so I am going to be traveling less so I can spend more time with her. This means I have more time to host teachers and students in our classroom. (which is also my studio) I hope you can come to one of these creative retreats, and we can share that special kind of fabriholic craziness together!
sharing your Passion for Fabric… Luana and Paul
**************** Luana’s Travel Calendar: June 11-15 – Quilt Canada Ottawa – (lecture Fri 6/14) July 18-22 – Sacred Threads & Not Fade Away (VA & DC) July 30 – Aug 6 – Birmingham UK – Festival of Quilts
eQuilter Classroom: July 11-14, 2019 – Cindy Lohbeck – Shibori, Ice-Dyeing and Ombre Dyeing – Almost FULL Sept 13-15 – Cas Holmes – FRCQ Workshop Oct 8-10 – Jacqueline de Jonge – Enchanting Stars & Dream Flight April 13-15 2020 – Susan Carlson June 1-5 2020 – Paula Nadelstern
The Tree of Life is an important symbol in many philosophies and mythologies. It illustrates the connection between heaven and earth. It is also the only landscape created by the artist during his ‘Golden Period’. The painting was originally a study for a mosaic commission.
With its branches reaching for the sky, the tree roots pushing into the earth beneath, the painting illustrates the connection between heaven and earth. It is also considered an expression of masculine and feminine existing as one.
This 60″ x 70″ quilt uses a central gilded panel, plus 9 coordinates from the Klimt collections. This iconic painting is now at the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria. With this golden quilt, you can bring this iconic symbology into your own home…or give this as an opulent gift to an art history buff.
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 our Charity
Sewing Group gathered to make comfort quilts for those in need. At the same
time Kathy Price and Mission
of Love is on the Native American reservation in Pine Ridge SD,
distributing a previous batch of quilts to the Lakota Girls School …quilts
that were made in our eQuilter classroom, and in the homes of our sewing group.
This morning I received an email from Kathy that she had given a group of
quilts to a family who had just lost a baby due to a breach birth and Caesarean
gone wrong. It is a heartbreaking loss and our sewing group was glad to know
that their loving stitches could give some comfort to this family. Paul and I
suffered a loss like this 23 years ago, and that was the inspiration for our
eQuilter Charity Program, which has now raised over $1.6 million
for a variety of organizations, with a focus on children, the environment, and
breast cancer research. We thank you
for supporting our business, so together we can help others.
Our next deadline for donated quilts will be in late August. Kathy will be
going back to Pine Ridge Sept 1, so you can drop them off to eQuilter by Aug 15
if you are in our area, or you can ship them directly to Mission of Love to arrive
by late August.
Yesterday I went to hear Jeananne Wright’s presentation on Oregon Trail Quilts,
at the historic Hover Mansion in Longmont Colorado. Jeananne has collected 800
vintage/historic quilts, and gives lectures on a variety of quilt history
topics. I posted photos from the presentation on my Facebook page. After she
spoke, I gave a brief talk about my quilt “Rocky Mountain Poison”
which has come home after traveling in the “Water
is Life” exhibit. (Which started at the United Nations in Geneva.)
I’ve had 3 weekends in a row hanging out with quilters – I feel so blessed.
Sophie’s high school orchestra is touring and performing in Europe for 2 weeks.
Today we watched a Facebook Live feed of the orchestra performing in a historic
theater in Feltre Italy. Normally Sophie would be at our Charity Sewing group,
but today the ladies watched the live performance on my laptop, and we marveled
that modern technology allowed us to watch this performance live!
sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul
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Sunday I got home from Quilt National at the Dairy Barn in Athens Ohio. (Monday I put Sophie on a plane to Italy – her high school orchestra is touring and performing in 4 European countries!) Now I have some time to contemplate the trends I saw at Quilt National.
This year was the 40th anniversary of this event. This biennial features 84 of the best of contemporary quilts, selected from 700 quilts submitted by 375 artists. For many quilt artists, getting into this show is considered a peak in their career. Imagine being a juror for this event! The quilts in the exhibit came from 26 US states and 6 countries…but the entries came from 19 countries and 40 US states. It is no wonder some artists are very emotional when they are accepted into this event.
We have a few copies left of the 2019 catalog that I hand-carried back. We have more on the way. I also wanted to point out that past catalogs become collector editions, and many savvy art quilters have many catalogs going back several years. We still have some copies of the 2017 catalog, and the Nancy Crow curated Mastery exhibit from the Dairy Barn.
Marianne Williamson is one of the artists in this year’s Quilt National. No, this is not the Marianne Williamson who is running for president! Thanks to Marianne, we have carried the hand-dyed Oliver Twist threads from the UK. I have hand-carried these precious threads home from the Birmingham show in the past. I saw a lot of couching and hand-stitched big embroidery stitches this year, so these types of threads (Including our solid and variegated Sashiko Threads) are in big demand by savvy stitchers.
After the Artist Talk on Saturday morning, where each artist had a couple minutes to talk about their piece, many of us were commenting on one big trend: so many of the quilts had a message about what is going on in the world today. The show was generally more abstract art, but the artist statements spoke bluntly about topics like climate change, women’s issues, migrants and the Wall. One grandmother artist told me – “My daughter told me I shouldn’t speak out – but I have to say something with my art.” So we would walk around the exhibit, studying the art, reading the artist statement, then looking back at the artwork with new eyes.
Solids, Hand-Dyesand Ombres are the fabrics of choice for many of these artists. What I find so fascinating is how Modern Quilting is blending with Contemporary (Art) Quilting to create a new kind of art quilt that is bold, jazzy, graphic, clean but nuanced. If you pick up any of these books above, you will see what I mean.
If you are in Ohio this summer, be sure to stop by to see this exhibit!
sharing your Passion for Fabric… Luana and Paul
**************** Luana’s Travel Calendar: June 11-15 – Quilt Canada Ottawa – (lecture Fri 6/14) July 18-22 – Sacred Threads & Not Fade Away (VA & DC) July 30 – Aug 6 – Birmingham UK – Festival of Quilts
eQuilter Classroom: June 1 – Charity Sewing Group – RSVP July 11-14, 2019 – Cindy Lohbeck – Shibori, Ice-Dyeing and Ombre Dyeing – Almost FULL Sept 13-15 – Cas Holmes – FRCQ Workshop Oct 8-10 – Jacqueline de Jonge – eQuilter Classroom
You will gasp at the beauty and detail of this digital-printed Nature panel, which we’ve combined with 2 Hoffman Hand-Dyes and a Northern Lights allover digital coordinate. When we design these exclusive quilts for you, we just giggle with delight, knowing how much fun you will have sewing with these yummy fabrics!
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.
Happy Memorial Day! As we remember those who are gone, we also celebrate this holiday with our loved ones…including our beloved canine companions.
This week’s Free Quilt Pattern is a Beach Party with Patriotic Pups, enjoying a day by the water on this unofficial first day of the Summer Vacation season.
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.
Tonight I am writing
to you from Athens Ohio, where I attended the star-studded opening of Quilt
National at the Dairy Barn Arts Center! For art quilters, this is considered
the pinnacle of a career to get into this show. A few super-stars have been in
multiple times. I am planning to hand-carry the first batch of Quilt National
2019 catalogs back so watch for those to show up in our Book Department. I will
write more about this in this week’s Midweek Creative Nudge. eQuilter is proud
to be a sponsor of Quilt National.
I am just here for a day and a half, because Sophie leaves Monday with her high
school orchestra, to tour and perform in Europe for two weeks! I have to hurry
home to help her pack for her big trip.
Here are some more beautiful fabrics that I ordered at Quilt Market last
weekend.
Watch for these in upcoming e-newsletters:
Ruby Star Society – Speckled Metallic, Linen, and Rayon prints
Royal Beauty – Large 58″ x 58″ digital Rose Panels
Tonga Passport – Geometric Striped & Ombre Batiks
Laurel Burch – New Feline Frolic + Precuts
Dog On It by Ann Lauer – Metallic and Paisley Pups (Follow up to Cat-i-tude)
Hometown Spirit by Thomas Kinkade – Patriotic
Lilyanne by Ann Lauer – Pearlescent
Luscious Pearlescent Tulips & Mediterranean Lemons/Lemonade
Magnificent Blooms by Jackie Robinson
Jubilee Silver by Amanda Murphy – Metallic Paisleys
Succulent Charm – colorful cacti gardens
Ray of Hope by Josephine Wall
Rhapsody by Makower – Klimt with Gold Metallic
Declassified by Guicy Giuce – Redacted UFO Documents
Unicorn-ocopia – Modern Unicorns
Spring Jubilee – Mardi Gras, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day
Narumi – Asian Garden
Aladdin & Toy Story 4 Licensed prints
I know lots of you in the US take advantage of the long holiday weekend to get
in some extra sewing. Wishing you a happy and productive Memorial Day weekend!
sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul
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You’ll be dreaming about forests and a rainbow of natural leafy colors, when you sleep under this luscious quilt. Maybe you know someone special who loves Nature and hikes in the Forest, who will truly treasure this quilt. Best of all, it is super easy to make. You might make several and give them as gifts for the holidays!
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.
Sunday night I got home from Quilt Market, and I’ve spent the last couple days ruminating about what I saw, and how the industry is poised to change once again. When we started our business twenty years ago, we identified a niche that was not being served: fabrics for people who were not afraid of color!
I went on a mission to find those juicy saturated colors that were missing in most of the quilt fabrics. At the time, the quilt shops were full of beige and brown and dark fabrics, although thankfully that has changed. Now there is a greater appreciation for clear bright beautiful colors, and a recognition that colors make us smile, heal our soul, and invite us to explore our innate creativity.
Fabrics can also make us laugh, and they can also spark conversations that are unexpected. Designer Giuseppe (also known as Guicy Guice – pronounced “Juicy Juice”) has come up with a hilarious collection based on UFO sightings, with the main print as Redacted Federal documents about UFOs. I just knew that many of you would need these fabrics.
We find that the plain flat modern fabric designs do not stand alone and sell as yardage, but these color collections *do* sell as precuts. So, I bought a lot of these beautiful rainbows of precuts!
Over the years we have attracted customers who are not afraid of COLOR. You like to dive into Big Color the way a kid bites into a slice of sweet dripping watermelon. Sometimes when we do that crazy patchwork thing with lots of colors, we find that we can combine all kinds of wild fabric combinations, just because the colors are right. We couldn’t dream up these color combinations in our head, but when we lay down these colors to audition them, we say Bazinga! – and a new color story is born.
There are no new colors out there, only new color combinations. That’s why every year we see new and sometimes strange color combos, we swallow hard and slowly start to bake them into our ongoing color choices, and then suddenly those bizarre combinations give us the most pleasure. We are always thirsting for something new and different, and these new color combos give us something to bite into….like that juicy slice of watermelon.
So go on… take a bite!
sharing your Passion for Fabric… Luana and Paul
****************
Luana’s Travel Calendar:
May 24-25 – Dairy Barn – Quilt National Opening – Athens OH
June 11-15 – Quilt Canada Ottawa – (lecture Fri 6/14)
July 18-22 – Sacred Threads & Not Fade Away (VA & DC)
eQuilter Classroom:
June 1 – Charity Sewing Group – RSVP
July 11-14, 2019 – Cindy
Lohbeck – Shibori, Ice-Dyeing and Ombre Dyeing – Almost FULL
Sept 13-15 – Cas Holmes – FRCQ Workshop
Oct 8-10 – Jacqueline de Jonge – eQuilter Classroom
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