Free Pattern – Motoring USA

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Luana

Do you have a passion for the beauty of vintage automobiles? If so, this week’s Free Quilt Pattern will take you back to a time when cars were an expression of style, and going on a road trip was a chance to show off your wheels!

You’ll be cruisin’ on Route 66 and Highway 101 with these detailed car vignettes – cut from a panel of car-themed blocks with artwork by one of our favorite artists – the talented Dan Morris.

This 66″ x 82″ quilt design will make a small bed quilt or a double-snuggler lap quilt, or hang it on the wall to bring that Retro ambiance into your den. *wink* The good news is – you won’t have to polish these chrome details!

… from the ‘Motorin’ collection by Dan Morris for Quilting Treasures.

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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Happy Earth Day!

Posted on April 23, 2018 by Luana

This weekend we are celebrating our Mother Earth, and raising awareness about what is happening to our planet. eQuilter is making several donations this weekend to conservation and environmental organizations, in addition to the 2 on our list of charities. (Ocean Conservancy and Rainforest Action Network)

With these donations, this brings our environmental donations to a total of $175,000 out of our overall total of $1.5 million.

In addition, I lead a tour to Churchill every couple years, to help raise awareness about the plight of the Polar Bears. My most recent quilt is called Polar Bear Eclipsed, and tells the story of the toxins that are circulating through the Arctic, which are causing genetic damage to the bears and further affecting their ability to survive. I stay in touch with Arctic researchers to learn more about what is happening there.

We know that many of you are working on your challenge quilts for the Love Your Mother contest and juried exhibit. The deadline is May 15 and we truly thank all of you who are contributing to this important project, to speak up for how we feel about our precious Earth.

Please join me in supporting your favorite environmental and conservation causes this Earth Day. If you want to check out various organizations, you can go to charitynavigator.org for ratings.

Big News: Internationally-known quilt artist Lea McComas is going to be teaching 2 workshops here in July…watch for all the details on Wednesday in the Midweek Creative Nudge email newsletter.

The Registration Page for the Love Your Mother Contest and Exhibit is LIVE, but you have until the May 15 deadline to make a quilt and try for the top prize of a newly introduced model BERNINA 570 QE machine. The juried exhibit will premier in Houston!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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Free Pattern – Mandala Prism

Posted on April 20, 2018 by Luana

As our lives become busier and we seek ways to reconnect with a sense of Inner Peace, Meditation and Mandalas have been gaining in popularity…including interest in Zentangle and stitching Mandalas into our quilts.

This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern tells a tale of smaller Mandalas spinning within a larger Mandala Wheel. The Colors of the Rainbow are a brilliant focus for your meditation room, seeming to float in space on a Black background.

This is also a fantastic opportunity to practice your free-motion stitching! Imagine how much fun it will be to stitch around these colorful wheels, and perhaps you can stitch in some meditation mantras or positive affirmations with variegated rainbow-colored threads on the black solid background. We hope this quilt will inspire your creativity for years to come, not just while you piece and stitch this Mandala design.

You can make this 78″ x 78″ quilt as a bedspread, or hang it on a wall to bring a psychedelic vibe to your meditation room.

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

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 – Little Women in Tokyo

Posted on April 18, 2018 by Luana

This week I wanted to show you another quilt, from the Little Women exhibit at the Tokyo Quilt Festival. This quilt by Pachiko Yoshida is titled “Little Women 2018”, and it depicts the 4 sisters with 4 totally different personalities, wearing 2018 pop culture fashions.

There are many influences to be found in this large figurative quilt. First of all the 4 sisters from the novel Little Women are depicted with 4 totally different fashion statements. The original archtype of each sister is there, but they are dressed in Tokyo street fashions, including Harajuku, Cosplay and Schoolgirl outfits.

The Anime artwork influence is also obvious here. The girls are drawn in the Anime style – highly stylized with quirky details. I have uploaded photos of the Little Women exhibit which was wildly popular at the event, to my Tokyo Quilt Festival page. Check out the details on this whimsical quilt!

The quilt by Yoshida is on the right (4 panels), and I’ve added 3 of our fabrics with young ladies, on the left side of this collage. Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy are no doubt inspiring a whole new generation of Little Women readers. What would Louisa May Alcott think?

On Friday April 27 I will be attending the opening reception for the Modern Quilt and SAQA exhibits at the Dairy Barn in Athens Ohio. eQuilter is a sponsor of this exhibit, which will be up through June 17.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

Enjoy artist interviews, tutorials, and quilt festival tours, on our eQuilter Video Page.

********
eQuilter Classroom & Event Calendar:
May 5 – eQuilter Charity Sewing Day! (Please RSVP)
May 10 – Deadline for dropping off Nepal Quilts
May 11 – eQuilter Chromazone – Color Marketing Group @ eQuilter
March 1 – May 15 – Registration for ‘Love Your Mother‘ Quilt Challenge

Luana’s Travel Calendar:
April 26 – Quilting Arts TV
April 27 – Dairy Barn Opening Reception
May 18-20 – Quilt Market – Portland OR
May 29 – 31 – Quilt Canada – Vancouver BC
June 1 – Opening Reception for Hollis Chatelain – RMQM – Golden CO
June 27 – July 11 – Sweden
Nov 13-19, 2018 – POLAR BEAR Tour

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Free Pattern – Mountain View

Posted on April 17, 2018 by Luana

Step through a doorway to a pristine mountain landscape in this week’s Free Quilt Pattern, featuring a digital panel with an alpine meadow, a stream, a pine forest, and misty distant mountain silhouettes.

Coordinated prints are set on point in the border, picking up the colors of the Sunset Sky, the Green Forest, and the Turquoise Waters. Finish the pieced border with Alabaster and Thistle Purple Hoffman Hand-Dyes.

This 51″ x 69″ quilt makes beautiful lap quilt (perhaps backed with snuggly Flannel?) or a dreamy wall-hanging that takes you away to an idyllic landscape.

… from the ‘Mountain View’ collection by Ro Gregg for Fabri-Quilt.

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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Fun in Our Classroom!

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Luana

We are just wrapping up our first day of Lisa Walton’s workshop here at eQuilter, and Sophie is here learning how to make a fused quilt. Dana is here (our customer service manager) and she brought the most awesome brownies! The rows of pink crab apple trees are just starting to bud out, so maybe by next week they will start to bloom under our Colorado sunny blue skies. Life is good!

One of the fun parts of this class was to see what other students have made in previous classes with Lisa. When artists get together and are given permission to experiment and play with fabric, it is amazing the depth and breadth of unique interpretations that come into focus by the end of the event.

For 16 years I belonged to a weekly figure painting group. We hired a different live model every week, we would set up our easels around the model, and proceed to put on canvas or paper… our own perspective. The best part was looking at everyone’s work at the end of 3 hours. It is the same in a creative workshop where everyone has the freedom to choose the colors, fabrics, and design for their project. The inventive variety is just dazzling.

Everyone is an artist as a child, but often the passage of time strips away our creative confidence…and we have to start over as adults. My goal is to bring in classes and teachers who reconnect us to that innocent playful joy of creating. I really believe that it is a healing experience to strip away the barriers and play in that very pure place in our hearts. Playing with Color is one of the ways to connect with that subconscious or intuitive part of ourselves. For myself, I love working with Purple, then adding in analogous and complimentary hues. Playing with Purple is like meditation for me. Do you have a personal color that heals and energizes?

The Registration Page for the Love Your Mother Contest and Exhibit is LIVE, but you have until the May 15 deadline to make a quilt and try for the top prize of a newly introduced model BERNINA 570 QE machine. The juried exhibit will premier in Houston!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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Free Pattern – Native American Universe

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Luana

You will feel the magic of Mother Earth under a beautiful starry sky, in this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern, featuring our exclusive Digital panel and a geometric pieced border.

A Native American scout sits astride his Mustang, looking out across Monument Valley, under a sparkling endless sky full of galaxies and celestial colors…in this stunning quilt that is sure to bring a sense of awe and wonder.

This 60″ x 50″ quilt will bring the majesty of Sky and Earth to any room where it hangs… or make this Lap/Snuggle Quilt for someone with connections to Native Tribes or a love of the colorful beauty of the Southwest.

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

And don’t miss our popular ‘Moonlit Painted Pony‘ and ‘Tiger Eyes‘ 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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The Color Mafia Comes to Boulder CO

Posted on April 11, 2018 by Luana

A good friend of mine, Futurist and Safety Lead Engineer for NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office, Dr John Bacon, has three words for this unusual tribe of color professionals when referring to Color Marketing Group members – “The Color Mafia”. This international association of color design professionals gathers for annual Conferences and forecasting events in North and South America, Europe, and Asia … to come up with a palette of colors that forecasts trends for 2 to 5 years into the future. Designers, product developers, and trend forecasters travel from around the world, from industries as varied as Automotive, Cosmetics, Graphic Design, Paint, and Personal Electronics, to collaborate and discuss trends that will affect us all in the years to come.

“Anyone who has attended these ChromaZone Workshops knows that the special sauce is in the process…the intense conversations, the stories shared, and the products being developed, that come out during this collaborative one-day process.”

 

Before the annual Regional Conferences, members of this color tribe gather at regional ChromaZone® workshops where individual color predictions are compared, discussed, and distilled down into trend palettes. On May 11th, local designers and color professionals will have a chance to join with international color mavens in Boulder CO, to experience this process of color collaboration across industry borderlines. Anyone who has attended these ChromaZone Workshops knows that the special sauce is in the process…the intense conversations, the stories shared, and the products being developed, that come” out during this collaborative one-day process.

“Having worked in the garment and textile design industries since 1980 Color Marketing Group® workshops give me a huge advantage over our competitors.”

One of the most famous members of CMG is Lee Eiseman, the executive director at Pantone Color Institute, and the person you’ve seen quoted annually as she announces the Color of the Year.   Ms Eiseman was one of the first mentors that I met when I joined CMG. Over the years, I have become a CMG Chairholder and facilitator, while enjoying the friendship and mentorship of Eiseman and other design industry leaders. Now eQuilter.com, the company I co-founded, is hosting a ChromaZone® Color Forecasting Workshop, including a tour of our warehouse full of 16,000 fabrics, which is not open to the public.  eQuilter is based in Gunbarrel, with a 15,000 sq ft space full of almost limitless color and design inspiration.

Having worked in the garment and textile design industries since 1980 Color Marketing Group® workshops give me a huge advantage over our competitors, and it’s a unique opportunity to experience the ground floor color forecasting process exclusive to Color Marketing Group®.

For more information and registration visit CMG’s website, or contact eQuilter.com at 303-527-0856.

by CMG Member, Luana Rubin, EQuilter

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Creative Nudge – A Lamb is Born

Posted on April 11, 2018 by Luana

Saturday night I returned home from San Antonio, after marinating in the creative juices of the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) conference. On Sunday Sophie had a very important date with a local hand weaver who raises her own sheep for wool. We had an invitation to come visit Cathy’s newborn lambs.

When we first arrived, we went into the paddock with some of the sheep, and the very charming llama who guards them from coyotes. This llama had the longest eyelashes and the sweetest fuzzy lips…what a personality! Then we noticed one of the sheep was on the ground in labor. Could it be? Would we witness one of the sheep giving birth?

Just a few minutes later Sophie got to witness a lamb being born right there in front of us. What incredible timing! I happened to have my Nikon so I took several photos. We just could not believe our luck. When I take tour groups out to photograph the polar bears and we get those amazing shots, they call it Bear Karma or Camera Karma. Well this was such a blessing to witness a live birth up close….when I had my camera.

Then we went into the old barn to visit the newborn lambs and then some older lambs and their mothers. The barn cat perched on a stack of hay bales, and the border collie insisted that Sophie play fetch over and over with a slobbery wet stick. The farm looks out onto a beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains, and Cathy told us about the homestead history of the property.

These are the kinds of experiences that take us out of our everyday routine, and fuel our creative fires. I am grateful that Cathy invited us to visit her special wooly world, and grateful that mama sheep dropped her lamb when she did. Creative blessings are everywhere, when we keep our heart and eyes open.

International quilt celebrity & new SAQA President Lisa Walton will be here in THREE DAYS. We still have some space in the class so SIGN UP NOW! Sophie and I will be there all weekend also.

On Friday April 27 I will be attending the opening reception for the Modern Quilt and SAQA exhibits at the Dairy Barn in Athens Ohio. eQuilter is a sponsor of this exhibit, which will be up through June 17.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

* The collage above features photos from the farm, plus llama and sheep fabrics now in stock.

Enjoy artist interviews, tutorials, and quilt festival tours, on our eQuilter Video Page.

********
eQuilter Classroom & Event Calendar:
April 14-15 – Lisa Walton workshop @ eQuilter Classroom – REGISTER NOW!
May 5 – eQuilter Charity Sewing Day! (Please RSVP)
May 10 – Deadline for dropping off Nepal Quilts
May 11 – eQuilter Chromazone – Color Marketing Group @ eQuilter
March 1 – May 15 – Registration for ‘Love Your Mother‘ Quilt Challenge

Luana’s Travel Calendar:
April 26 – Quilting Arts TV
April 27 – Dairy Barn Opening Reception
May 18-20 – Quilt Market – Portland OR
May 29 – 31 – Quilt Canada – Vancouver BC
June 1 – Opening Reception for Hollis Chatelain – RMQM – Golden CO
June 27 – July 11 – Sweden
Nov 13-19, 2018 – POLAR BEAR Tour

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Free Pattern – Call of the Wolves

Posted on April 10, 2018 by Luana

This week we are featuring the iconic Wolf in our Free Quilt Pattern – a symbol of wild freedom in the West – with this Digital printed portrait of a pair of Wolves.

This 50″ x 56″ quilt design starts with the central detailed portrait panel, then adds a pieced border with stone textures and tree bark, in neutrals and earthtones. You’ll hear the far-off howl of distant wolves when you hang this powerful image on the wall.

Perhaps this has a special meaning for your significant other…wolves mate for life and are fiercely loyal to their mate. The symbol of the Wolf Pack as a deeply bonded family, is represented by this beautiful wildlife portrait.

… from the ‘Artworks’ collection by Collin Bogle for Quilting Treasures.

And don’t miss our popular ‘Moonlit Painted Pony‘ and ‘Tiger Eyes‘ 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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