Plus we offer a Free exclusive 57″ x 71″ quilt design! Start with our Giraffes in Love panel, border with our natural hardwood print, then piece the blocks and outside border with coordinating tonals and Hoffman hand dyes.
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this exquisite quilt pattern (orders $100 and over, no coupon needed).
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.
10 years ago the Gold King Mine spill released approximately three million gallons of toxic wastewater into the Animas River, turning the water yellow-orange and affecting Durango and other communities downstream. The incident highlighted the dangers of abandoned mines, and the issue of poisoned water supplies.
My friends in Durango begged me to make a quilt about the toxins that independent scientists were finding in the water, that were not being reported fully to the public. (One of those friends has been subsequently fighting a rare cancer.) I stitched the names of the toxic chemicals and elements into the quilt, while they read me the water report over the phone.
7 months later that quilt “Rocky Mountain Poison” was part of an exhibit at the United Nations in Geneva, on World Water Day. At the opening reception the cultural attache approached me, took my hand, and said “You have to keep making this kind of art with a message”.
I took that as my marching orders, and have been making textile art with a message ever since.
A few years later I made the 2nd piece above – “Stardust Mothers” – about the generations of women who protect and support each other and the planet. This piece has traveled to Sacred Threads, France, Birmingham UK, the DAR Museum in Washington DC last year, and the Kyoto Quilt Museum this year.
This Friday July 18, I will be at the opening reception for the SAQA “Balance” exhibit in Durango Colorado. It will be from 4-6 pm at the Durango Arts Center, 802 East 2nd Ave.
My “Stardust Mothers” is hanging in this show. I felt like it was important to be at this opening in Durango, where my activist artist ‘career’ first began. The ‘Balance’ exhibit will travel to several other venues in the next 2 years.
In 2017 we introduced our “Love Your Mother” panel, which has been taken to many climate marches by our customers…and myself. It was the inspiration for the Love Your Mother challenge, contest and exhibit…which premiered in Houston, then traveled to Chicago and Mexico City.
The ripple effects of these textile messages continue to reverberate today. Perhaps you will make a quilt with a message some time soon.
Travel/Lecture Dates: July 18 – SAQA “Balance” opening reception in Durango, CO 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 – Soul Stories Nov 2-6 – Art Quilt Tahoe – Independent Study Nov 7-10 – Sacred Threads – Indianapolis – Art & Activism lecture
Plus we offer a Free exclusive 68″ x 68″ quilt design! Start with the 43″ x 44″ Moonlit Dragon panel. Use our exclusive coordinating prints from this collection (Dragon scales & Icon Stripes) to construct the border, plus Solid Black to set a dramatic mood. Finish with a Midnight Sky binding.
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this exquisite quilt pattern (orders $100 and over, no coupon needed).
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 weekend I am excited to share that I’ve been invited to come to the Taiwan Quilt Festival in Taipei. The event is November 21-23. I will be the featured artist and speaker, giving a lecture on International Quilt Trends on that Saturday night. More details will be forthcoming. You will see I have shared their announcement on my personal Facebook page.
In fact I spent quite a bit of time in Taiwan….in the late 1980s. Back then I was flying business class on Pan Am, from New York to Taipei. I think I spent a total of six months there over several years. Each trip was about a month long, working to develop a collection in a factory. Many of my friends from Hong Kong had moved there, and I especially enjoyed visiting the museums. I’ll have to brush up on my Mandarin between now and then!
You can find yardage and fat quarter bundles here. You will be tempted to join the challenge this year. I like to work with batiks and hand-dyes in my own work, because of their dense weave and smooth hand.
Hoffman’s high quality batiks are always a pleasure to work with, and we have a new fat quarter packet with their ever-popular batik dots.
Travel/Lecture Dates: July 18 – SAQA “Balance” opening reception in Durango, CO July 27 – Aug 6 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK Sept 12 – SAQA “Camouflage” reception – Arizona Sonora Desert Museum – Tuscon AZ Oct 9-12 – Houston Quilt Festival – Soul Stories Nov 2-6 – Art Quilt Tahoe – Independent Study Nov 7-10 – Sacred Threads – Indianapolis – Art & Activism lecture Nov 21-23 – Taiwan Quilt Festival – Taipei
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this exquisite quilt pattern (orders $100 and over, no coupon needed).
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.
We have just received the Hoffman Challenge fabrics, including a fat quarter bundle. It is already selling out fast, so if you miss out on this first shipment, contact customer service to let you know when it is back in stock. The challenge batiks this year are PURPLE!
Today I am sharing another beautiful quilt from Quilt Canada, in the category we sponsored.
“Finding Strength in the Lion’s Heart” by Lise Belanger
Artist Statement: “In times of uncertainty, we can all channel the courage of a lion. Their strength and unwavering spirit remind us that we possess the same resilience within. As we navigate these challenges, let us embrace our inner lions, standing strong and brave, ready to face whatever comes our way.”
Raw edge applique, trapunto, machine quilted.
I appreciate Lise’s reminder that we can find inspiration and strength, and even healing, in the spirit of wild animals. Indigenous people around the world understand this connection to Nature. Instead of fearing the lion, we can choose to embrace the fierce wild spirit.
As Mary Oliver wrote in her poem “The Summer Day”…..
Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life?
Next week on Friday July 18, I will be at the opening reception for the SAQA “Balance” exhibit in Durango Colorado. It will be from 4-6 pm at the Durango Arts Center, 802 East 2nd Ave.
My “Stardust Mothers” is hanging in this show. If you missed at the DAR Museum in Wash DC last year, you can see it in this show which will travel to several venues.
Travel/Lecture Dates: July 18 – SAQA “Balance” opening reception in Durango, CO 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 – Soul Stories Nov 2-6 – Art Quilt Tahoe – Independent Study Nov 7-10 – Sacred Threads – Indianapolis – Art & Activism lecture
Plus we offer a Free exclusive 52″ x 67″ quilt design! Start with the central 29″ x 44″ midnight garden panel, then piece the borders with coordinating floral and hummingbird prints. The solid black background sets off the brilliant hues of these magnificent night garden fabrics.
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this exquisite quilt pattern (orders $100 and over, no coupon needed).
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.
We have fond memories of 4th of July fireworks in Boulder over the years. The kids and I, and often my mother, had a favorite spot on a grassy little hill next to an ice cream shop. We would get there early, stake out our spot with lawn chairs and a picnic quilt, and then everybody had a double scoop while we waited for the sky to darken. Due to wildfire concerns, the fireworks were permanently cancelled in 2024. Mom, and the ice cream shop are gone….but the memory lives on in our hearts. Instead of fireworks at the CU stadium, this year Boulder had Phish concerts. I stayed home and watched the new season of “Gilded Age” with Paul.
Other communities had drone light shows, with complex patterns and images pulsating in the sky. I have heard there are now drone clubs who get together to practice these multiple-drone flying light displays. Drone shows are considered sustainable compared to fireworks because after the show they are packed up, batteries recharged, to be used again thousands of times. Instead of relying on explosives that can be loud, polluting, and pose safety risks, these shows utilize swarms of drones equipped with vibrant LED lights to create colorful aerial performances. If you have pets, you know it is distressing to our furry friends. It is also traumatic for wildlife (birds!) and humans with PTSD. So I have an open attitude towards making new traditions for the holiday.
This is a different kind of long holiday weekend, but I am using the time to work on some projects in the studio. I am working on finishing 3 quilts, and 3 other quilts are being shipped off this week. When it is sizzling outside, it’s a good time to stay inside and finish some projects!
Travel/Lecture Dates: July 18 – SAQA “Balance” opening reception in Durango, CO 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 – Soul Stories Nov 2-6 – Art Quilt Tahoe – Independent Study Nov 7-10 – Sacred Threads – Indianapolis – Art & Activism lecture
Our exclusive Puppy Christmas fabric depicts an adorable group of puppies dressed in Christmas bows and Santa hats, clearly the highlight of Christmas Morning gifts !
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this exquisite quilt pattern (orders $100 and over, no coupon needed).
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.
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!
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
