Creative Nudge – Sacred Threads – Sacred Big Cats

Posted on July 19, 2017 by Luana

Tonight I am back home in Colorado, after a whirlwind trip to the Washington DC area for the Sacred Threads exhibit, and the Not Fade Away conference.

Sacred Threads is a place for quilts about spirituality, peace, grief, joy, healing, peace and brotherhood. We have been a corporate sponsor for Sacred Threads since 2003.

Not Fade Away is about documenting and labeling your quilts, and saving the stories of our quilts for future generations. The Quilt Alliance is a non-profit that saves, records, archives and shares the stories of thousands of quilts. (60K quilts documented, 1500 stories saved.)

I’d like to feature this quilt from the Sacred Threads exhibit, by Gerrie Lynne Thompson. It is a closeup view of a watchful White Tiger, which is considered a powerful sacred symbol in the Korean culture.

The artists asks “Is he aware that both is species and his habitat are endangered?”

I’ve set this stunning tiger closeup with other Big Cat panels that we carry, for those of you who are also concerned about the serious threats to all of the iconic Big Cats.

I also took an extra day and a half to visit 2 very intense museums in Washington DC: The Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the new National Museum of African American History. I got my tickets way in advance online, and spent about 4 hours at each museum. I wish every American could experience the stories that are told in these museums. Both museums were packed, but the crowds were somber, quiet and respectful.

I also visited the Washington DC headquarters of one of our charity program recipients – the Ocean Conservancy. They recently ran a very nice article about our charity program, in their online and printed newsletters. We had a very serious conversation about the damage being done to the oceans and their inhabitants, and I renewed our commitment to supporting the important work being done by this organization. They said to tell you all “Thanks!”

Ocean Conservancy is one of the 7 organizations listed when you check out, and 2% of all orders go to the charity of your choice from this list.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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Travel Calendar:
July 28 – Aug 1 – Intl Quilt Trends lecture (7/30) at San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
Aug 9-14 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK
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 – Country Christmas

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Luana

This week’s free Quilt Pattern features Elizabeth’s Studio’s Country Christmas Panel & allover coordinate, capturing the snowy magic of Christmas on a glowing countryside evening.

Delightful Christmas scenes are fussy-cut to feature churches, cabins, bridges, snowmen and reindeer, and are surrounded by glistening snowflake blocks with a delicate white on white background.

Your enchanting 49″ x 49″ quilt design makes a great wall hanging or lap quilt, perfect for snuggling on those special holiday evenings. Enjoy!

… from the ‘Country Christmas’ collection by Darrell Bush for Elizabeth’s Studio.

NOTE: We’ve restocked the popular Must Love Dogs pattern, which is featured below.

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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Something Old, Something New, Something Sassy

Posted on July 17, 2017 by Luana

This weekend I am writing to you from just outside Washington DC, where I am attending the Sacred Threads exhibit, and the Not Fade Away conference. Friday I went on the per-conference bus tour. We had a fabulous private white glove quilt show at the DAR Museum, where we all sat around a big table, and several 19th Century quilts were brought out of the archives and unfolded on the table. There were many appreciative oohs and aaahs.

Then we went to an architectural office to see Valerie Goodwin’s quilts hanging in their office gallery. Next we went to the Textile Museum to see their exhibit of “50 Years of the Ebony Fashion Fair” which was elegant, juicy and sassy. This show is only up until July 23rd and if you are in the area next week, and love fashion, go check it out! I have posted photos from all 3 venues, on my personal Facebook page.

After the bus tour, the artists and sponsors had a reception and private viewing of the Sacred Threads exhibit. Vikki Pignatelli is the founder of Sacred Threads, and in 2009 she handed over the reins to Lisa Ellis who is also currently the president of SAQA. I went back through my records and found that we first sponsored Sacred Threads in 2003, which was only the 2nd show.

This important exhibit features quilts about Joy, Inspiration, Spirituality, Healing, Grief, Peace and Brotherhood. Quilters express a wide range of emotions in this powerful exhibit. The full show is running through July 23 at a church in Herndon Virginia. I urge you to go see this – it is an experience!

I am super excited to have scored a precious ticket to the African American Museum for Monday!…before I fly home.

Photos of Sacred Threads quilts will be included in my power point presentation “International Quilt Trends” at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles on July 30. Hope to see you there!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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Free Pattern – Rose Trellis

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Luana

We know you just adore Roses. We’ve been saving this gorgeous 78″ x 78″ rose trellis quilt pattern just for you and your Summer rose garden.

This exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern showcases our huge detailed 8″ Roses, set in a trellis of delicate greenery, and immersed in a setting of crisp white butterflies. These wondrous blossoms are bordered with coordinating and colorful allover roses. Dreamy!

Makes a great twin bed quilt or queen topper, or a special gift for someone who needs a hug. So much better than a dozen red roses… this bouquet will last a lifetime!

… from the ‘Designer Florals’ 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 – Space Fantasy

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Luana

If you’ve read our newsletter for many years, you know that we are serious Sci-Fi nerds… fans of Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, Dr Who and Guardians of the Galaxy, to name a few. I especially love those futuristic stories that are set in a more evolved society…as Gene Roddenberry imagined. Meeting actual rocket scientists and astronauts at NASA through our association with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) has been an absolute thrill.

Did you know that one of our comfort quilt projects was actually discussed on the International Space Station? No kidding! As we gathered and shipped 2500 quilts to earthquake/tsunami victims in Japan, with the help of Mission of Love, one of our NASA EWB friends told an astronaut about our project…as he floated on the ISS. Pretty cool. Later I got a VIP tour of the ISS Mission Control and met the flight director as they monitored the astronauts in space.

All thanks to those of you who support our charity programs…which will hit a total amount raised of $1.5 million in 2018. Together we are doing a lot of good around the world – for children – for the environment – for refugees – for breast cancer research. Thank you.

I am still putting together details about our Love Your Mother quilt challenge for 2018. In fact I’ll be working on that during my trip this week! We have updates on minimum/maximum sizes and submission dates on the contest page now. The main challenge panel is online and in stock NOW.

Are you coming to Sacred Threads/Not Fade Away this weekend? If so I will be speaking at the dinner on Saturday night…hope to see you there!

Did you miss out on my last 2 Polar Bear tours? I have agreed to host another trip in November 2018 with Natural Habitats – the same company organizing my tour to Tanzania for New Years Eve this year.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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Travel Calendar:
July 13-17 – Sacred Threads & Not Fade Away
July 28 – Aug 1 – Intl Quilt Trends lecture (7/30) at San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
Aug 9-14 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK
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 – Must Love Dogs

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Luana

DOG LOVERS… you know who you are…this week’s Free Quilt Pattern was designed for us, and it is a reminder that we find dogs that we love where ever we go. If you are the person who always stops to pet the dog at the coffee shop, this one’s for YOU.

Purebreds & Mutts, Puppies and Senior Dogs, Big and Small, Furry or Sleek, they all have soulful eyes and wagging tails….and we love them all!

Start with an eye-popping central panel with a happy mob of dogs, add the inner and outer stripes made from a clever dog-stripe design, then add a Hoffman Hand-Dye and a couple cute coordinates, and you have a quick 56″ x 76″ quilt that is sure to bring a smile…and a wag!

… from the ‘Must Love Dogs’ collection by Ginger Oliphant for Studio E 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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Our Colorful Tribe of Kindred Souls

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Luana

You may not realize this, but many of the quilt exhibits around the country, and around the world, are sponsored by eQuilter. The next 3 trips I take will be to quilt shows, where eQuilter has contributed sponsor funds to help support the event.

In a week I will be at the Not Fade Away conference, which is being held in Herndon Virginia on site at the Sacred Threads exhibit. If you are coming to the dinner Saturday night, I’ll be sharing a few words…perhaps a quilt and a story. We are longtime sponsors of the Sacred Threads exhibit, and you can watch for photos that I take at the exhibit.

The end of this month we are sponsoring the Quilt Nihon Exhibit (Japanese Quilts) opening at the San Jose Museum for Quilts & Textiles, and I’ll be giving my power point lecture on “International Quilt Trends on Sunday afternoon July 30, and staying for the opening reception.

A couple weeks after that I’ll be at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham England in the UK, where we are a sponsor of the theater space. I am also hosting a bus load of quilters going to the Royal Shakespeare Theater on Saturday night.

Why? Because we feel it is important to give back to the industry, and to the quilters who buy our fabric and make all those gorgeous incredible quilts. When I walk through the show with my camera, and I look at all the work that has been put into these works of art, I am saying a little “thank you!” to each quilter as I appreciate the quilts, one at a time.

For those of you who support these events in other ways, I also say thank you to you too! If you have never volunteered to help out with a show like this, I can tell you it is a real eye-opening experience. Last year I went to the UN in Geneva a week early, to help hang the Water is Life show. I acquired a whole new skill set and a new appreciation for what it takes to hang a show. It is fascinating.

If you think you don’t know enough to volunteer at a national event, I would say volunteer anyway!…but also look for local or regional events where you can learn the basics if possible. These shows *always* need help from volunteers, and if you show up with no expectations and an eagerness to learn, I guarantee you’ll have fun!

If we all give what we can, together we can support this wonderful art and craft that welcomes us with open arms, and connects us to a tribe of kindred souls with colorful hearts and creative souls.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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Free Pattern – Craftsman

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Luana

It’s time to get to work, on this beautifully detailed Tool-themed quilt;
our exclusive Free Quilt Pattern of the week.

Measuring Tapes, Hammers, Paintbrushes, Saws, Wrenches, Chisels, Screwdrivers and Drills are all part of the story here, and we bet you know someone who cherishes their tool set, and would absolutely adore this Ode to a Toolbox.

This quilt pattern finishes up approximately 66″ x 66″, for a great coverlet, lap quilt or wall hanging. As always, we just can’t say enough good things about Dan’s beautiful illustrations. The fabric is so fantastic it will be hard to cut it up, so you might want to let your Craftsman or Craftswoman admire the fabric designs before you get to work.

… from the ‘Craftsman’ 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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Creative Nudge – Love Your Mother

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Luana

Sometimes our art is more powerful than words. Often Artist-Activists can say things visually, that cannot be said in print or in speech. My experience making Rocky Mountain Poison for the Water is Life exhibit (premiered at the United Nations in Feb 2016) has been a great inspiration, and I wish to share an artist-activist opportunity for those of you who have a message to share about Mother Earth.

eQuilter is sponsoring a quilt challenge (and future exhibits) featuring a 43″ x 44″ digital printed panel with an image of the Earth surrounded by a Rainbow Mandala.

There are featured coordinates which may be used but the required fabric for the challenge is the large Earth/Mandala panel.

We ask you to do more than just embellish the panel. We encourage you to cut up, manipulate, appliqué, embroider, paint, re-piece, and/or expand on this panel to express your feelings about Mother Earth.

We encourage you to put your heart and soul into this project, and share your thoughts and feelings about what is happening to our beloved planet. For our part, we will sponsor and organize the project and exhibit(s).

As you know, eQuilter donates 2% of sales to a list of 7 charities, which includes environmental organizations. We have raised over $1.4 million for these charities, and when I travel to Washington DC or New York City, I always meet with representatives from one or more of these organizations.

We hope that this project and the ensuing exhibit will raise awareness and inspire others to take action to protect our planet and its inhabitants. The subject is not just environmental, but also you may consider specific topics such as clean vs. toxic waters, wildlife habitats (land and sea), indigenous peoples, rainforests, pollinators, Arctic/Antarctic, and other matters closely tied with the theme of Mother Earth.

Your quilt must use the main challenge panel (#RUMDL2BK) but may also use other prints, batiks, or other fabrics/materials that will express your message for your quilt.

We are finalizing the details for the deadline, exhibit date(s), sponsors and prizes. This page will be updated shortly as these details fall into place. We are posting this information now so you can purchase a panel and think about your quilt design. We are projecting a deadline for online jurying in Spring 2018. Our first shipment of the panel is in stock now, and we have reprints in the works.

Yes we will take entries from countries outside of the US. Send us your questions and suggestions and we will take these into account as we hammer out the details.

Please consider this a collective effort to raise awareness and inspire others to Love Mother Earth. This fabric design comes from that intention, and now we hope for it to be a vehicle to share ideas on this topic.

Quilts should be suitable for all ages of viewers, including children. We encourage you to express your views clearly, but use common sense for what is appropriate for a wider viewing audience. We hope to inspire the next generation who will be the next caretakers of our planet.

Lets see what we can do together!

Thank you for considering joining us in this effort… to Love Your Mother.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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Travel Calendar:
July 13-17 – Sacred Threads & Not Fade Away
July 30 – Intl Quilt Trends lecture at San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
Aug 9-14 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK
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

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Free Pattern – Laurel Burch Mythical Jungle

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Luana

Laurel Burch may no longer be with us, but her Spirit is still alive and vibrant, expressed through her joyful artwork and brilliant palette of colors. She is still one of our most popular designers, and we are delighted that her portfolio continues to produce collections and inspire her fans.

This week’s Free Quilt Pattern uses a Central Panel, jewel tone coordinate blenders, and her whimsical animals embellished with gold metallic.

You can make this 46″ x 48″ quilt design as a lap quilt, crib quilt, or wallhanging.

…from the ‘Mythical Jungle’ collection by Laurel Burch for Clothworks.

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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