Free Pattern – All Is Calm Arctic Kingdom

Travel to a peaceful Arctic kingdom, in this week’s Free Quilt pattern, featuring Saint Nicholas and the wild creatures of the Northern latitudes.

This beautiful 66″ x 60″ wallhanging features a thoughtfully illustrated central panel, with a Snowy Owl, White Wolf, Polar Bears, Arctic Foxes and Snowshoe Hare in peaceful communion…set in a crystalline Snow-scape, and shimmering with Gold Metallic details.

The central panel is set in a pieced border, using blue and white coordinates with more Gold Metallic embellishment. This quilt will bring a beautiful ambiance of Peace to any room where it is hung…we consider it a visual prayer for peace, and a lovely focus for a winter meditation.

… from the ‘All Is Calm’ collection by Liz Dillon 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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Love Your Mother – Quilt Challenge – Big News

The news is still coming in but we hope our quilter friends (and their quilts!) are all safe and sound in Texas.

Today has been a fantastic experience at our Dairy Arts Center, with quilt artists who have come from around the country and from around the world, to kick off the next quilt exhibit (45 artists celebrating Judith Trager’s 75th birthday) and to share in a SAQA symposium.

I was honored to be invited to contribute a quilt to this exhibit, which will be up through October. My piece ‘Chautauqua Sanctuary‘ celebrates the iconic Boulder image of our red rock Flatirons in our historic Chautauqua Park.

We have some big news regarding our ‘Love Your Mother’ Quilt Challenge:

BERNINA is going to co-sponsor our quilt contest by providing a gorgeous new machine as FIRST PRIZE for the quilt challenge! This is a new model coming out next year – so new we can’t show you a photo yet – but if you win the top prize I guarantee you will be Very Happy!

THANK YOU BERNINA!!!

Yes I am hyperventilating….so excited to have BERNINA joining us.

To participate in this challenge you must use one of the 3 versions of the Love Your Mother challenge panel.

In stock now:
North/South Americas
Australia/New Zealand

Arriving in September – AFRICA!

Further prizes and exhibit venue(s) are being negotiated now.

Please read through our Challenge Page and let us know if you have any questions.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

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Free Pattern – Night Owl Nature

Attention Harry Potter and Hedwig fans!

We know that many of you just can’t get enough OWLS so we’ve put together this
exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern using our exclusive digital printed Owl Panel, for this fantastic quilt that reminds us of the Hogwarts Castle.

The 61″ x 78″ quilt features a parliament of incredibly detailed owl portraits, peeking through a stone wall, with more owls flying through the air. We’ve used Northcott’s realistic Stonehenge rock textures for the sashing and rock wall…and the result is one of our most popular quilts ever!

A reminder that you can order the quilt fabrics as shown above, but you can also substitute some of our Harry Potter fabrics to insert, for a great holiday gift. (For the rabid HP fan in your life.)

… from the ‘Nature’s Wonders’ 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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A Catalonian Dragonfly

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

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

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

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

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

********
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

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

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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