Free Pattern – Beach Haven

Posted on April 18, 2017 by Luana

That walk along the beach is just outside the window, with this week’s Free Quilt Pattern!

An inviting path leads through coastal grasses, down to the breaking waves that reflect a blue sky and puffy white clouds.

The Windowpane Blocks give a three-dimensional feeling, with this very clever use of the main scenic panel, and 4 shades of Hoffman Hand-Dyes. This 42″ x 52″ quilt makes a fantastic wallhanging, bringing a relaxing outside view to the inside of your home…or perhaps a lap quilt in your snug beach cottage.

Listen – you can almost hear the waves breaking on the shore – and the wind whispering through the grass along the dunes.

… from the ‘Beach Haven’ collection by Timeless 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.

EQ7 is the leading quilt design software, which is available here at eQuilter.

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 Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Tax Day

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Luana

Recently I went to this year’s QuiltCon to photograph the quilts. (You can see the quilt photos here) I was so impressed with the exponential uptick in the quality and creativity of the quilts this year, we decided to step up our sponsorship for the show next year. So please mark on your calendars to attend QuiltCon in Pasadena next February, but even more so, please think about making and submitting a quilt and maybe you will win the Show Sponsor Award of $2500 from eQuilter.com.

As a Bernina Ambassador, I am especially interested in the exciting new direction that I see in machine quilting, thanks to the Modern Quilters who are doing incredible things with Longarm AND home-sewing machines. Ruler work is the hot new technique, and as we start to line up our eQuilter class schedule, I am hoping we can get a teacher in to offer this specific technique.

The last time I was in San Jose for an event at the Museum of Quilts & Textiles, it was to sponsor Yvonne Porcella’s retrospective show. Our dear friend Yvonne is no longer with us, but her passion and joy is still inspiring us through the organizations she founded and supported.

Anyway, I am thrilled to announce that I’ll be bringing my Power Point lecture “International Quilt Trends” to the the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, on Sunday July 30 at 2 pm. This is just before the opening reception for the Quilt Nihon exhibit (which eQuilter is sponsoring) so please come for the reception, and stay for the Party.

A reminder that we have another batch of quilts being hand-carried to Nepal by the local CU chapter of Engineers Without Borders. This is going to mountaintop villages that were at the epicenter of the 2 huge earthquakes, where all the structures were destroyed. We have donated an extra 1K to help with their travel expenses, because they are going to build a giant water filter for the village.

If you wish to donate a quilt for Nepal, please drop off or ship so it will be delivered by May 10th. The students depart May 15th.

When you place an order and get to the charity page, and tick off “Where It Is Needed Most”, we use these discretionary funds to help with big projects such as Nepal, and also for EWB/NASA with their orphanage/school project in Maua Kenya, and more recently to fund an airlift and cleft palate surgery trip to Guatemala for Mission of Love. Next week we are sending a lump sum to MOL to help build a foster home on the reservation in Pine Ridge SD. Comfort quilt donations for these foster kids can be sent directly to MOL: call us for the address if you wish to support this effort.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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Free Pattern – Favorite Dog Breeds

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Luana

This fantastic Dog Breeds quilt is a Double eQuilter Exclusive –
Our own digital printed Dog Breed designs (with your choice of
Small, Medium or Large Breed combination) and an exclusive 55″ x 73″ quilt design.

Click through the 3 different options below to find YOUR favorite dog breed!

Favorite Small Dog Breeds
Favorite Medium Dog Breeds
Favorite Large Dog Breeds

Includes Dog Panel, tossed Dog print, Stonehenge blender and Hoffman Hand-Dyes
for pieced blocks & borders. Woof!

… ‘Favorite Dog Breeds’ is an exceptionally detailed Designer Digital print,
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.

EQ7 is the leading quilt design software, which is available here at eQuilter.

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 – Travel Scrapbook Quilts

Posted on April 12, 2017 by Luana

One of the things we do as quilters, is to document events in our lives, or the lives of our loved ones. Weddings, graduations, babies, memorial quilts…and Travel Scrapbook quilts!

A Travel Quilt can be based on a special trip that is part of our past (we document it like a scrapbook) or it can be a Fantasy Travel Quilt that helps us pass the time while we anticipate an upcoming epic trip.

We know many of you like to make these types of quilts, because we see you buying fabrics that represent Beach Vacations, Route 66 Road Trips, National Park tours, and trips to faraway places like Europe and Australia.

Sometimes we travel to photograph wildlife in Africa or in the Arctic, sometimes we travel to quilt shows on the other side of the world!

When we come home, we want a memory of where we’ve been, and what we’ve experienced. We love seeing the fabrics you pick out to make these special Travel Quilts!

Over the weekend Sophie, Mason and I attended an Engineers Without Borders event, for the CU student chapter traveling to Nepal for earthquake relief. Their next trip is May 15, and they are enthusiastic about hand-carrying another batch of your donated quilts, to the mountaintop villagers who lost everything in the earthquake 2 years ago.

Please drop off or ship your comfort quilts to eQuilter, to arrive by May 10, to get in on the next trip. As you can see, the last batch was received with deep gratitude.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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2017 Travel Calendar:
May 18 – 24 – Saint Louis & NYC
June 20 – Cleveland OH – Fresh Quilting
July 30 – Intl Quilt Trends lecture – California TBA
Aug 12 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK
Dec 29 2017 – Jan 5 2018 – Tanzania Great Migration – New Years in Africa – Taking Reservations NOW!

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Free Pattern – Artworks Mermaid

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Luana

Enter the enchanting world of Mermaids with this week’s Free Quilt Pattern, as this mermaid perches on a rock reading…. perhaps the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale “The Little Mermaid”?

Start with a lovely central panel, beautifully detailed in this digital printed scene. Then add blue and aqua tonal scrolls for the pieced border.

This 37″ x 57″ quilt could be a nap quilt, a lap quilt, or a magical wallhanging in a special room. The soothing colors evoke splashing waves, and you can almost hear the seagulls overhead. Perhaps you will hear the mermaid humming her spellbinding song of the ocean…?

… from the ‘Artworks’ 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.

EQ7 is the leading quilt design software, which is available here at eQuilter.

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 Catalysts

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Luana

This weekend Sophie and I went to her high school’s production of RENT, which is set in the East Village in New York, during the same time when I lived there. During the years after I left the Garment Industry, I had a business on 10th St and Ave B, next to the Life Café. We had a gallery around the corner on Avenue B. I lived in the first renovated buildings in the neighborhood: first on 10th St next to the Russian/Turkish Bath & Sauna (our shared brick wall was always HOT) and later on 7th and Ave B.

That was back in the 80s when the Punk Scene was flourishing in the East Village. As depicted in RENT, it was also the time that artists we knew were dying of HIV, and many lived as squatters in abandoned buildings. When 250 homeless people were living (and sometimes rioting) in Tompkins Square Park across the street, it was time for me to go.

Boulder was a very tame and safe place and I was happy to return to my home town in 1990. However creativity often flourishes in the most extreme adversity, and those of us who have survived great challenges and gone on to have a creative career….we are forever changed and enriched by those challenges, aren’t we?

I was just reading about the Quiet Room at the Guggenheim Museum, where you can go experience absolute silence for 10 minutes. Then I heard something on the radio about how a certain level of background noise statistically makes people more creative. That could be music, the buzz of a coffee shop, or having colored background noise such as “pink” or “brown” noise. Who knew?

I really enjoy these stories about how tweaking our work environment can stimulate more creativity. Scientists and researchers are motivated to measure and prove these creativity catalysts, because human creativity is so valuable.

What is your reliable way of setting the mood for a creative session?

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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Free Pattern – Alexandria

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Luana

This week we are inspired by the flowering of the Egyptian Arts, and the riches of Cleopatra’s era, in our exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern.

Egyptian-themed collections are very Rare, and we’ve combined designs from 2 of our suppliers, to create this exclusive quilt design in a larger 74″ x 74″ bed-sized quilt.

Cool Blue and Turquoise is heavily enriched with luxurious Gold Metallic, and the colors really ‘pop’ with a black background. This gorgeous quilt kit will sell out so if this is the one you’ve been waiting for, jump on it now.

… from the ‘Alexandria’ collection by Chong-A Hwang for Timeless Treasures,
and the ‘Valley of the Kings’ collection by Robert Kaufman 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.

EQ7 is the leading quilt design software, which is available here at eQuilter.

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 – Yellow Rose Garden

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Luana

The row of pink crab apples are blooming in front of eQuilter this week…and tonight they are covered with snow!

That doesn’t stop us from dreaming of lush flower gardens, buzzing with honeybees, and fluttering with delicate butterflies.

We’ve seen an uptick in the popularity of fabrics with bees and butterflies, especially honeybees. As bee colonies have been crashing, more quilters are thinking about planting gardens for pollinators. The bees used to come to our gardens to help us, but now it is our turn to research plants that are not pre-soaked with pesticides, to fill our gardens with welcoming blossoms.

I have been seeing more quilts with bees too, and here is a detail from a lovely garden quilt from the Tokyo Quilt Festival, with yellow roses, butterflies and bees. It is by Keiko Miyauchi, and is titled “Yellow Roses”. It is hand-appliqued, and the blue background is hand-quilted.

I have added some of our rose, butterfly and bee fabrics in a collage at the top and bottom. There is something so comforting about floral fabrics, particularly rose prints, perhaps because we learned about quilting and sewing from our grandmothers who also tended summer rose gardens. Anyway, that’s my family story about sewing and flowers….they always seemed to go together.

If you live in the Boulder area and would like to enjoy our abundant pink crab-apple trees, you can place an order for “Retail Pickup” and then come pick it up in a couple days. By then the snow will be melted and you can have a picnic on our front lawn under the fluttering pink petals. It is going to be 68 degrees on Friday!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

********

2017 Travel Calendar:
May 18 – 24 – Saint Louis & NYC
Dec 29 2017 – Jan 5 2018 – Tanzania Great Migration – New Years in Africa – Taking Reservations NOW!

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Free Pattern – Open Road

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Luana

This week’s Free Quilt Pattern is for a very special group of people – (You know who you are!) – featuring vintage motorcycles and the love of the open road.

We’ve loaded this awesome quilt with fabrics that will make your Inner Biker Babe giggle, with Route 66 and Hot Rods, Tattoos and brilliant Flames. Maybe your Biker sidekick will get a kick out of this too!

The 59″ x 73″ quilt pattern makes a great lap quilt, wall hanging, small coverlet for a bed, or maybe a picnic blanket when you are out… on the Open Road. There’s still plenty of time to make this for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August.

… from the ‘Open Road Vintage Motorcycles’ collection by Exclusively Quilters.

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.

EQ7 is the leading quilt design software, which is available here at eQuilter.

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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Spring Break

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Luana

Sophie and I managed to salvage the last few days of our Spring Break plans, so I am writing to you from New York today. The wind and rain was so extreme Friday that it ripped our umbrella to shreds and then whipped it out of our hands. The rain soaked clear through our coats. We kept our sense of humor because the same thing was happening to people all around us, and there were piles of shredded and twisted umbrellas littering the sidewalks.

You may recall that I am involved in another SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) fundraiser project with Andover Fabrics, so I dropped by their office on Friday to see how things are progressing. “The Golden Hour” artwork has been developed into repeats for fabric, and there are some truly stunning designs there, so we will be thrilled to carry this line later this year!

Sophie and I love opera and classical music (we play violin and cello) so we met our Australian quilter friend Pam Holland to go to Carnegie Hall Thursday night. We heard Mitsuko Uchida give a beautiful piano concert there. Earlier in the day the 3 of us enjoyed the new Chinese exhibit “Age of Empires” at the Metropolitan Art Museum, which was fascinating to Sophie of course!

Yesterday we saw the most awesome costume extravaganza at the Metropolitan Opera House in the Lincoln Center. We just could not believe the huge cast, the amazing sets, and even live horses on stage for “AIDA”! If you are in the NYC area and can get tickets – go! Plus it is fun to see what everyone in the audience wears to the opera. The young Italian conductor was very energetic so that added to the visual and musical feast. I am doing my best to turn Sophie into an opera nerd….

Our son Sam is still not well but he has stabilized so that is good news. Thanks for your prayers!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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