eQuilter Blog

We have just restocked our inventory of Hoffman Dot Batiks – one of my favorite collections that I use quite often in my artworks. Check out all the beautiful colors and pre-cuts in stock now!

This week I thought I would share something different – a small quilt I made in one day as an experiment! This quilt will be sent to SAQA for their fundraiser auction later this year. It started out as a test piece for a larger artwork that is under the needle now. Sometimes it helps to try out a new idea in a smaller sample piece, before making the commitment in a larger final piece.

This started out as a drawing of a face, which I transferred to a 12″ x 12 piece of Evolon. (a nonwoven which I often use as a painted background in my art quilts) Then, with the detailed drawing under the Evolon, and a piece of clear plastic over my lightbox, I proceeded to ‘paint’ the face with Inktense blocks and gel medium.

My stash is mostly made up of batiks and hand-dyes that I have found in our eQuilter scrap hampers at the end of each week. In other words, after all of you place your orders and we get to the last small piece at the end of the bolt, that is what goes into our scrap packs. Many of you are fans of these scrap packs! And of course, we always have a *fabulous* curated selection of batik and hand-dye pre-cuts.

I have accumulated quite a collection of batik and hand-dye scraps with a paper-backed fusible attached, sorted into piles and bins of colors. After I choose the color story for a project, I pull out those bins, start to cut out shapes, and then fuse them to the background. So in this image you can see that I fused the green batik background, then the hair.

Finally I used various colors of Aurifil 50 wt cotton thread, to freemotion stitch on my Bernina Q20 which is a sit-down midarm with a 20″ throat. (I love that machine!) Because this piece is small, I gave it a matching green zigzag edge. It can be hung as is, or matted and framed.

Hopefully this will raise a lot of money in the auction later this year.

“Hope” – 12″ x 12″

Emily Dickenson’s poem “Hope is the thing with feathers” was the
inspiration for this piece. She compares hope to a bird that sings
continuously, perched in the soul, not asking for anything in
return. Her words describe the resilience of Hope, staying with us
in even the most challenging chaotic times. This image is a
reminder to always look up for Hope, to see the possibilities that
lie in the future. During the darkest of times, Hope is our
companion even when it is logical to remove our Rose-color
glasses. Hope comes with Faith, whether it is faith in our own
abilities, or a higher power.

Have you ever made a quilt for a fundraiser, a raffle, or a comfort quilt drive? It can be very freeing to try something new in a piece that will make someone else happy!

Sharing our passion for fabric,
Luana

Subscribe to my artist website.
www.luanarubin.com

Travel/Exhibit Dates:
July 27 – Aug 6 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK (Kubota’s Dream)
Sept 12 – SAQA “Camouflage” opening – Arizona Sonora Desert Museum – Tucson AZ
Oct 9-12 – Houston Quilt Festival – Soul Stories
Nov 2-6 – Art Quilt Tahoe
Nov 7-10 – Sacred Threads – Indianapolis – Art & Activism lecture

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

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

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Quilt festivals and exhibits are happening all over the country now, and I urge you to get up and get out to these celebrations of our beloved art and craft.

As this email goes out, I’ll be attending the opening reception and award ceremony of the Legacies art quilt exhibit at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, which is about an hour North of Boulder. Like our town, it is a college town, and thriving with creative energy. I went to summer music camp there several times, and later, my kids went to the same summer music camp.

Going on a summer quilting retreat can feel like Summer Art Camp for adults. This year I have gone on a quilt retreat in the Spring (Alegre) and will finally return to Art Quilt Tahoe this November, after 20 years. These days I like to sign up for independent study, but most people sign up to take a class and learn some new techniques to fold into their stitching repertoire. Either way, the point is to have fun and hang out with like-minded people.

There is nothing like hanging out at a quilt retreat, a quilt workshop, a quilt festival, or a quilt exhibit, to lift one’s spirits and fill up that Creative Gastank! Just be sure to review any class supply lists well in advance so you can have everything you need, before you pack your bags and hit the road.

If there is something you need that you can’t locate on our site, give us a call or online chat during business hours, or send us an email. We will send you links to the products, or get them back in stock and contact you when they arrive.

Stay cool out there – and keep stitching.

sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul

Subscribe to my artist blog here.

Travel/Lecture Dates:
July 27 – Aug 6 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK
Sept 12 – SAQA “Camouflage” reception – Arizona Sonora Desert Museum – Tucson AZ
Oct 9-12 – Houston Quilt Festival
Nov 2-6 – Art Quilt Tahoe
Nov 7-10 – Sacred Threads – Indianapolis

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

See Luana’s Artist Blog, Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, comment on our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Having returned from Quilt Canada over the weekend, I am still digesting all the beautiful artwork produced by the talented Canadian quilters. eQuilter sponsored the Pictorial category, and this Egyptian-inspired portrait quilt (on the left) was one of the winners. It was made by Galla Grotto, whose career I have followed for many years. She moved from Russia, to Ukraine, and then to France. (where she lives today) When Galla showed her first beautiful portrait quilt of the Madonna in Canada, I bought it for my collection. When I met her and told her about our support of environmental non-profits, she was delighted….and told me that portrait was about the Divine Mother’s sadness for the world.

So being able to see Galla at the award ceremony, to give her a hug and hand her an award check, was one of those ‘full circle’ moments. Galla’s career has exploded, and she has showed her gorgeous portraits of women, all over the world. Her classes are in high demand and her fans are always waiting to see what she will do next.

You may have noticed that we also have a collection of Egyptian-themed exclusive Rubin Design Studio digital prints. So I am delighted to share both with you now – Galla’s portrait of Nefertiti on the left and one of our Egyptian Queen fantasy portraits on the right.

It is believed that Queen Nefertiti ruled ancient Egypt as regent while Tutankhamun came of age. Her bust is the most widely reproduced piece of art from ancient Egypt. As Galla noted in her artist statement, her name literally means “Beautiful”.

I will be posting photos from Quilt Canada on my photo pages throughout the next week.

Sharing our passion for fabric…..
Luana and Paul

Subscribe to my artist website.
www.luanarubin.com

Travel/Exhibit Dates:
July 18 – SAQA “Balance” opening – Durango CO (Stardust Mothers)
July 27 – Aug 6 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK (Kubota’s Dream)
Sept 12 – SAQA “Camouflage” opening – Arizona Sonora Desert Museum – Tucson AZ
Oct 9-12 – Houston Quilt Festival – Soul Stories
Nov 2-6 – Art Quilt Tahoe
Nov 7-10 – Sacred Threads – Indianapolis – Art & Activism lecture

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

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

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

The first day of summer arrived with a record-breaking heat wave yesterday – it was 100 degrees when I arrived back home from the quilt festival in Toronto.

In fact the Best of Show at Quilt Canada was a fire-themed quilt, about how the forest renews after a fire. I think the forest recovers a little faster in Canada due to the rainfall. Our burn areas in Colorado remain scarred for decades. There was another quilt about fire in the SAQA “Renewal” gallery in the show. I’ll be editing and posting photos of these quilts over the next week, on my photo pages.

I was very happy to have Global Entry going through US customs in Toronto. There were about 1000 people waiting in the regular line, and I saw people running to catch their flights afterwards. I would say that is not the norm, compared to my previous trips to Toronto. It is a good time to apply for Global Entry if you are traveling abroad this year.

Speaking of which, I am very excited to have my Mt Fuji-themed quilt going to the Birmingham UK show this year. I hope to see many of my friends from UK and Europe at this show in about a month. I’ll be staying at the Hilton Metropole this time. If you just hang out in the lobby during the Festival of Quilts, you see all kinds of quilters there. There is often a LOTR/Fantasy or Comic-Con event in the hotel on that weekend, and almost every time I’ve been there, we enjoy people-watching an Indian wedding on Saturday night with lots of lovely ladies in their colorful saris.

Can you believe our daughter Sophie Quinn is turning 23 this week?!? For those of you who have followed our family business for all these years, I know you will celebrate that this little foundling baby has grown up to be such an amazing young woman. (Many of you remember her appearances on Quilting Arts TV with Pokey Bolton) She is finishing her degree in Music Education at MSU Denver, and works for the Colorado Symphony in Patron Services at the DCPA. Thanks to her, we got excellent seats to the Andrea Bocelli concert last Tuesday. Lucky me!

Stay cool out there – and keep stitching.

sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul

Subscribe to my artist blog here.

Travel/Lecture Dates:
July 27 – Aug 6 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK
Sept 12 – SAQA “Camouflage” opening – Arizona Sonora Desert Museum – Tucson AZ
Oct 9-12 – Houston Quilt Festival
Nov 2-6 – Art Quilt Tahoe
Nov 7-10 – Sacred Threads – Indianapolis

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

See Luana’s Artist Blog, Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, comment on our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

As you read this, I am on my way to Toronto for Quilt Canada. For many years I have traveled to this show to photograph the amazing Canadian quilts, many of which come to the US and win big awards later in the year. There is so much talent up North, and I guess having a long winter with lots of ‘indoor time’ to sew, doesn’t hurt either.

This week I am sharing the work of award-winning artist Kestrel Michaud, whose latest work is featured at the entrance of the Quilt National exhibit, at the Dairy Barn in Athens Ohio. If you can go see this exhibit in person, I urge you to make the trip!

Kestrel has won lots of top awards in the last year, and when you see her work in person you will understand why. She has a unique method of quilt design and construction, with thousands of little pieces that are cut out on a digital cutting machine. In the meantime we have limited copies of the show book for our eQuilter customers.

This piece is 36″ x 48″, and is titled “Echoes of Time and Magic”

Artist Statement:
“Three modern day explorers have discovered an ancient device in the frozen North. They’re excited to have made such a discovery, but they don’t yet know the significance. In my steampunk world, humans have harnessed steam to power their society because they lack the ability to use arcane energy. This machine extracts arcane energy from magic-infused crystals, allowing magic to be used as an energy source. This device is going to completely revolutionize ‘modern’ steampunk society. It won’t be an easy transition; a war will be fought for control of this machine. the red sunrise foreshadows that coming conflict.”

It sounds like Kestrel’s next career could be sci-fi steampunk novelist!

For those of you playing around with digital cutting machines, we stock a 12″ fusible by the yard which works great with fabric you are cutting on these machines. I am experimenting with this on my Silhouette Cameo digital cutting machine.

We also carry the wool/rayon felt batting that Kestrel uses – available in 2 widths – by the yard. We carry 3 neutral colors, and also offer a sample packet. I also used this wool felt batting in my “Uncompahgre Fritillary” quilt, traveling now in the SAQA “Camouflage” exhibit.

Sharing our passion for fabric…..
Luana and Paul

Subscribe to my artist website.
www.luanarubin.com – New Blog Post about the Kyoto Quilt Festival!

Travel/Lecture Dates:
June 18-20 – Quilt Canada – Toronto Ontario
July 18 – SAQA “Camouflage” opening – Arizona Sonora Desert Museum – Tucson AZ
July 31 – Aug 3 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

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

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Color is Emotion.

We unconsciously choose colors in our projects…often from a subliminal context of curiosity, desire, fear, joy or courage.

How do we extricate ourselves from this veiled context, to chart conscious new paths of color and design?

Taking photos, capturing images that grab your imagination, exposing yourself to art and design…is a daily practice. One version of this is the Artist Date suggested by Julia Cameron in her classic book, The Artist’s Way. But in addition to going out to museums, galleries, etc….we have a limitless resource of images that we can visit online and save for our own inspiration files.

When I started out as a fashion designer, we would prepare a Mood Board for each new seasonal collection. These days we have so much exposure to images, we can develop a digital reference folder with an almost infinite depth of visual stimulation.

I have been saving striking images for decades now, and my screen saver is a random art show through over 10,000 saved images. Do you save images of quilts, art, color and design as well? How do you use these as a tool for creative stimulation?

Paging through magazines is an obvious method of inspiration. We are lucky that we still have so many beautiful magazines and colorful books being published, to fill our eyes and brains with exciting ideas. As much as we love digital images, we as quilters still love the tactile pleasure of glossy full color pages.

When an image grabs you by the heart, what emotion is it touching? When quilt design or a color combination touches you deeply, do you make a conscious note to identify what it is you love? How can you take that piece to your next project? Keep a notebook, or even a sketchbook, where you take notes as you are exposed to all the art, color and design that surrounds us every day.

As you input a constant flow of inspiration, it will blend and ferment, and come out as something that is uniquely YOU. Don’t be afraid of what flows out in unexpected ways. It is often exactly what we need in the moment, in our journey as creative beings.

sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul

Subscribe to my artist blog here.

Travel/Lecture Dates:
June 18-20 – Quilt Canada – Toronto Ontario
July 30 – Aug 6 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

See Luana’s Artist Blog, Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, comment on our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.