A Catalonian Dragonfly

Posted on August 23, 2017 by Luana

We are still buzzing with the excitement from the Solar Eclipse which was at 93% coverage here in Boulder on Monday. One of our eQuilter staff took the day off to travel up to Wyoming, braving the traffic and crowds, to experience the Path of Totality. He said despite the hassle of getting there, the experience of Total Eclipse was amazing, and he’d do it again!

There are magical, amazing, inspiring things that happen around us every day…we just have to watch for them. For instance this quilt by quilter Montse Forcadell Blasco – “Libélula” (Dragonfly) – which I fell in love with at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. She is in Catalonia in Spain, west of Barcelona.

A dragonfly landing on a sunflower becomes a symphony of complementary colors (Purple/Yellow and Blue/Orange) made with applique and then densely machine stitched. Montse’s colors remind me of the mosaics by Antoni Gaudi, in Barcelona’s Park Güell.

I’ve set the quilt in a collage frame of Dragonfly and Flower prints that we have in stock now.

You can see more quilts from the Birmingham Festival of Quilts on my photo pages. Enjoy!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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Travel Calendar:
Sept 12-13 – Carter Center – Atlanta GA
Sept 14 – Quilting Arts TV – Ohio
Sept 16 – Quilters Take Manhattan
Oct 1-11 – Intl Quilt Trends lecture at New Zealand Quilt Symposium – Christchurch
Dec 29 2017 – Jan 5 2018 – Tanzania Africa Wildlife Migration Tour
Feb 22-25, 2018 – QuiltCon – Pasadena, California
Nov 14-20, 2018 – POLAR BEAR Tour – Join me in Churchill!

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Your Free Quilt Pattern – Wild Orchids – 8/21

Posted on August 23, 2017 by Luana

Orchids have a special place in a flower-lover’s heart, not just because they are rare tropical blossoms, but because orchids are so often associated with special events – Proms or Weddings for instance.

Orchids grow wild in the jungle, they bloom in our windowsills, and they also flourish in this lush pieced Free Quilt Pattern….all wrapped up in an engineered border stripe that brings a sophistication to this charming quilt design.

This 71″ x 89″ pieced patchwork quilt will make a lovely full size bed quilt for someone special. With the holidays on the horizon, perhaps you know an orchid-lover who will cherish this floral quilt?

… from the ‘Wild Orchid’ collection by Chong-A Hwang for Timeless Treasures.

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.

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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Eclipse Fever – 8/19

Posted on August 23, 2017 by Luana

I don’t know about you, but this crazy last week has left me very grateful that I have my creative outlets, my quilting fabrics, and especially my quilting friends. While Humanity hopefully is contemplating getting its act together, I know that I can go into my studio, and sit down at my sewing machine, to clear my head.

All week I’ve been working on editing the photos from Birmingham, and I am posting more this weekend. It is always such a joy to attend this show and see what our British and European quilter friends have created over the last year. As I mentioned in the Midweek Creative Nudge, there is a huge trend in machine stitching that is reaching new levels of mastery and creativity, and it is very exciting to watch.

Here in Colorado, the main highways Northbound are already clogged with Eclipse-watchers, heading to the Path of Totality where they can experience thirty-six seconds of Total Eclipse, which for some is a life-changing experience. Those who are renting out extra bedrooms for the price of a presidential suite might find it a life-changing experience too. Ha! We will have 93% coverage here in Boulder, but everyone I know has their special eclipse-viewing glasses, ready to participate in our National Eclipse Day.

I can’t help (as a Star Trek nerd) but be reminded of the movie Star Trek Generations, where bad-guy Soran travels to catch a ride on the Ribbon as it passes over a planet, so he can return to the Nexus.

Sophie started her sophomore year of high school this year. Her electives are orchestra, photography and Latin 2. She hopes to be in the sound crew for theater productions this year. She ‘only’ got a 3.9 GPA last year, so her goal this year is to get a 4.0. She is taking a couple weighted classes to help her achieve that goal. *smile*

We are looking forward to seeing many of you at the NEXT exhibit and SAQA Symposium in Boulder next weekend. The public opening reception is Fri Aug 25 from 5 to 7 pm at the Dairy Arts Center…hope to see you there.

sharing your Passion for Fabric… Luana and Paul
 

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Free Pattern – Pegasus Moon

Posted on August 18, 2017 by Luana

How will you spend the Solar Eclipse of 2017?

When the Sun and Moon align with the Earth on Monday, will you have Lunar Fever at your sewing machine?

This week’s Exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern features our own digital printed Pegasus Panel, bordered by our exclusive Moon border print. You can ONLY get these gorgeous fabrics at eQuilter, and this just might be the perfect quilt to commemorate the Lunar and Solar Eclipses happening this month.

Make this simple but stunning 62″ x 74″ quilt as a wall-hanging or bed cover, and you’ll have a conversation piece that will help you to remember the Eclipse for years to come!

… from the ‘Magic Dreams’ 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 – Stitching Mastery

Posted on August 16, 2017 by Luana

One of the quilting trends I see rising strongly, is dense creative stitching in white negative space. This is happening not just in Modern Quilts, but also in Art Quilts and Traditional Quilts.

It ranges from All-White Whole cloth Quilts, to Abstract Art Quilts, and Modern Geometric Quilts. It is happening not just with white thread on white grounds, but also with solid colored and variegated threads on white grounds.

There are closeup detail shots from 4 quilts above, which I saw at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. You can see the full quilts on my Photo Page now.

The artists who made these quilts are:
(starting at top left, clockwise)

Anne Lillholm Joergensen – Puffing Petals
Maggie Farmer – Mistral
Sandy Chandler – Catherine’s Wheel
Birgit Schuller – The Sprinter

Obviously this kind of precision dense stitching is done on a machine, and these quilts (on my Photo Page) are stitched on longarm and home sewing machines….but they are accomplished on high quality machines with great stitch control and a great deal of mastery on the part of the maker. I personally use a BERNINA 790 to achieve this type of stitch control, and I urge you to try out many machines at your local dealers to see which one gives you the quality stitching you desire.

Are you aspiring to learn this quilting technique? Make several quilt sandwiches in manageable sizes, and start practicing making a variety of freemotion stitch designs on these sample “pages”.

A suggestion would be to make 12″ square quilt sandwiches with white solid fabric, and a fusible quality cotton batting. Practice one type of stitch per page (like a mini-pebble stitch) until you master proficiency. You can bind all these sample stitch pages together to make a record of your stitching practice.

High quality machine needles, thread and batting will give you the best results. Sometimes our customers are surprised to know that we carry ALL of these quilting supplies!

On this visit to Birmingham, I met eQuilter customers from Dubai and Israel, Brazil and Borneo, Copenhagen and Croatia. Many thanks to all of you who told me which products were most important to you! It is important to support your local quilt shop, but we are here for you when you need a specialty product, or a wider variety of choice. It is our honor to serve you, by stocking the supplies you need for your quilting projects.

* The image features a collage with 4 quilt details, and our striped batik products.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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Travel Calendar:
Sept 12-13 – Carter Center – Atlanta GA
Sept 14 – Quilting Arts TV – Ohio
Sept 16 – Quilters Take Manhattan
Oct 1-11 – Intl Quilt Trends lecture at New Zealand Quilt Symposium – Christchurch
Dec 29 2017 – Jan 5 2018 – Tanzania Africa Wildlife Migration Tour – Limited Spaces
Feb 22-25, 2018 – QuiltCon – Pasadena, California
Nov 14-20, 2018 – POLAR BEAR Tour – Join me in Churchill!

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Free Pattern – Raccoon Ravine

Posted on August 15, 2017 by Luana

Nature lovers rejoice! Hoffman’s ‘Call of the Wild’ collection is an eQuilter favorite, and
our Raccoon Ravine pattern captures the essence of winter’s dreamy wilderness.

The calling of geese flying south is muffled by a misty snowfall, while the curious raccoon is superimposed over a mountain landscape, in this week’s Free Winter Quilt Pattern.

Start with the super-detailed artwork in a digital-printed collage panel, then add pieced stars and Hoffman Hand-Dye borders, to make this simple but stunning 43″ x 49″ wall-hanging.

… from the ‘Call of the Wild’ collection by Hoffman 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.

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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A Stitching Revolution

Posted on August 14, 2017 by Luana

Tonight I am writing to you from Birmingham England, after spending the last couple days at the Festival of Quilts here. It is always fascinating to see how small and large trends develop and evolve, as I travel around the world photographing various quilt exhibits.

I’ve been saying for awhile that the place to watch for new trends is in between 2 established categories, and these days I am watching that fertile bubbling middle ground between Modern Quilts and Contemporary or Art Quilts. Also I have learned that some quilters here have different definitions for the words “Contemporary” verses “Art” quilts. It is different that my understanding of American Contemporary/Art quilts, so I will have to investigate this further!

On trend that cannot be denied is the super-dense machine quilting being used by Modern and Contemporary/Art quilters. It is being used to make incredibly unique trapunto shapes POP out of large areas of white negative space. It is being used in miniature quilts to create a fine texture as a background/contrast to blank/trapunto shapes.

This trend originally showed up in Modern Quilts, with lots of heavy parallel stitch lines, often being created with Ruler work. By the way, if you don’t know about the huge trend of Ruler Work (being used with longarm and freemotion machine quilting)…check it out online!

So now this trend of super-dense background quilting in negative space (often white negative space) is taking off in a new direction, which I will tell you about in the Midweek Creative Nudge on Wednesday. The super-dense miniature stippling is kind of mind-blowing… but when you see it, you will want to try it too! I took lots of photos so when I get back home I will work on posting these images so you can see what I am talking about.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana
 

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Free Pattern – Infinite Expressions

Posted on August 11, 2017 by Luana

This week’s exclusive Free Quilt Pattern features our spectacular, digitally printed Artisan Spirit Expressions panel, depicting the heavens in a splendid range of cosmic color.

Multicolor nebula squares are alternately set between coordinating chevron blocks, finished with one bold, fiery orange and three cool blue borders. It’s easy to get lost in this magical view of the unfolding universe.

Friends and family will appreciate the mysterious and meditative quality of
this generous 78″ x 78″ space themed quilt.
Order your quilt kit today and explore the Infinite Expression of our universe.

… from the ‘Artisan Spirit Expressions’ collection by Deborah Edwards for Northcott 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.

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 – Lotus Therapy

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Luana

As I prepare to fly to England later today, I thought I’d share some images from my day at the Lotus Blossom Festival in the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC.

Last month during my trip to Sacred Threads, Donna DeSoto (founder of the National Parks quilt exhibit) turned me onto the annual Lotus bloom at this National Park, which is just 10 minutes east of the Capitol in DC. Thanks Donna!

Everywhere I go, I meet up with part of our big Quilting Tribe…and on this day I was joined by my quilter friend Dara who is also a Buddhist nun and a 2nd grade teacher.

We got there early, just before the crowds hit, and I was in absolute heaven. I took tons of photos and was absolutely enchanted with the huge ponds of gently swaying tall Lotus blooms. Shimmering dragonflies darted in and out of the huge leaves, bees buzzed in the bright yellow centers of the flowers, and butterflies hovered in clouds of orange and black. A long-legged crane waded in the glassy water.

Everywhere we looked, there were happy people snapping photos and appreciating the beautiful expanse of Pink and Green. There was a holiday mood among the crowd, which ranged from families with little kids, to elders with canes and sun hats. We heard so many different languages being spoken, and some people had dressed up in their ethnic garb to have their photos taken with the surreal blooming backdrop.

As the sun climbed to midday, smiling crowds began to stream out of the park. As we all walked together in the shade of the forest, strangers united by beauty, we smiled at each other and sighed.

Back to the Real World, but we all carried a secret pink perfect blossom in our heart…
On Saturday I’ll be writing to you from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

* The background fabric for the collage above, is Effervescence by Amelia Caruso.

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Travel Calendar:
Aug 9-14 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK
Sept 12-13 – Carter Center – Atlanta GA
Sept 14 – Quilting Arts TV – Ohio
Sept 16 – Quilters Take Manhattan
Oct 1-11 – Intl Quilt Trends lecture at New Zealand Quilt Symposium – Christchurch
Dec 29 2017 – Jan 5 2018 – Tanzania Africa Wildlife Migration Tour – Limited Spaces
Feb 22-25, 2018 – QuiltCon – Pasadena, California
Nov 14-20, 2018 – POLAR BEAR Tour – Join me in Churchill!

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Free Quilt Pattern – Color Flow

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Luana

Caryl Bryer Fallert is an icon and matriarch of the art quilt movement (and the quilt textile industry) because of her stunning use of design and COLOR.

Her quilts and her fabric designs have been inspiring us for decades,
and this week’s Free Quilt Pattern features her latest collection in
a glowing quilt that highlights her Design Genius.

If you’ve met Caryl in person, you know she is a beautiful person inside and outside. Her new home in Port Townsend Washington has a studio that looks out over the bay, and you have a sense of that spectacular view in the textures and 15 colors in this 71″ x 92″ quilt!

… from the ‘Color Flow’ collection by Caryl Bryer Fallert for Benartex.

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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