This week our warehouse is bulging with a new shipment of our exclusive Rubin Design Studio fabrics, and I’ve put together some new designs, and some re-printed favorites…to give you some quilt ideas.
We have a whole group of fans who are making One Block Wonder quilts from our Animal Portrait Panels, and now another group is playing around with our Mushroom prints. Personally I just adore our Gnomes who each have a different personality. Add the magical glowing house in the woods under a Full Moon….and this is a place I’d like to escape to in my dreams!
Travel/Lecture Dates: Apr 3-6 – SAQA Conference – St Pete, Florida April 23-25 – Washington DC (Private Event) April 27- May 3 – Alegre Retreat May 23-26 – Quilt National – Dairy Barn – Athens OH June 18-20 – Quilt Canada – Toronto Ontario
Tonight’s Free Quilt Pattern features our best-selling Octopus’s Garden panel, intricately illustrated in a multi-color ocean garden.
To make this 54″ x 60″ quilt design, you will start with the central 29″ x 44″ Mystical Octopus panel. Piece the borders and ocean blocks with a seafoam Hoffman Hand-Dye against a solid black background.
This exclusive pattern displays a powerful, contemplative image, and would make a great gift for ocean-loving friends!
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.
March 22 is World Water Day. Some of us have the relative luxury of clean abundant water. However there are many places in the world where accessing water is a daily struggle. So today eQuilter is donating to organizations who fight for clean non-toxic water, and help to build clean water systems for communities desperate for this basic element of Life.
Our quilt fabric industry has been moving towards water sustainability for years, although lately the opposite is often reported. Please do not confuse the waste and pollution caused by the garment industry and ‘fast fashion’, with our little quilt textile industry. It is especially important to point out that the mature digital-printing textile industry is a low-water and low-pollution industry compared to standard printing and dyeing factories. This is one of the reasons we have championed digital printing over the years.
For those who still think digital printing is low quality – I invite you to catch up with modern present-day quality digital fabrics. When the digital printing industry was in its infancy, there were some sub-standard products that went out to quilt shops and the public. This is still true often with pigment digital printing, but the modern digital-printing factories use multi-million dollar printing machines that have been fine-tuned to use dye sublimation with precise printing techniques. The dye soaks into the fabric and bonds to the cotton fiber on a molecular level. (unlike pigment printing) There is a lot of mis-information being projected onto the quilt fabric industry, so when you read about the waste and toxic by products of the fashion industry, keep in mind this is a separate but much larger industry.
I will remind you that I came from the fashion industry, and visited about 400 factories in 10 Asian countries during those years when I lived in LA, Hong Kong, and then New York. I hope to write a magazine article on this topic later this year, based on what I have learned over the years. It is a topic I have discussed with our quilt industry suppliers for years. It is a topic we should all consider, especially when purchasing garments. I saw the sins of the garment industry making cheap fashion in developing countries, which is why I was so happy to find the quilting industry in the early 90s. In the 80s, when I was designing high quality expensive garments, we rejected those factories, but I will never forget what I saw….
Needless to say, eQuilter’s exclusive digital printed fabrics under the Rubin Design Studio label, are dye-sublimation printed at the highest quality factories. We are known for our quirky creative designs. When our customer demand outstripped what we could get from our suppliers, we started our own line, and our customer have been loving our collectible artwork ever since!
Travel/Lecture Dates: Apr 3-6 – SAQA Conference – St Pete, Florida April 23-26 – Washington DC – Private Event April 27- May 3 – Alegre Retreat – Gateway Colorado May 23-26 – Quilt National – Dairy Barn, Athens OH June 18-20 – Quilt Canada – Toronto Ontario
This absolutely gorgeous collection features a luminous royal butterfly panel at the center of our Free Quilt Pattern…from the ‘Night Flight’ collection by Dan Morris. This is one of those wildly popular collections that is so beautiful…it just makes you smile. Vivid colors are set off by dramatic black outlines that really make the floral mandalas ‘pop’.
To make this 72″ x 59″ quilt design, start with the central panel in a kaleidoscope of glowing hues. Cut up a 2nd Block Panel to make the top and bottom sections. Use the coordinating stripe, and Solid Black to construct the borders. Finish with a rainbow ombre 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.
What times we live in now! There is plenty of fodder for artists who like to put social commentary or activist messages in their work. And others find peace in slow stitching and patchwork quilting. Our chosen art and craft of quilting offers us many ways to navigate these uncharted waters.
During my trip to Japan a couple weeks ago, those concerns were more distant, and I was able to enjoy the peaceful ambiance of the Kyoto Quilt Festival…featuring the works of Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese quilters. I was honored to share my work alongside their exhibits.
This arresting portrait was at the entrance of the show, made by Taiwanese artist Yu Ying Pan.
“Supreme Power” – 155 cm x 158 cm
‘The Tiger, in Eastern culture, symbolizes strength and courage. Ancients believed that the tiger embodied both fierceness and composure.
In life we face many challenges and tests, and we need courage and patience to navigate them. I hope to embody the power and calm of the tiger, leading myself to overcome the obstacles in front of me and march forward boldly.
The artwork uses fabric pieces in various colors, cut into triangles, squares and rectangles, to form a backdrop of a sunset, mountains and grasslands. The tiger is created by layering and piecing together unusual fabric patterns, with areas lacking color enhanced with stitching to blend the design. This technique is simple and accessible through machine sewing.
The tiger’s simple yet clear expression reflects the essence of “Supreme Power” portraying a bold, singular presence.’
This quilt is also powerful because of the direct gaze of the subject. I went to a talk today about “Creative Courage for Artists” and it made me think of the serene but confidant expression on this tiger’s face. May we all carry this tiger energy into our creative efforts this week.
Travel/Lecture Dates: Apr 3-6 – SAQA Conference – St Pete, Florida April 23-25 – Washington DC (Private Event) April 27- May 3 – Alegre Retreat May 23-26 – Quilt National – Dairy Barn – Athens OH June 18-20 – Quilt Canada – Toronto Ontario
Our best-selling all-knowing Cosmic Cow panel is back in stock for this week’s Free Quilt Pattern. The powerful cow image captures the magic and wisdom of this ‘Spirit Cow’, representing Mother Earth and abundance, in vivid kaleidoscopic colors and ornate embellishments.
Use the Coupon Code: ARTIST on the checkout page to receive $10 off your purchase of $50 or more, through March 22nd only! (This gift coupon cannot be combined with other Promotions or Gift Certificates.)
To make this 71″ wide x 55″ high quilt design, you will start with our exclusive 28″ x 44″ digital-printed panel. Piece the borders with coordinating color parrot green/aqua and pumpkin spice, combined with Kona Solid Black. Marine blue is used for the 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.
Today is designated as National Quilting Day, but for so many of us, we celebrate Quilting every day that we can get our hands on our fabrics and sewing machines!
There is a hunger right now for making things with our hands, and having a way to focus our minds and calm our hearts. When I attend quilt festivals there is an energy there that is hard to describe, but it is vibrant and passionate. I love going to quilt events and sharing our mutual enthusiasm for sewing, art, design and color. It helps me to make sense of the world. It is my refuge from the storms outside – literal and figurative – and it helps to heal my soul and strengthen my Mama Bear center. Do you know what I mean?
The last 2 weekends I have had so much of this kind of interaction, and it is lifting me up and helping me to see into the future with a positive perspective. Last weekend my open studio attracted old friends, activists and artists. The previous weekend I was with my Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese soul sisters. It was hard to say good-bye, but our Creative Juice Tanks were full from the time we spent together.
So we work in our studios and then we come together to celebrate our mutual love of Quilting, Fabric, and Art. Like I said…every day is Quilting Day!
This week we are focusing on pollinators, and featuring Butterfly fabrics. I am planning to make a pollinator garden this year, because of all the news about the pollinator populations crashing…in particular Monarch Butterflies. I can’t save them all by myself, but I can plant Milkweed and other flowers to feed the ones that migrate through my yard. We have also planted flowering perennials and trees around the eQuilter property for this same purpose, and do not spray toxic pesticides or herbicides at home or at the warehouse landscaping: a bee and bird friendly habitat!
Do you know that the big box stores sell seeds and plants that are impregnated with pesticides that kill bees and birds? This is why I buy plants from local trusted nurseries, and buy seeds that are guaranteed not to be soaked in pesticides like Neonicotinoid. Please join me in planting Pollinator-friendly gardens this year!
Travel/Lecture Dates: Apr 3-6 – SAQA Conference – St Pete, Florida April 23-26 – Washington DC – Private Event April 27- May 3 – Alegre Retreat – Gateway Colorado May 23-26 – Quilt National – Dairy Barn, Athens OH June 18-20 – Quilt Canada – Toronto Ontario
Use the Coupon Code: MEOW on the checkout page to receive $10 off your purchase of $50 or more, through March 15th only! (This gift coupon cannot be combined with other Promotions or Gift Certificates.)
To make this dazzling 48″ x 66″ Cat-themed quilt design, you will start with the 24″ x 44″ panel. You will set it off with Solid Black and a gold-speckled blender, then create the pieced border with cats and Klimt geometrics set on point, in Klimt gold metallic spirals. Finish with another shimmering blender for the final border.
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.
I have been back from Japan for a week now. Just when I was recovering from the jet lag….Daylight Savings struck! So I am still a little wobbly.
As I mentioned last week, my last day in Kyoto was Girls Day, and my friend took me to the Thousand Buddha Temple – the Sanjusangen-do Buddhist temple. Many years ago I led a tour that came to this same temple on the Seijin-no-Ho which is the Coming of Age Day. Hundreds of young people dressed up in their best traditional kimonos and archer’s historic garb, and there was a huge archery contest behind the temple.
Both holiday visits, I walked through the long temple which literally houses 1000 Golden Buddhas and their guardians. Visitors are not allowed to photograph the inside of the building with the 1000 Buddhas, but it is an experience you never forget.
As we entered, 4 monks sat at the entrance in Spring Green silk robes, silently regarding our respectful passage. On this day, beautiful Ikebana spring flower compositions were displayed in each section. They were so delicate and exquisitely arranged, we gasped with delight at each station as we moved down the long walkway.
For those of you who collect Asian fabrics, you have probably noticed there are less available in the last few years. It is not your imagination. We snap them up whenever they are offered because we know many of you are still avid fans of these beautiful fabrics. But if you see something you like, don’t wait to acquire these collectible items. This week we are celebrating 26 years since we started in the basement of our home. In those early days we started out with a few hundred bolts of Asian prints and Bali batiks. My love of Asian fabrics comes from living in Hong Kong and working in the fashion and textile industries in 10 Asian countries. They are still treasured in my stash!
You might enjoy looking at photos I took in 2010 and 2012, of Japanese Textiles, and my first visits to Kyoto and Nara. If you visit my photo pages, you can scroll back through time from the last Tokyo Quilt Festival in Jan 2020, to these early visits. I traveled to Osaka in the 1980s when I lived in Hong Kong, but never had time for sightseeing or touring in those busy days. At that time I was traveling to source textiles for a multi-national fashion company in Hong Kong.
Many thanks to those of you who visited my Open Studio over the weekend. It was such a pleasure to share my body of work with local friends, artists and quilters. Tomorrow many of these quilts will be shipped back to their venues and exhibits. It was kind of like Christmas when all the kids come home – all my quilts and so many friends in one room!
* In the collage above, the top and bottom sections are current Asian fabrics at eQuilter.com – and the central image is a photo Luana took at the 1000 Buddha Temple in Kyoto Japan one week ago.
Travel/Lecture Dates: Apr 3-6 – SAQA Conference – St Pete, Florida April 23-25 – Washington DC (Private Event) April 27- May 3 – Alegre Retreat May 23-26 – Quilt National – Dairy Barn – Athens OH
Tonight’s Free eQuilter Pattern feature our Pretty Floral Kitty panel, depicting an elegant kitty wearing a Victorian flower crown.
Use the Coupon Code: MEOW on the checkout page to receive $10 off your purchase of $50 or more, through March 15th only! (This gift coupon cannot be combined with other Promotions or Gift Certificates.)
To make this 69″ x 69″ quilt design, start with the 43″ x 44″ kitty panel, frame with a deep green Hand Dye, add the leafy blocks against an aqua Hoffman Hand Dye, and finish with another deep green border. Meow!
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.
