Multitudes

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Luana

I’ve been on a quest for 35 years. My goal is to fill out my stash with every color, every shade and tint and hue and value so that when I need something for a project, it is (somewhere) on my shelf. Lately I’ve been filling in the last few slots from the eQuilter scrap bin. As I get ready for a weeklong artist retreat, I have a sense of urgency.

As new color trends and unique color combinations catch my eye, I have to review my stash. A little Plum here, a little Marigold there, and maybe a little Deep Teal and Sprout Green too. Am I done yet? Never. That is half the fun of being a quilter, if I dare say so myself. It is the eternal quest for the perfect color. It never ends, but it is a noble quest.

For those of you on a similar quest, we try to help out by cutting our own special collections of fat quarters in house. I am the one who initiates a new fat quarter packet, and chooses the colors that go into these collections that will hopefully scratch that particular chromatic itch we all get now and then.

This week I am featuring another quilt from the Modern Quilt Guild’s festival – QuiltCon. This cheerful quilt (upper left quadrant of collage above) is more fun than a Spring garden, with pieced blocks that resemble an ombre gradient. It illustrates a warm analogous color story that warms us like sunshine and tulips…chirping robins and giggling babies.

Heather Akerberg is the quiltmaker for this piece, which she titled “Multitudes”. Karen McTavish also helped with the machine quilting, and Heather added some hand quilting.

Heather writes:
“Our unique experiences, thoughts, beliefs and memories all inform who we are at any given moment. We are multitudes. Utilizing simple shapes, this quilt explores how our identities are layered and varied. Using shifts in value and hue, vibrancy and depth are created. ‘Multitudes’ was constructed using a mix of foundation paper and traditional piecing with a mix of shot cotton and quilting cotton, mostly from my scrap bins.”

You can see a larger image of this quilt on this page.

Be sure to check out my photos from QuiltCon 2024!

If you have not subscribed to my artist blog yet, follow this link to see my latest process post about a Fierce Mama Bear art quilt, made for the SAQA Spotlight auction.

Sharing your love of fabric…
Luana and Paul

* Quilt by Heather Akerberg is set im a collage of Fat Quarter images, available now at eQuilter.com

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

Follow Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for quilt & travel images, review our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Subscribe to Luana’s Artist Website blog for more creative inspiration.

Travel/Quilt Dates:
April 7-12 – Allegre Retreat, Gateway CO
May 1-7 – London & Canterbury, UK
August – World Wilderness Congress, Rapid City SD
December – Textile & Costume Tour – Italy

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Free Quilt Pattern – Mystic Kitty

Posted on March 31, 2024 by Luana

Behold the green eyes of this mystical kitty, who sees all and knows all, in this week’s Free Quilt Pattern. This mesmerizing portrait captures the intensity of this cosmic cat’s gaze, surrounded by marbleized colors and opulent embellishments.

To make this 71″ wide x 55″ high quilt design, you will start with our exclusive 28″ x 44″ digital-printed panel. We have used 3 analogous colors of Paula Nadelstern’s “Poured Color” marbled prints, combined with Kona Solid Black, to construct the pieced border.

As a wall hanging, this is a real conversation piece for the true Ailurophile. (Cat lover) Or use this as a Nap quilt or small bed coverlet for fantastical feline dreams. The jewel tones of Emerald, Peridot and Citrine really ‘pop’ against the solid black in the pieced frame. This just might be your cat’s favorite new quilt!

…from the ‘Mystic Animals’ collection by the Rubin Design Studio, designed exclusively for eQuilter.

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.

Sharing your passion for fabric and color,
Luana and Paul Rubin

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Spring Chocolate Sale

Posted on March 30, 2024 by Luana

Well, the time has come to clear out our Artisan Chocolates for the season, and I know from experience they go fast. Place your order now for 30% off. If you order 5 chocolate bars and a spool of thread, we won’t tell anybody. Or, you can order 5 spools of thread and one bar of chocolate for a low-cal dopamine hit. *giggle*

I want to make sure you don’t miss these special new products this week:

Evolon 58 gsm – 40″ wide Back in Stock, New 80″ wide by the yard!
Goofy Cherry Blossom new tea towels.
Caryl Bryer Fallert‘s Ombre collection back in stock – 24 colors + Fat Strip Precut
2 New SAQA Books – Fierce Planets & StitchPUNK

This week I am busy prepping for a one-week art quilt retreat in SW Colorado – the Allegre Retreat which was founded by Katie Pasquini Masopust. I met her 20+ years ago at Art Quilt Tahoe. I am finally going to check off this bucket list item, and hopefully get a lot of work done there. I am not in a class, but I am doing an independent study retreat. One of the teachers is Susan Carlson, who we had scheduled to teach here in 2020, but had to cancel (along with Paula Nadelstern) because of the pandemic. Sigh…..

Today I was out at the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, gathering signatures for a ballot initiative to ban Trophy Hunting of Big Cats in Colorado. On the walk back to my car, I saw the new residents: beautiful silver foxes who were rescued from a fur farm. eQuilter is a “Founder” – we have donated to their huge wildlife refuge in SE Colorado where lions and tigers and bears live in outdoor acreage after being rescued from horrendous abusive situations. They have started a Horse Refuge for mustangs that are rounded up destined for a tragic demise – but are saved at the auction and sent to the refuge to run free again.

If you would like advance notice of my Textile & Costume tour in Italy in early December, contact Customer Service and they will put you on that list.

sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul

Travel/Quilt Dates:
April 7-12 Allegre Retreat
May 1-7 – England
August – World Wilderness Congress
December – Textile/Costume Tour – Italy

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, comment on our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

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Free Quilt Pattern – Barnyard Babies

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Luana

Celebrate the arrival of Spring with this adorable collection of baby animals, in this week’s Free Quilt Pattern. Each block is a sweet portrait of a little baby animal, featuring a bright-eyed lamb, fuzzy pink piglet, soft yellow chicks, carrot-nibbling bunny, curious calf, and sassy kid. (goat)

To make this 63″ x 69″ quilt, you will start with two 24″ x 44″ Barnyard Babies block panels, piecing blocks to make 3 rows in the central section. Join blocks with coordinating blender. Use matching Barnyard Stripe to create border, with outer border of blue blender. Finish with coordinating red paisley print for the binding.

This a fun Nap/Lap quilt for a retired farmer, maybe a wall hanging in the barn, or a delightful gift for a new baby. Also makes a great gift for your vet who will be delivering some of these baby animals this spring!

…from the ‘Barnyard Babies’ collection by South Africa designer Clint Eagar for P&B Textiles.

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.

Sharing your passion for fabric and color,
Luana and Paul Rubin

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Feelin’ Groovy

Posted on March 27, 2024 by Luana
This week, for you avid Midweek newsletter readers, I am giving you a little sneak peak of a beloved collection we just got back in stock:
Caryl Bryler Fallert-Gentry’s “Gradations” which is 24 different color combinations of Ombre prints.

If you have ever played around with gradient prints, you know that every cut of these fabrics yields several different colors and/or values, so one colorway is like 4 or 5 colors or shades. Gradient prints have been embraced by Modern Quilters for the luminous quality they add to a quilt. Contemporary quilters love them because they give a 3-D effect.

We’ve cut all 24 colors into 5″ strips and packaged them in-house for a palette-stretcher precut that will expand your color options in a heartbeat.

Today I am featuring this delightful quilt from the Maximalism exhibit at QuiltCon. As you may recall, I wrote an article about Maximalism awhile back, so I was excited to see this batch of quilts!

This quilt is by Linda Hungerford, and is titled “Feelin’ Groovy“. (center image in the collage above.)

Linda writes:

“An abandoned box of already-pieced quarter circle, and triangle-in-a-square blocks triggered this design that needed more. So, to meet a Central Florida MQG Challenge of using half-rectangle triangle (HRT) blocks in a quilt, I made two sizes of them using only stripes and solids.”

Part of what makes this busy quilt so fun and eye-catching is the juxtaposition of Solid Brights with Black-and-White stripes. For those of you who have attended my trend lectures, you know this Black-and-White-and-Color trend is ongoing and mutating. As a result, we have been expanding our selection of Black and White stripes because they are so fun to work with – give it a try!

If you are looking for more gradient prints, go to our Color Palette and scroll down – there are 4 different color categories of these Ombre fabrics.

Be sure to check out my photos from QuiltCon 2024!

Sharing your love of fabric…
Luana and Paul


Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

Follow Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for quilt & travel images, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Subscribe to Luana’s Artist Website blog for more creative inspiration.

Travel/Quilt Dates:
April 7-12 – Allegre Retreat
May 1-7 – London UK
August – World Wilderness Congress
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Free Quilt Pattern – American Spirit

Posted on March 24, 2024 by Luana

Today’s exclusive Free Quilt Pattern captures the spirit of freedom with a bald eagle decorated in the American red, white, and blue posing proudly against a star spangled frame.

To make this 65″ x 72″ quilt design, you will sew American Stripe strips between blue hand dye strips, and attach American Spirit Frames to the corners. Sew solid black borders, which accentuate the patriotic colors, along with a red hand dye binding.

…from the ‘American Spirit’ collection by Dan Morris for Quilting 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.

Sharing your passion for fabric and color,
Luana and Paul Rubin

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Do You Love Textiles?

Posted on March 23, 2024 by Luana

Just in case you missed the Wednesday e-newsletter, I now have photo albums up for both the DAR Museum opening of “Sewn in America”, and QuiltCon exhibits.

For many years I’ve been researching a very unique Textile & Costume tour in Italy, and right now I’m putting together a holiday season trip (including Christmas Markets) around the 2nd week of December. I’d like to give our avid eQuilter fans first crack at this amazing tour, so if you’d like to have a 48 hour advance notice to reserve a place when registration opens, contact Customer Service and get on the list! This is not a tour for those of you who have never been to Italy before. It is more an in-depth study (and celebration!) of textile history and costumes. It is going to be AWESOME. There just might be some wine tasting involved….

This morning I attended a live streaming performance of Gounod’s ‘Romeo et Julette’ from the Met in New York. It was a gorgeous costume piece, with 18th century style, written by a 19th century French composer. The costume designer Catherine Zuber did a fantastic job. I know that many of you are not only avid quilters, but also costume (and opera) aficionados…because if you love textiles it is hard not to love costumes and historic fabrics.

There were several transmission interruptions during the first half (the image on the screen froze) and during the intermission the executive director of the Met came on and apologized, saying they were having severe thunderstorms and torrential rain which interrupted the satellite transmission….and he blamed it on climate change. I see there is still a flood watch in place. Oh the times, they are a changin’…..

For those of you who attended the online SAQA webinar on embellishments, we are highlighting our Milliner needles this week. We also carry the Perle 8 cotton embroidery threads in gorgeous color collections, and those handy heavy-duty thimbles that are beloved by handwork experts. Enjoy!

sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul

Travel/Quilt Dates:
April 7-12 Allegre Retreat
May 1-7 – England
December – Textile/Costume Tour – Italy

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, comment on our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

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Free Quilt Pattern – Mystic Owl

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Luana

Stare deep into the eyes of the all-knowing Cosmic Owl, with this week’s Free Quilt Pattern. The powerful image captures the magic and wisdom of this nocturnal raptor, in vivid kaleidoscopic colors and ornate embellishments.

To make this 71″ wide x 55″ high quilt design, you will start with our exclusive 28″ x 44″ digital-printed panel. We have used 2 complementary colors of Paula Nadelstern’s marbled “Cosette”, combined with Kona Solid Black, to construct the pieced border. A 3rd color of Cosette is used for the binding.

As a wall hanging, this is a real conversation piece for the true Strigiformesphile. (Owl lover) Or use this as a Nap quilt or small bed coverlet for soaring raptor dreams. Did you know the Japanese word for Owl is Fukuro? In Icelandic it is Ugla. Maltese – is Kokka. What will you name your owl?

…from the ‘Inspirational’ collection by the Rubin Design Studio, designed exclusively for eQuilter.

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.

Sharing your passion for fabric and color,
Luana and Paul Rubin

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Happy Spring!

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Luana

Happy Spring Equinox!

Today is the first Full Day of Spring which is always a cause for celebration here in Colorado. Our mountains are cloaked in snow, but our bulbs are pushing up through the ground, and the tree buds are swelling with our sunny mild weather. I am including a collage of a new collection of Sea Turtle/Ocean prints that just arrived this week….with warmer weather I think about visiting the coast later this year!

In Washington DC the cherry blossoms are at peak bloom, and I have just come back from an opening reception at the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) Museum which is a couple blocks from the White House. I was there for the first day of “Sewn in America” which will run through December 31.

As you enter the exhibit, you read this description:

“Sewn objects surround us. They clothe us from birth, cover our bodies day and night, furnish our living spaces, line our coffins. Until recently, nearly every woman knew how to sew – knowledge imparted in childhood and employed through a lifetime.

Without formal art training, women used needle arts to express themselves. In quilts, embroidery, and other fancy work projects, they beautified their surroundings, made gifts of love and friendship, expressed emotion, proclaimed their identity, and conveyed their support for causes.

Sewn in America examines the way in which American women (and men) from the 18th and 19th centuries learned and deployed their needle skills to furnish their households, earn livings, and express themselves, with contemporary examples of the themes explored.”

My quilt “Stardust Mothers” is one of the contemporary examples chosen for this historic 2024 exhibit, and I also wrote a chapter about Craftivism in the companion book. If you are planning a trip to our nation’s capital this year, please stop to visit the DAR to see this exhibit, and all their other quilts on display from all the states, over the last 200+ years.

Be sure to check out my photos from QuiltCon 2024!

Sharing your love of fabric…
Luana and Paul

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

Follow Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for quilt & travel images, review our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Subscribe to Luana’s Artist Website blog for more creative inspiration.

Travel/Quilt Dates:
April 7-12 – Allegre Retreat
May 1-7 – London UK

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Free Quilt Pattern – Floral Kitty Portrait

Posted on March 17, 2024 by Luana

Our Fabulous Floral Kitty panel displays charm and elegance, dressed in a classic Victorian hat. This week’s exclusive Free Quilt Design is full of gorgeous details and a captivating kitty surrounded by graceful, painterly flowers.

To make this 58″ x 64″ quilt design, you will start with our ever-popular 43″ x 44″ digital panel. The central masterpiece is framed by mitering our detailed wood grain print, and then bordered with a deep Amethyst Hoffman Hand Dye.

…from the ‘Adorable Pets’ collection by the Rubin Design Studio, designed exclusively for eQuilter.

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.

Sharing your passion for fabric and color,
Luana and Paul Rubin

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