Creative Nudge – New Years Eve on Safari

safari

One of the things I love most about travel is capturing images with my camera, especially wildlife in their native habitat. This is why I’ve travel North to photograph the polar bears 3 times – because nothing takes your breath away like gazing into the eyes of an animal living wild and free on the tundra, the prairie, or…the Serengeti.

In 2014 I was honored to travel with Carolyn Mazloomi’s guild, to be part of a celebration of 20 years since the end of Apartheid in South Africa. We first traveled to Johannesburg to the quilt festival, to see the quilters’ work hanging in a show to honor Nelson Mandela.

Later we visited a Game Park, to see and photograph the Big 5 in their natural habitat. That was just one day out of the trip, and I’ve been itching to get back to Africa with my camera ever since.

As the end of this year looms, with extinction of many species threatened around the world, my thoughts are turning to the polar bears, the elephants and rhinos, the lions and tigers, the sea turtles and whales…and I want to capture their faces, their stories, to hopefully share their plight and raise awareness.

So, a year from now I will be traveling to witness the Great Migration in Tanzania, and to toast the New Year with those of you who choose to join me.

We know that you love wildlife as well, because you love the beautiful fabrics with these animals, just as much as we do! The collage above features some of our most popular fabrics in stock now.

Watch for a special newsletter from us on Christmas Eve.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Animals, Travel | Comments Off on Creative Nudge – New Years Eve on Safari

Tanzania Migration Safari – New Years Eve 2017/ New Years Day 2018

Tanzania Migration Safari – New Years Eve 2017/ New Years Day 2018

davidluck_1

(Photo: David Luck)

Join Luana Rubin to toast on New Years Eve 2017 on the Serengeti Plains of Africa!

____________________________________

Dear Adventure Traveler, we have posted the full eQuilter Tanzania Migration Safari itinerary and details below on this page, including contact details for our eQuilter adventure specialist Aly, at Natural Habitat.

This will be the 4th trip I have taken with Natural Habitat. (Previous trips to see the Polar Bears in Churchill Canada) Natural Habitat Adventures has been a leader in responsible adventure travel and ecotourism since 1985. Their excellent guides have consistently impressed me with their knowledge and professionalism. You will find additional information on our Dec 29 2017 – Jan 5 2018  trip also at this link:

http://www.nathab.com/africa/tanzania-migration/

Because of my busy  travel schedule, I want to give you Dana as your eQuilter contact person: [email protected]

If you want to send me a question, please direct it through Dana, so she can chase me down for the answer in case I am out of the office. Due to the high volume of emails that I receive, you are more likely to get a timely response if you email Dana.

Space for this special trip is VERY LIMITED so please understand that to guarantee your place on this tour, you need to call our eQuilter agent ASAP at NatHab to give a $500 per person non-refundable deposit to hold your place.

We are so lucky to have Aly Jacobsen (Senior Adventure Specialist at Natural Habitat) as our wonderful coordinator for this adventure, and we are looking into a possible extra day before the tour, to have a local village/craft/textile  experience.

Also, I will be doing the Ngorongoro Crater Extension post-trip, so if you want to join me, we can spend a few more days together!

Every confirmed traveler on this trip will receive a special packet of African wildlife-themed fabrics, in your welcome package. Thank you for your interest, and I hope to see you for New Years Eve 2017 on the Serengeti!

Best wishes,

Luana

 nathab Please do contact Aly directly at NatHab, for extra special treatment as an eQuilter friend/customer. Her phone number is 800-543-8917 eQuilter Polar Bear Adventure

Email: [email protected]

justingibson_patrickendres_mattgoddard

(Photos, L to R: Justin Gibson, Patrick Endres, Matt Goddard)
Dec 29 2017 – Jan 5 2018

DAILY ITINERARY

The Great Tanzania Migration Safari

A Luxury Mobile Tented Safari Across the Serengeti in the Midst of the Herds

tanzaniamap

Day 1: Arusha, Tanzania Arrive in Arusha and transfer to Machweo, a luxury boutique inn perched on a quiet hillside high above the bustle of the town below. Enjoy the terraced gardens that offer a relaxing respite after your long travels, take a dip in the pool, or relax with a drink and admire the panoramic vistas. This evening, we gather for a welcome dinner.

Days 2–4: East Central Serengeti—Namiri Plains The legendary Serengeti derives its name from a Maasai word meaning “endless plains.” We fly to Serengeti National Park, where vistas of golden savanna stretching to the horizon beneath deep blue skies provide iconic images of Africa. Meeting our safari vehicles and drivers, we set out on our first wildlife drive.

Our destination is Namiri Plains, a newly accessible area located in a remote sector of the Serengeti that has previously been off-limits to visitors for two decades. Surveying open grasslands and kopjes—rock outcrops— the camp offers fabulous wildlife viewing in diverse habitats, particularly of the abundant feline predators that live and hunt in this area. In fact, Namiri means “big cat ” in Swahili.

Namiri Plains Camp provides exceptional seclusion: guests are alone on the vast private concession, and the next camp is a 45-minute drive. The isolated location ensures that we experience our natural setting, rather than tourist crowds. Evoking the classic safari atmosphere of an earlier age, just eight spacious canvas tents offer surprising comfort in a very remote setting.

Set in the shade of giant acacia trees, the camp offers 360-degree views of wildlife traversing savanna and the river with its perennial vegetation and dense green reed beds that attract birds and smaller animal species. Enjoy thrilling animal encounters on wildlife drives and discover a more intimate view of our environs on a walking safari with one of the resident specialist guides. We also have the exclusive opportunity to glean insight from our Expedition Leader on zoologists and cheetah researchers working in the area.

Days 5–7: Southern Serengeti—Natural Habitat’s Migration Base Camp, Serengeti  Depart this morning for the southern Serengeti with a wildlife drive en route. The days of heavy canvas hunting camps set for the likes of Roosevelt and Hemingway were nearly over until photo safaris gained popularity. Natural Habitat’s Migration Base Camp exudes the ambience of old, with silver-service dinners presented on white linen by candlelight. While home to a profusion of wildlife year-round, there is nothing like the Serengeti during the phenomenon of the Great Migration.

We spend three full days among the sea of mammals, following them in open-topped 4-wheel-drive vehicles that offer superb photography access. The vast herds of wildebeest trek annually from Kenya’s Maasai Mara to the southern Serengeti in search of new grass during the short rains, then back again. The wildebeest migrate with thousands of zebra, whose superior vision and hearing serve as an early warning system for predators.

We are in the region just as the 3-week birthing season is typically beginning, when the herds are mostly stationary. We’ll hope to see infants (though timing on the calf drop is weather-dependent), as well as prey interactions. Predators seek out the most vulnerable members of the herds, and we may behold a lion taking down a sick wildebeest or a cheetah overtaking a newborn. Leopard, hyena and jackal also prey on the migrating herds while vultures hang in the air, waiting to feast on carrion. While the spectacle is at times grim, its primal drama is a wonder to behold.

Day 8: Arusha or Ngorongoro Extension / Depart Today our safari concludes, leaving us with a slate of memories to treasure forever. We enjoy breakfast in camp before transferring to the nearest airport. In Arusha, a day room awaits before a transfer to Kilimanjaro Airport for evening international departures. Guests continuing on our Ngorongoro Crater extension with Luana will bid farewell to fellow travelers, where they will remain in pursuit of more remarkable wildlife encounters.

mattgoddard_gregcourter_1

(Photos, L to R: Matt Goddard & Greg Courter)

ADVENTURE INFORMATION

ADVENTURE FEE & DEPOSIT

$9295 per person, based on double or shared occupancy.

We welcome guests traveling solo, however we do not have guaranteed single rooms available on this trip. Every guest traveling solo must be willing to share a room with another traveler of the same gender, and will be booked at the double occupancy rate listed above.

Over the years, we’ve found that matching solo guests works out very well. Most of our guests have a lot in common, with similar interests in conservation, wildlife, and in this case quilting! Some even meet new friends to travel with again down the road.

It’s highly likely that we will find a roommate to match with every solo traveler. In the unlikely event that we are unable to find a roommate to match for a solo traveler, there will be an additional single room fee of $420 for that guest.

A $500 per person deposit is required to confirm your space on this trip. Please call Aly Jacobsen at 800-543-9817 by January 15, 2017 to make a booking. You may also email Aly with questions at [email protected].

Final payment will be due 90 days prior to the trip’s start date, on September 30, 2017.

For all trip payments, we accept Visa, Master Card, Discover and American Express.

The program fee for your adventure includes:

Internal light aircraft flights, accommodations, all meals from dinner Day 1 to lunch on final day, non-alcoholic drinks at camps, with meals, and in vehicles, house alcoholic beverages in camps, services of NHA Expedition Leader, local guides and camp staff, some gratuities, airport transfers on Day 1 and final day, permits and entrance fees, and all taxes.

Your program fee does not include:

Travel to and from start and end point of trip, premium alcoholic beverages, some gratuities, passport and visa fees, optional activities, items of a personal nature (phone calls, souvenirs, etc.), airline baggage fees, airport and departure taxes, optional travel insurance, required medical evacuation insurance, and optional activities with Luana Rubin.

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Travel | Comments Off on Tanzania Migration Safari – New Years Eve 2017/ New Years Day 2018

Free Pattern – Polar Express

polar-express

Merry Christmas from all of us at eQuilter.com!

This week’s Free Quilt Pattern is a special treat for fans of the Polar Express movie!

Now through Christmas Eve (while stock lasts) we are giving you 25% off this holiday favorite from Springs! (Main Panel and ALL coordinates)

PLEASE NOTE: The Sale Pricing will be applied in your Shopping Cart for this limited time only, December 20-24, 2016.

Based on a central panel, this quilt captures the magical moment when our hero discovers the big steam engine in the swirling snowstorm.

For all of those Train lovers – young and old – who dream of riding the rails up North…This 53″ x 60″ quilt makes a great wallhanging, crib quilt, or back it in flannel for a snuggly warm lap quilt.

Save 25% Off this Holiday Favorite quilt, from the ‘Polar Express’ collection by Springs.

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.

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Free Quilt Patterns, Quilt Pattern, Quilts | Comments Off on Free Pattern – Polar Express

Job Opening, Comfort Quilts, 2017 Events

Attention Colorado Quilters – we have a full time customer service position openread the job requirements and if interested please send us your resume and fill out our online application. If you love quilting and sewing and fabric, and are a people-person with CS experience, we’d love to hear from you!

We now have 6 videos posted from the 2016 Houston Quilt Festival, with a total of 170 videos online from quilt festivals, TV shows, artist interviews and tutorials.

Our current project to distribute comfort quilts for disaster relief, is for the fire victims of Gatlinburg Tenn.

If you wish to make and donate a quilt, drop off at eQuilter’s office by Jan 5, or ship *directly* to Mission of Love, to be received by Jan 15th 2017:
Mission of Love / Kathleen Price
2054 Hemlock Court
Youngstown, Ohio 44515

If you have questions, please contact Dana at eQuilter Customer Service.

Please send with a tracking number to confirm delivery to Mission of Love. They do not have an office staff …only volunteers who will be unpacking boxes and organizing this relief effort.

Well it is that time of year again…1 week to Christmas…2 more weeks to the New Year. What will 2017 bring? The state of the world is chaotic at best, but you may be thinking about your goals for 2017, and how your creative work can keep you calm and centered, or perhaps how your sewing can help others.

Our next comfort quilt drive will be for the street children of Maua Kenya, who were living on the dump. The Johnson Space Center/NASA chapter of Engineers Without Borders is supported by eQuilter’s charity program, and they are currently in Maua to further develop the home and school for these kids. In March they will send another group over and we will be able to send some quilts with this group of rocket scientists who are working to help these children. How often can you say Rocket Scientists, Africa, and Quilts all in the same sentence?!?

On Tuesday night I will be announcing a very special adventure trip for New Years 2017/2018 (one year from now) so watch for that in the Midweek Creative Nudge, and on our Travel Page.

This year’s trips to Cuba and Churchill (Polar Bears) were just awesome, and I send holiday hugs out to my 3 groups of travelers who came along to share these amazing experiences with me. I miss you!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Charity, Quilts, Travel | Comments Off on Job Opening, Comfort Quilts, 2017 Events

Free Pattern – Winter Wildlife Wonders

winter-wildlifejpg

Enter a Winter Wonderland with this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern…you can almost hear the crunch of paws on the snowy trail, the quiet swish of a snowy owl’s wings as she glides overhead, and the heavy silence of the snowfall in the forest.

Silver metallic sparkles on the wildlife panel, and all of the atmospheric coordinates,
giving this 53″ x 59″ quilt a shimmering luxe ambiance.

Enjoy the peaceful vignettes of this North Woods scene, as you sit by the fire and sip some hot cocoa. Hang it on the wall to tell a Winter Story, or back it in Flannel for the coziest Lap Quilt!

… from the ‘Winter White’ collection by Lynnea Washburn for 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.

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Animals, Free Quilt Patterns, Quilt Pattern, Quilts | Comments Off on Free Pattern – Winter Wildlife Wonders

Color of the Year – Greenery

greenery

Have you heard?
The Pantone Color of the Year for 2017 has been announced!

Last year for the first time, there were 2 colors of the year (a pastel blue and pink) but this year we are back to one solid color:

GREENERY

“Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew. Illustrative of flourishing foliage and the lushness of the great outdoors, the fortifying attributes of Greenery signals consumers to take a deep breath, oxygenate and reinvigorate.”

Whether you love or hate the Color of the Year, it is interesting to see how this color predicts product trends for the coming year.

Some people say “Oh I would never wear that color!”… but that is not the point.

The Color of the Year comes from surveying designers and manufacturers about what colors are shipping to stores in the coming year. We see this color showing up in cosmetics, home dec, automobiles, cell phones and other high tech products.

How the heck does anybody choose a color trend in advance? This is one of the reasons I love being part of the Color Marketing Group, so I can partake in these deep philosophical discussions about where colors have been, and where they are going. Colors are influenced by the global economy, politics, pop culture, couture fashion, even things like food trends and popular movies. We look at all those influences, mash them together, and come up with something that looks fresh and new to our eyes.

This color is certainly fresh, and maybe that is the point. We all need a dose of Greenery for our emotional health. Studies have shown that the immune system is strengthened by being outdoors in Nature…exposing ourselves to GREEN.

I’ve put together a Pinterest board with some images inspired by this Color of the Year, and if you click on this link you will also see a group of products that point toward the Color of the Year. (More on the way!)

To set off these lovely green fabrics in the collage above, this gives me a good excuse to share another one of my favorite quilts from the Intl Quilt Festival in Houston. This lovely little portrait of a purple cabbage by Susan Fletcher King was hanging next to the “Water is Life” exhibit where I was hanging out, and I just fell in love with its bold image and lovely colors.

We are working with Mission of Love to get comfort quilts to the fire victims in Gatlinburg Tenn. You can drop off donated quilts at our offices by Jan 5, or ship them directly to Mission of Love by Jan 15. (Do not ship to eQuilter)

Mission of Love / Kathleen Price
2054 Hemlock Court
Youngstown, Ohio 44515

Contact Dana in Customer Service for more information, and watch our newsletters. Many thanks to all the generous quilters who have contributed to our quilt program. Together with Mission of Love, we’ve distributed over 12,000 donated quilts for disaster relief, around the world.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

Check out our several NEW videos from the Houston Quilt Festival, on our eQuilter Video Page

********

2017 Travel Calendar:
Jan 18-22 – Tokyo Quilt Festival
Feb 9-11 – Bernina Sewapalooza By Blakeman Sewing at eQuilter Classroom!
Feb 17-20 – Venice Photo Conference
Feb 24 – eQuilter Sponsored Cocktail Party at QuiltCon

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Color, Trends | Comments Off on Color of the Year – Greenery

Free Pattern – Flower Market Trellis

flower_market

This week’s Free Quilt Pattern is a Summer Daydream…imagine spending an afternoon riding a retro bicycle to an abundant flower garden…walking under a rose-covered trellis gate…sitting under the gazebo and watching the clouds go by….

Silver buckets full of fresh-cut blooms, fill the borders with armfuls of flowers.

This 32″ x 53″ quilt makes a dreamy wallhanging, bringing a summer garden into a room to brighten someone’s day!

.. from the ‘Flower Market’ collection by Dona Gelsinger for 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.

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Free Quilt Patterns, Quilt Pattern, Quilts | Comments Off on Free Pattern – Flower Market Trellis

More Houston Videos, Comfort Quilts for Gatlinburg & Nepal

This weekend we have more videos from Houston Quilt Festival:

* Linda Pumphrey tells about the 9/11 memorial quilt display, from the Intl Quilt Study Center & Museum.

* Artists talk about their work in the touring exhibits of Quilt National.

* Portrait Quilts from the Houston quilt exhibits.

Many thanks to our videographer Bonnie McCaffery!

Earlier this week I was at BERNINA USA, with the other Bernina Ambassadors. We had so much fun playing on longarms, sergers and the amazing 880. They fed us well, taught us how to do lots of spine-tingling tricks on those machines, and we all shed a little tear when it was time to say good-bye. Many thanks to the awesome staff who took such good care of us!

On Friday afternoon our friends from the CU Boulder chapter of Engineers Without Borders, came to pick up a pile of your donated comfort quilts which will now travel to a mountaintop in Nepal…hand-carried by these amazing college students who are going to help with further disaster relief for earthquake victims. Many thanks to Noah and all the EWB team!

All last week Kathy Price and Mission of Love were in Guatemala, finding homeless children and giving them a home, visiting the orphanage, delivering food to remote villages who are starving, and the medical team gave the miracle of cleft lip and palate surgeries. We are so proud to be supporting the efforts of this truly amazing organization, led by Kathy who is literally a miracle worker. She and her merry band of volunteers load up a military cargo plane, and fly through the air like ten thousand magic reindeer, to help the poorest of the poor with compassion and dignity. If you ever want to have a life-changing experience, volunteer on one of their trips!

Our next project to distribute comfort quilts for disaster relief, will be for the fire victims of Gatlinburg Tenn.

If you wish to make and donate a quilt, drop off at eQuilter’s office by Jan 5, or ship *directly* to Mission of Love, to be received by Jan 15th 2017:
Mission of Love / Kathleen Price
2054 Hemlock Court
Youngstown, Ohio 44515

If you have questions, please contact Dana at eQuilter Customer Service.

Mission of Love does not have a staff to acknowledge receipt of quilts, so please send with a tracking number to confirm delivery. They will be too busy prepping and packing aid for fire victims!

Click Here for an article about this project.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Charity, Creativity | Comments Off on More Houston Videos, Comfort Quilts for Gatlinburg & Nepal

Free Pattern – Who’s in My Barn?

whos-in-my-barn

This week’s Exclusive Free Pattern features Kaufman’s adorable ‘Down on the Farm’ animals, peeking out of their barn windows between Amish-style star sashing.

This lovable 59″ x 65″ design makes a wonderful ‘I Spy’ quilt for children learning their animals, a picnic blanket or even a cherished lap quilt for adults.

Snuggly and sunny, your ‘Who’s in my Barn?’ quilt will keep you smiling while the delightful farm animals warm your heart with their inviting poses.

… ‘Down on the Farm’ is a cheerfully detailed Farm Animal print by Cheri Wollenberg of Sagebrush Fine Art for 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.

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Animals, Free Quilt Patterns, Pets, Quilt Pattern, Quilts | Comments Off on Free Pattern – Who’s in My Barn?

Creative Nudge – Wisteria Maiden

wisteria

Tonight I am writing to you from the Chicago area, where I am attending the BERNINA Ambassador Reunion. Every year this very special group of teachers and artists gather to network and play/learn on our favorite sewing machines. I always come home totally jazzed about getting into my studio!

I am uploading photos from the Houston Quilt Festival, and as I went through my files, this quilt by Kyoko Nokina caught my eye. It is a lovely combination of traditional fabrics and techniques, with a hot trend in machine stitching. I just love when I see these unique juxtapositions of old and new.

(This is a detail of Kyoko’s quilt “Wisteria Maiden” in the upper right corner, with a collage of some eQuilter Japanese fabrics on the left, and bottom border.) How many different techniques can you find in this quilt?

The market is over-saturated with adult coloring books, which sprang from the Zentangle trend. We saw this expand into a creative quilting trend, first with contrasting machine stitching. We saw black thread on solid white backgrounds, then white thread on solid black backgrounds, and then multicolored threads on both black and white solid backgrounds!

One thing is for sure – quilters like to doodle! Whether they are Zentangling, or freemotion quilting, we love to make images with lines, that become complex drawings and designs.

In case you missed it – our last two videos from Houston are interviews with artists Susan Carlson and Hollis Chatelain. More videos from Houston Quilt Festival on the way this week!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

********

Travel Calendar:
Dec 5-7 – Bernina Ambassador Reunion
Jan 18-22 – Tokyo Quilt Festival
Feb 9-11 – Bernina Sewapalooza By Blakeman Sewing at eQuilter Classroom!
Feb 17-20 – Venice Photo Conference
Feb 24 – eQuilter Sponsored Cocktail Party at QuiltCon

Share Post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Posted in Creativity, Japan, Trends | Comments Off on Creative Nudge – Wisteria Maiden