Free Pattern – Sailing by the Stars

Posted on December 21, 2018 by Luana

In the mood for a new Adventure?

You’ll be skimming across glowing waters under a starry sky, in this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern. Dolphins leap through sparkling waves beside you, as the rigging creaks and wind fills your sails … you are ready to sail though any storm…straight on til morning!

This 60″ x 66″ quilt design makes a beautiful Lap/Nap quilt, or hang it on the wall to bring that sense of adventure to any space. You’ll combine one of our beautiful eQuilter digital panels with a starry print and 3 Hoffman Hand-Dyes, for a fantasy ride that will sail into your sweetest dreams.

Hoist the Halyard and off you go!

… from the ‘Wondrous Ocean’ collection by the Rubin Design Studio, designed exclusively for eQuilter.

And don’t miss the wonderful ‘Northern Lights Shimmer‘ and ‘Healing Waters‘ 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 – Party Time

Posted on December 19, 2018 by Luana

As the year winds down and we busy ourselves with holiday preparations, we know that those family gatherings, meals and decorations will be a pleasant memory in a couple weeks…and it will be time for quiltmaking!

2019 is winking on the horizon, which means New Years Eve and then Carnival (Mardi Gras) are just around the corner. This striking portrait quilt by Sandra Bruce features a costumed character from Carnival in Trinidad, from a photo credited to Howard Koons. “Dame Lorraine” was created using 2″ squares, embroidery, hand applique and Swarovski crystals. This photo was taken in Houston at the Quilt Festival, and I’ve framed her with a couple of my favorite festive digital prints. Notice how Sandra uses the design motifs of Dots – or Circles – all through her composition.

On Sunday Sophie and I are flying to Beijing. The Chinese government pays for adoptees to visit and tour their home country, and we are finally taking advantage of the opportunity. Sophie was abandoned at 2 days old, and we adopted her in China at 8 months old. So the first part of our trip will be a tourist type itinerary, but at the end we will visit her orphanage, and hopefully the place where she was found. I don’t know what kind of internet access we will have, but I will keep a diary similar to the one I posted from her Adoption Trip in 2003. I’ll post our travel diary during or after the tour, depending on internet availability.

So many of you have followed her adoption story over the years, so we want to share this journey with you. We will be gone for two weeks. It is really a trip of a lifetime for the two of us. Watch our e-newsletters for updates! Paul and our eQuilter Staff will keep you entertained with some exciting new 2019 fabric collections in the meantime.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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eQuilter Classroom & Travel Calendar:
Dec 23 – Jan 6 – China Heritage Trip – Sophie & Luana
Jan 12 – eQuilter Charity Sewing Day – Please RSVP
Jan 24-29 – Luana @ Tokyo Quilt Festival
Feb 14-16 – ‘Love Your Mother‘ exhibit at Mexico Quilt Festival in Mexico City
Feb 20-23 – QuiltCon – Nashville TN
Mar 28-30 – ‘Love Your Mother‘ exhibit at Spring Quilt Festival in Chicago

July 11-14, 2019 – Cindy Lohbeck – Shibori, Ice-Dyeing and Ombre Dyeing Workshops @ eQuilter

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Free Pattern – Northern Lights Shimmer

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Luana

Follow this Bull Moose to the drama and mystery of the Northern Lights in this week’s Free Quilt Pattern, with the shimmering Aurora Borealis reflected on a lake in a remote wilderness. You can almost hear the lapping of the waves on the shore, and the crackle of the campfire on the far side of the lake.

We’ve combined a digital panel from Elizabeth Studio, a Northern Lights print from Kaufman, and 2 Stonehenge textures from Northcott, to make this atmospheric 54″ x 57″ quilt. Choose a snuggly (plaid?) Flannel backing for the ultimate campfire lap quilt! When you are back home, this spellbinding view will bring the magnificence of the far North to your living room.

… from the ‘Northern American Wildlife’ collection by Abraham Hunter for Elizabeth’s Studio.

And don’t miss the wonderful ‘Northern Light Wolves‘ and ‘Healing Waters‘ 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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When Quilters Gather

Posted on December 17, 2018 by Luana

Something very special happens when quilters get together. It happens at quilting retreats, sewing bees, and just sitting together for a meal. There’s that moment when we smile and look at each other, and share our delight in another gathering of the Quilter Tribe. We may have never met before, but we share this understanding that sitting down with fabric and needle and thread is the way that we find solace, work through our worries, heal our hearts, and figure out how to support those around us. When we sew alone, it is our meditation time, and when we gather with our Quilting Tribe, it is our time to share what we’ve learned in our quiet meditative creative sessions.

I know that many of you are home sewing this weekend, finishing special projects for your loved ones, anticipating the greatest joy there is – giving a quilt to someone we love or someone who needs comfort. We are a generous lot, aren’t we? We make beautiful things so we can give them away, or so we can hang them in a public place to bring joy and inspiration to others. We put love in every stitch, and it shows.

We hope that we have given you lots of inspiration for sewing and gift-giving this year, and we also hope that you have enjoyed seeing the incredible talent that is expressed through our fabric industry. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, somebody comes up with a new idea (often with this new digital-printing technology) that just blows your mind. Here at eQuilter our minds are blown every week as the crates of fabric roll in off the trucks. We smile giggle and gasp, knowing that you are going to be amazed too!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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Free Pattern – Healing Waters

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Luana

This is one of those fabric collections that has everyone saying “Wow!” when they see the artwork – so we’ve created this exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern to showcase these gorgeous Pacific-Northwest inspired designs.

You will piece together one large panel plus blocks cut from another panel, then combine with 2 coordinates and a Hoffman Hand-Dye, to create this striking 52″ x 70″ quilt design. We have good stock on this collection now, but we don’t expect a reprint, so if you love it….snap it up now!

… from the ‘Healing Waters’ collection by Mark Anthony Jacobson for Northcott Fabrics.

And don’t miss the wonderful ‘Northern Light Wolves‘ and ‘Color Intensity‘ 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 – A Walk in the Woods

Posted on December 12, 2018 by Luana

When I was a girl, living in California, my mother would take me on walks in the magical coastal forests…I would skip and prance through the ferns and the Redwoods…searching for wild strawberries, hummingbirds, monarch butterflies, and fairies. We would walk beside a splashing crystal stream, then would hopscotch on shiny wet rocks to get to the other side of the water.

The other side of the river always seemed so full of mystery and potential. The sweet smell of the green forest was intoxicating. We found a fallen tree across a brook, and teetered across the mossy log.

Then we would sit by the water and pull out our peanut butter and berry jam sandwiches, and eat slowly while we quietly listened to the sounds of the forest…the birds, the water, the buzzing bees, the wind in the leaves.

Do you have a memory like this with a parent or grandparent? Did someone in your family introduce you to the sights and smells of Nature? Did you jump in a creek, pick wild berries, or run through fields of wildflowers?

If so, you are SO lucky. We really have to look for those wild places now. Sometimes we put those memories in our quilts. These fabrics remind me of those childhood walks in the forest. What memories are you drawn to, when picking out fabrics for your next project?

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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eQuilter Classroom & Travel Calendar:
Dec 23 – Jan 4 – China Heritage Trip – Sophie & Luana
Jan 24-29 – Luana @ Tokyo Quilt Festival
Feb 20-23 – QuiltCon – Nashville TN
July 11-14, 2019 – Cindy Lohbeck – Shibori, Ice-Dyeing and Ombre Dyeing Workshops @ eQuilter

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Free Pattern – Alphonse Mucha Rose

Posted on December 11, 2018 by Luana

Beauty, Grace and Elegance are three words used often to describe the Art Nouveau illustrations of Czech artist Alphonse Mucha.

This week’s Free Quilt Pattern features a beloved painting “The Rose” which was created in 1898 while Mucha was living in Paris. In addition to Mucha’s delicate artwork, you’ll get the Pantone 2019 Color of the Year in this 54″ x 73″ quilt design! (“Living Coral” is one of the colors in these multicolor prints.)

Pieced Stars and Floral Borders complete this graceful nod to the Age of Elegance.

… from the ‘Alphonse Mucha’ collection by Robert Kaufman Fabrics.

And don’t miss the wonderful ‘Northern Light Wolves‘ and ‘Color Intensity‘ 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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Quilts for Paradise Fire

Posted on December 10, 2018 by Luana

Today was our Holiday Open House and Charity Sewing Day, and our sewing tribe finished up a few dozen quilts to be shipped to California Monday afternoon. We have a personal contact who will distribute comfort quilts to those who lost homes and loved ones in the Paradise Fire. Many thanks to everyone involved in this effort!

If you would like to drop off a quilt to us by noon Monday, we will be sure to include it in this shipment. Make sure you come to our NEW building at 6201 Spine Road!

By now you may have heard about the Pantone 2019 Color of the Year: Living Coral! This color was announced by my mentor and friend Lee Eiseman who I know from the Color Marketing Group. So far there seems to be a very enthusiastic positive response to this color. Because we are always stocking colors that are hot trends and trending upwards, we already have a variety of Living Coral fabrics in stock for your viewing and sewing enjoyment.

We’ve had lots of great media exposure lately, and I want to make sure you are aware of these:

Quilting Arts Magazine – 2 articles – about our Love Your Mother quilt challenge and about Digital Printed Fabrics.

Quilt Now – British Magazine – 4 page full color article about eQuilter.com

Quilting Arts TV – Reviews of the Quilt Canada Festival with indigenous themes, and the Birmingham UK Festival of Quilts.

We appreciate the opportunity to share our creative inspirations with all of you!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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Free Pattern – Adorable Christmas Pets

Posted on December 7, 2018 by Luana

Christmas is right around the corner and we still have good stock on several seasonal (collectible) holiday fabrics!

This week we’re offering some of these special prints in this adorable (and exclusive) eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern, featuring Puppies and Kittens in a cheerful Red, Green and Silver Metallic quilt design.

This 60″ x73″ quilt could be a Youth Bed Quilt, a Double-Snuggle Lap Quilt, or a festive Wall-Hanging. Put some Flannel Backing and Wool Batting to make this a cozy Hygge-Style quilt for those frosty Winter evenings.

… from the ‘Favorite Pets’ collection by the Rubin Design Studio, designed exclusively for eQuilter.

And don’t miss the wonderful ‘Northern Light Wolves‘ and ‘Color Intensity‘ 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 – Pure Joy

Posted on December 5, 2018 by Luana

My favorite quilts and my favorite fabrics are those that bring us pure joy.

This is why we quilt, right? …to experience emotions like Joy, Peace, Tranquility, Rejuvenation, Contentment, and Healing. To spend a day making a quilt is akin to spending a day meditating under a fragrant tree next to a still pond. It empties my mind, because the task of Making demands my focus, as all outside worries and stress fall away like petals from a blossom.

This beautiful quilt by Naomi Ootomi is called “Paradise of Flowers and Fountains”, inspired by her visit to the Palace of Versailles in France. This quilt from Japan was exhibited in Houston at the Quilt Festival in November.

I’ve set it in a collage of fabrics from Jason Yenter’s “Diaphanous” collection, which also brings me (and apparently many of you!) a lot of joy.

We’d like to share our Joy with our local quilter friends this Saturday: our Open House is 1-5 pm and we hope if you are in the area, you can stop by to see our new building, and have a tour of the warehouse, offices and classroom. Feel free to bring spouses, grandkids, and wannabe Makers!

Saturday is also our Charity Sewing Day, so if you would like to join us in a day of making Comfort Quilts, please call to RSVP. We usually fill up with a wait list.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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eQuilter Classroom & Travel Calendar:
Dec 8 – eQuilter Holiday Sewing Day (9 am -4 pm) & Open House (1-5 pm) – RSVP
Dec 23 – Jan 4 – China Heritage Trip – Sophie & Luana

2019:
Jan 24-29 – Luana @ Tokyo Quilt Festival
Feb 20-23 – QuiltCon – Nashville TN
July 11-14, 2019 – Cindy Lohbeck – Shibori, Ice-Dyeing and Ombre Dyeing Workshops @ eQuilter

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