Creative Nudge- International Trends in Machine Stitching

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Luana

trends

I’ve just returned home tonight from the Water is Life exhibit in Frascati Rome, but I am still reviewing the quilts and trends from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK.

Today I am giving you a collage of 4 different detail shots, showing dense stitching details:

Clockwise from Top Left:
Susan Vogel – Prism Breaker on Beach
Claudia Pfeil – Magical Mermaid Castle
Annelize Littlefair – New Beginnings
Kay Bell – All Airs and Graces

3 of the stitching trends that are spiking:

Dense Quilt Stitching – unique quilting designs
Trapunto (stuffed/raised areas)
Contrasting Thread Color – a Zentangle technique

Even though last week I wrote about the loose Big-Stitch Kantha stitching which was so prevalent in the Birmingham show… Yes! Machine stitching is a huge trend too!

So the main conclusion is that big bold flashy stitching is a big trend now, whether hand or machine stitched. Instead of the thread fading into the matching fabric background, now stitching takes a main role, inviting one to look closer and SEE exactly what the quilter has done!

If you’d like to hear more about International Quilt Trends, come to my power point lecture and luncheon Oct 6 at the Dairy Barn in Athens Ohio.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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Water Quilts and Italy

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Luana

Greetings from Frascati, just outside of Rome Italy!

I am here for a few days, as an artist and sponsor of the exhibit “Water is Life“, attending the private opening reception sponsored by the UN and US Embassy. I was interviewed on camera by a local journalist today, so maybe a link to a video will come out of this. Half of the exhibit’s quilts will be shown in Houston, so if you are going, watch for this exhibit!

It is showing here in Frascati for just a week, at the Scuderie Aldobrandini – a gorgeous old museum building that used to be the grand horse stables for the Villa Aldobrandini. I am told the Villa (which is more like a palace) is not open to the public, because a prince lives there currently. It was built in the 16th Century, and converted to a Cardinal’s “accommodation” in the 17th century.

Tomorrow I am meeting with an Italian quilter who makes intricate silk applique quilts based on mathematic principles.

Just in case you missed it last week, be sure to check out new video interview on the “Quilts of Southwest China” exhibit at the Intl Quilt Museum in Lincoln Nebraska.

Haven’t seen our eQuilter YouTube channel yet? Oh boy, are you in for a treat. Start with our video page… have fun! 🙂

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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2016 Travel Calendar:
Sept 1-6 – Frascati Rome – ‘Water is Life‘ UN/Embassy Reception
Sept 18-25 – CUBA Arts Tour #2 – Havana, Trinidad & Varadaro
Oct 6 – Dairy Barn – Athens OH – “Intl Quilt Trends” Lecture
Oct 29 – Nov 4 – Houston Quilt Market & Festival
Nov 11-13 – Color Marketing Group – Albuquerque
Nov 15-20 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Churchill Canada

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Free Pattern – Sun Kissed

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Luana

sunkissed

Your free eQuilter pattern features the bright and summery Sun Kissed fabrics, glowing with fresh, watercolor painted blossoms.

These elegant florals and coordinates are creatively placed to dance about striped horizontal posts, displaying their splashes of summer colors, all bordered by our best-selling cellophane petals.

Celebrate summer with your dazzling 58″ x 74″ Sun Kissed quilt; the luminous and radiant colors are sure to keep you warm and cozy!

… from the ‘Sun Kissed’ collection by Studio 8 for Quilting Treasures.

You may order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our over 20,000 fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.

This pattern was designed in EQ7, 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.

Luana

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Free Pattern – Eskimo Arctic Snow

Posted on September 2, 2016 by Luana

snow

Your exclusive eQuilter Pattern features Native Alaskan families dancing, running and playing in a fun-filled and beautifully illustrated wonderland.

The design captures a trio of Arctic Snow frames adorned by snowflake blocks with Eskimo children making snow-angels, all surrounded by a sunny, colorful striped and mitered border.

Snuggle up beneath this lighthearted and cheerful 45″ x 55″ lap quilt, while admiring author Barbara Lavallee’s joyful artwork.

… from the ‘Eskimo Arctic Snow’ collection by Barbara Lavallee
(author of “Mama Do You Love Me?”) for Northcott Fabrics.

You may order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our over 20,000 fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.

This pattern was designed in EQ7, 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.

Luana

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Creative Nudge- International Trend: Kantha Stitching

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Luana

kantha

What I am going to write about today will probably surprise you. It is about a trend that I see bubbling up, which sprang forth fully-formed at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK.

It is Kantha Stitching!
(Originated as a form of hand-embroidery made by rural Indian women.)

It started, I think, with a growing fascination with Sashiko stitching, and contemporary explorations of hand embroidery stitching by Beaney and Littlejohn. Then another layer of expression was added with Mark Lipinski’s Slow Stitching movement. In fact there are so many layers in this evolution, please forgive me if I don’t/can’t list them all!

In the last several years, Kantha Stitching has been a “thing” in fashion and home dec. When I was in India, we were offered quilts with Kantha Stitching. Then I came home and started seeing $800 jackets cut and sewn from Kantha-stitched quilts (in Santa Fe), modern chairs upholstered in Kantha-stitched quilts, and Kantha-stitched scarves showing up in high-end and boho boutiques.

I saw a little bit at QuiltCon in February, but this explosion of this stitching technique in Birmingham was just remarkable! It is not just me identifying this technique as Kantha. The artists are also including “Kantha” in their artist statements…adding their own creative interpretations for this big-stitching trend.

So I came home and placed orders for lots of specialty big-stitch threads because I hear the rumbling on a distant horizon…this trend is so refreshing and FUN, and I know you’ll want to try adding some of this to your next project!

Photos show details of 4 quilts –
Clockwise from top left:
Lotus Pond 2 by SangSook Kim
Out to the Windy Beach by Sandra Newton
Rothko Kyoto by Joanne Johnson
Meditation by YoounKyung Kim

And so you ask, is there a machine-stitching trend that came out of this show? Yes! Watch for next week’s midweek Creative Nudge and I’ll show you what’s next in machine stitching!

Thursday I am flying to Rome, and Saturday I’ll be attending a private VIP opening for the United Nations/US Embassy-sponsored quilt exhibit of ‘Water is Life’. Part of this exhibit will be shown at the Houston Quilt Festival, but you can also check out the exhibit when it was at the United Nations in Geneva in March. It is an honor to participate in this important project – about our most precious resource.

Please join me Oct 6 for a Fundraiser event for the Dairy Barn!
Come for lunch, and for my “International Quilt Trends” power point, with photos of quilts from around the world. Can’t wait to see you!
(Space Limited – Register Soon!)

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

********

2016 Travel Calendar:
Sept 3 – Water is Life – Embassy Reception – Frascati Rome
Sept 18-25 – CUBA Arts Tour #2 – Havana, Trinidad & Varadaro
Oct 6 – Dairy Barn – Athens OH – “Intl Quilt Trends” Lecture
Oct 29 – Nov 4 – Houston Quilt Market & Festival
Nov 11-13 – Color Marketing Group – Albuquerque
Nov 15-20 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Churchill Canada

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Free Pattern – Singer Sewing Party

Posted on August 30, 2016 by Luana

sewing

Many of us learned to sew from our grandmothers, and this week’s Free Quilt Pattern is a tribute to those Matriarch Makers and their precious sewing machines.

This 64″ x 88″ quilt design starts with 2 panel designs, one with the famous black enamel Singer machines and gold metallic lettering, and the other panel with vignettes of grandmas, mothers and children sewing.

We love the combination of Vintage Cream, Ebony Black, Lacquer Red and Gold Metallic….giving these vintage illustrations and coordinates an old-fashioned, but luxe feel.

Hey! I have one of those machines which is an heirloom from my grandmother … how about you?

… from the ‘Sewing With Singer’ collection by Robert Kaufman Fabrics.

You may order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our over 20,000 fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.

This pattern was designed in EQ7, 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.

Luana

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New Video – Chinese Quilts

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Luana

You may recall that the weekend before I went to Europe for the quilt festival in Birmingham UK, Sophie and had a crazy road trip to the International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln Nebraska, so I could speak on a panel about 100 Good Wishes China Adoption Quilts. We had a fantastic behind the scenes tour with curator Marin Hanson, and were just swooning over the “Quilts of Southwest China” exhibit.

Marin graciously gave a video interview about the exhibit, and Sophie was thrilled to be the interviewer. You can check out the video (and the gorgeous quilts!) online here.

Haven’t seen our eQuilter YouTube channel yet? Oh boy, are you in for a treat. Start with our video page… have fun! 🙂

We are so proud of our son Sam, who is on a full scholarship as a saxophone music performance major at CU Boulder. Last weekend he auditioned, and won first chair in the band! He will have all the solos, so he is very excited, and he’s now setting his sights on higher goals. What an ambitious kid… I wonder where he gets that from?

Sophie is busy practicing for her violin audition in her high school orchestra next week, so there is lots of music happening in our house. My mom recently moved to a senior community in Longmont, and she has been playing piano for her neighbors, so heck, I guess I better get out my cello.

Today Sophie, Mom and I went to the Dahlia Flower Show at the Flower Bin in Longmont. Golly, I was just blown away by the beauty of these huge striking blooms, and I took 650 photos. I might have to go back tomorrow. I thought maybe they were going to kick me out, but no, they were just tickled that I wanted to take photos of their prize blossoms with such an obsessive fervor.

Just in case you don’t subscribe to all 4 of our weekly newsletters, or if you missed my last two midweek Creative Nudge newsletters (about the quilts at the Birmingham show), you can always review our newsletters on our blog, or you can check your eQuilter subscription options online and make updates. We also send out TWO free patterns per week and they have been hugely over-the-top popular with our customers, and you can always review those on our blog or update your subscription preferences so they will show up in your Inbox!

I am editing and posting photos from the Birmingham quilt festival, so check my Photo Page this weekend for inspiration from Europe.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

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Free Pattern – Sunflower Fields

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Luana

sunflowerThis week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern invites you to wade into a gorgeous Sunflower garden! Large golden flowers are set in a green Hoffman hand-dye trellis, with fields of big golden flowers in the background.

This 51″ x 51″ square wallhanging or lap quilt is a walk in the sunshine in Provence, Spain, or Italy…or maybe Texas, California or Connecticut? Imagine walking through a sea of sunflowers to celebrate the end of the summer season, and carry that sunshine into the winter months with this beautiful quilt!

Features realistic and very detailed flower blocks in a convenient panel
… from the ‘Sunflowers’ collection by Elizabeth’s Studio.

You may order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our over 20,000 fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.

This pattern was designed in EQ7, 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.

Luana

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Creative Nudge – Global Red and White

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Luana

global

A week ago I returned from my trip to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham England. There are many trends to talk about, so I will continue to post photos and trend comments for a few weeks.

The 2011 Red and White quilt exhibit at the Armory in New York City, and the 2014 Red and White exhibit in Houston, have simultaneously inspired a tsunami of red and white quilts, but also have tapped into a subconscious tide in the mass consciousness, that has fueled parallel color trends in home dec and fashion.

It is no coincidence that red and white has been used in flags, uniforms, and even symbolized the War of the Roses. They are primal colors that evoke an immediate physiological and psychological response. Red is a color of courage, strength, ambition, heat, energy, blood… and love. White represents purity, innocence, simplicity, clarity, and illumination. (And in some cultures – mourning.)

The Festival of Quilts is the largest show in Europe, but it attracts quilts from all over the globe. These 2 quilts were in the Japanese and Korean exhibit, and they represent two completely different approaches to Red and White. In this photo collage you’ll see the allover quilt image, and a closeup detail image.

The star quilt is by Sakae Tanigawa & Reiko Nakazawa, and is titled “Ties and Sunrises”.

“The morning sun that unites us all with the hope that everyone feels this warm, deep bond.”

The abstract quilt is by Takako Ishinami, and is titled “Kodou – Heart Beat”. Note the heavily stitched ruffled strips that make up this composition.

It is fascinating to connect the dots and see how an exhibit can influence and inspire and unfold over time, and morph into something almost unrecognizable along the timeline of the trend…and yet you can still trace it back to its source…like genealogy.

As I write this, news is coming in about the earthquake in central Italy, which was also felt in Rome, where I will be in a week. I am sending hugs and greetings to our friends in Italy, hoping you are all safe!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

********
2016 Travel Calendar:
Sept 3 – Water is Life – Embassy Reception – Frascati Rome
Sept 18-25 – CUBA Arts Tour #2 – Havana, Trinidad & Varadaro
Oct 6 – Dairy Barn – Athens OH – “Intl Quilt Trends” Lecture
Oct 29 – Nov 4 – Houston Quilt Market & Festival
Nov 11-13 – Color Marketing Group – Albuquerque
Nov 15-20 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Churchill Canada

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Free Pattern – Mosaic Plume

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Luana

mosaicThere are so many things to love about this week’s gorgeous Free Quilt Pattern….where do we start?!?

The central Peacock Panel looks like an intricate tile mosaic, with stylized feathers, flowers and delicate foliage.

The glowing effect of the inner border comes from strips of ombre colors, cleverly spliced to give a shimmering quality.

The outer border features floating peacock feathers, in the same stylized mosaic technique, giving a light and bright quality to this stunning 40″ x 59″ quilt wallhanging pattern.

… from the ‘Mosaic Plume’ collection by Chong-A Hwang for Timeless Treasures.

You may order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our over 20,000 fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.

This pattern was designed in EQ7, 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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