Creative Nudge – We Are Storytellers

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Luana

Fireworks2016_700

If you’ve followed my blog or my Midweek Creative Nudge for awhile, you know that I love to take photos and find ways to relate them to the fabrics we carry. I find that the things I love to photograph are often very similar to the fabrics I love to order for eQuilter.

My kids find it very annoying that I always have to bring a camera to the Fourth of July Fireworks. So this year I didn’t bring my beloved Nikon, but when the celebrations started and the sky lit up… I couldn’t help myself. I had to whip out my phone and try to capture the perfect shot.

I started playing around with a photo collage of the fireworks this week, and it occurred to me that we actually *did* have fabrics that evoked the explosion of light and color that delights us on this purely American Summer holiday.

When my kids were little they all had a chance to experience the fireworks at Disneyland. I remember little Sophie’s thrilling shriek when Tinkerbell appeared at the top of the castle, then flew through the air. (aided by an almost-invisible wire.) Having lived in LA near Disneyland until I was 10 years old, I was thrilled to relive that childhood memory with my own daughter. I took her when I was at a trade show in An aheim!

Now that my kids are pretty much grown (Sophie starts high school in 6 weeks!) I find that I miss the days of Tinkerbell and fireworks, but I smile when I think about combining our Disney licensed prints, with the designs of Paula Nadelstern of Peggy Toole, that remind me of those wondrous nights under the shimmering multicolored pyrotechnics.

We collect fabrics in our stash because they remind us of something, they touch our heart, they excite us but we don’t know why… and then suddenly we realize we’ve collected fabrics that tell a story!

May your storytelling bring you great pleasure and the sweetest of memories, now and forever.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
~Luana

2016 Travel Calendar:
July 20-29 – Seville & Granada
Aug 6 – Intl Quilt Study Center/Museum – Lincoln Nebraska
Aug 12-14 – Festival of Quilts – Birmingham UK
Sept 3 – Water is Life – 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 – Rosewater

Posted on July 12, 2016 by Luana

Rosewater

We are delighted to bring you one of the most gracious and lovely Free Quilt Patterns of the summer season…featuring the ‘Rosewater’ fabric collection.

This pastel rose garden has luscious painterly details, with blocks set on point, giving the impression of a garden trellis and a shimmering background. Perhaps it will remind you of an English garden, or your grandmother’s Tea set?

This generous 82″ x 93″ quilt pattern will make a lovely queen-size quilt…maybe this one is for YOUR bed? This would also make a great project for holiday gift-giving for someone special, to keep the roses blooming all through the winter months.

…from the ‘Rosewater’ collection by Nan 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.

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Free Pattern – Catalina Ultra Violet

Posted on July 8, 2016 by Luana

CatalinaUltraviolet

Enter into a mysterious midnight garden, in this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern.

Ultra-Violet flowers really “pop” on a black background, with soft leafy green accents and sashing.

Blocks are set on point, creating a lovely Garden Trellis effect. Tiny pinwheels hold the trellis blocks together, while garlands of blossoms are cleverly engineered into a lush blooming border!

…from the ‘Catalina Ultra Violet’ collection by Marti Michell for Maywood 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.

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Creative Nudge – * Arctic Blast * Warm Hearts *

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Luana

BearInTheGrass_700

Here in Colorado, our hottest month tends to be July, so once we hit July 4th, I start thinking about ways to keep cool. One of the ways that I do that is by looking at my Polar Bear photos!

This handsome fellow hung out near our Polar Rover for about an hour, stopping occasionally to stare at us inquisitively. A little while later a female walked up to our back deck and sat down for 45 minutes. Thinking about it sends shivers down my spine…brrrr!

When my boys were little, they just loved to have “Mama Do You Love Me?” as a bedtime story, and now that I’ve met the Inuit people while visiting the edge of the Arctic Circle, it means even more to me. I was so thrilled when the illustrations from this book were licensed as fabric designs!

In addition to seeing lots of Polar Bears, on my previous 2 trips we also saw Snowy Owls, Arctic Foxes, White Ptarmigan, Silver Foxes, Bald Eagles, and of course lots of snow and ice and crystalline sunsets.

Naturally, I have been collecting fabrics so some day I can make a quilt that tells the story of these frigid exhilarating adventures. I know that many of you collect storytelling fabrics, because we see what you order! Sometimes we look at the combinations of fabrics and wonder…what is YOUR story?!?

Some of you share your story quilts by sending us photos of your finished projects, made with fabrics from eQuilter. We love to share them on our social media pages, to inspire other quilters. When we buy special fabrics with Polar Bears, Lighthouses, Whales, Hot Air Balloons, Camping Trailers, Ballet Shoes, the Eiffel Tower, Firetrucks, Koala Bears, Bicycles, Star Wars, Teapots, Motorcycles, Pianos, French Bulldogs, Steam Engines or Soccer Balls… we KNOW that you are also delighted to find the right fabric to tell your story, or tell the story of a loved one.

So just for fun, think of a story from your family, think of a visual theme related to the story, and search for those key words in our powerful search engine. (Thank you Paul!) Then click and go to the product page, click on your favorite color in that design, and click on the blue button “Find This Color” for coordinates.

We stay up late just dreaming up ways to make you smile, so you can tell your story, and make somebody else smile. Pass it on!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
~Luana

2016 Travel Calendar:
July 20-29 – Seville & Granada
Aug 6 – Intl Quilt Study Center/Museum – Lincoln Nebraska
Aug 12-14 – Festival of Quilts – Birmingham UK
Sept 18-25 – CUBA Arts Tour #2 – Havana, Trinidad & Varadaro
Oct 7 – Dairy Barn – Athens Ohio – Intl Quilt Trends Lecture
Nov 11-13 – Color Marketing Group – Albuquerque
Nov 15-20 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour

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Free Pattern – Unbridled

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Luana

Unbridled

Take a trip to the wide open spaces of the wild west, with this gorgeous Horse-themed Free Quilt Pattern. We wish you a Happy 4th of July with these iconic images from our country’s early days, celebrating the wide open spaces of America’s western lands.

Dan’s combination of illustrations and textured silhouettes gives this a lovely weathered look, with a vintage color palette and prairie styling.

This 64″ x 76″ quilt is perfect for those twin bunkbeds for your little buckaroos, or a comforting nap quilt on the couch in your cabin. Use one of our Flannel Blenders or Plaids as backing and you’ll be ready for those cool Fall nights that will be here in a few months!

…from the ‘Unbridled’ collection by Dan Morris 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.

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eQuilter’s First-Ever Warehouse Garage Sale July 9!

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Luana

The reservations for the Polar Bear Tour (November) and the Cuban Arts Tour (September) are snapping shut, so if you were thinking of joining us, now is the time to make a phone call and sneak in before the reservation window closes! LAST CHANCE!!!

Our eQuilter Public GARAGE SALE is going to be next Saturday July 9th, in our new classroom space. If you have a group that wants to make an appointment to preview the sale, we can arrange for you to visit before that date, if you call Dana in Customer Service.

We need to CLEAR OUT the rest of our fabulous Scrap Packs, Bolt Ends, Discontinued Yardage and Panels to set up our CLASSROOM SPACE so please come with your shopping bags and help us prepare for the next chapter in the expansion of our business… so exciting!

The sale will run from 10 am to 4 pm, and you will enter through the back door of the warehouse, on the North side of the building. Sophie will be here helping me, and we will have COOKIES!

We have a few 60 yd rolls of 60″ wide organic batting on clearance, priced below wholesale, so if you’d like to split a roll with your quilting group, come and snap them up.

GARAGE SALE is CASH ONLY – As Is – Amazing Deals!

***

This week we had a very special visitor from New Mexico – Betty Busby had an opening reception with an exhibit of her fiber art wallhangings and sculptural pieces, at our local Dairy Arts Center. I first met Betty in Jan 2015 in New Zealand. I took one look at her shoes and knew she was a kindred soul.

Anyway we are preparing a video interview with Betty talking about her techniques and materials, which will be helpful when you see images of her work. Everyone says when they see her work – ‘How did she do that?!?’

Next month I am connecting with quilters in Spain, and in August I’ll be on a panel at the Quilt Study Center (Lincoln NE), then we are sponsoring the VIP lounge at the Festival of Quilts. (Birmingham UK)

In early October I’ll be speaking at a fundraiser for the Dairy Barn in Athens Ohio, and if you have not seen the Mastery exhibit there yet, I encourage you to make a day of it!

I hope to see you at one of these events!

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Free Pattern – Wild Gold Sunflowers

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Luana

WildGoldSunflowers

You’ll find yourself wading through a glorious field of golden Sunflowers with this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern! It is easy to see why Van Gogh was inspired by these summer bloomers….that fill the Summer fields in the south of France.

Huge yellow blossoms reach for the sun in the central panel, with smaller sunflowers in the border. Follow this gorgeous color story of Yellow and Blue with matching coordinates.

This 57″ x 69″ quilt is big enough for a youth or nap quilt, but can also fill a room with sunshine during the winter months as a bold wallhanging.

from the ‘Wild Gold’ 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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Creative Nudge – Quilts for Nepal

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Luana

NepalCollage_700

MANY THANKS to those of you who donated quilts for the earthquake victims in Nepal. Thanks to you, we were able to send 230 pounds of quilts to those who lost their homes in the devastation.

The 3rd batch was recently delivered by the CU Boulder chapter of Engineers Without Borders. I am so excited that we go some photos of the quilts being presented to the village women. Here is a note from Noah, who is spending the summer helping in Nepal. (eQuilter has donated to the travel expenses for the group, to help deliver the quilts to Nepal.)

*****************

Namaste Luana,

This is Noah from Engineers Without Borders at CU.

Thank you again for your generosity for the beautiful quilts! They were graciously accepted by the villagers in Kalingchowk. As a little bit of background information, we gave out the quilts in Kalingchowk, in the Dolakha district of Nepal. Kalingchowk was the epicenter of the earthquake that struck Nepal on May 12th, 2015. A total of 100% of the buildings in the village were destroyed that day. Now, all of the villagers are living in temporary tin shelters that are outfitted with solar panels for clean energy use.

NCDC (Namsaling Community Development Center), our NGO partner, has helped to make this possible and continues to work in the village on women’s issues, health and sanitation, income generation, spring source protection, and more.

It took us a 4 hour jeep ride as well as a 1 hour hike to make it up to the village from the nearest town, and we had a glimpse of the sunset on the Himalayas bordering China in the evenings.

We stayed in the village for two days and nights and despite the unending hardship the people have faced, they were incredibly generous and welcoming, and greeted us with a dance and lots of food.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and that they help to continue the success of your wonderful work. Feel free to keep in contact with me about arranging for more quilts to be delivered during our winter trip in December. Our team greatly appreciates your support and looks forward to keeping connected in the future.

Thank you so much,
Noah

***********************

If you’d like to donate a quilt for EWB’s December trip back to Nepal, plan to send it to us to arrive the first week of December, and we’ll make sure it is hand-delivered to someone in need in the mountains of Nepal.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
~Luana

2016 Travel Calendar:
July 20-29 – Seville & Granada
Aug 6 – Intl Quilt Study Center/Museum – Lincoln Nebraska
Aug 12-14 – Festival of Quilts – Birmingham UK
Sept 18-25 – CUBA Arts Tour #2 – Havana, Trinidad & Varadaro
Oct 7 – Dairy Barn – Athens Ohio – Intl Quilt Trends Lecture
Nov 11-13 – Color Marketing Group – Albuquerque
Nov 15-20 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour

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Free Pattern – Klimt Intrigue

Posted on June 28, 2016 by Luana

Intrigue

Klimt-inspired fabrics have been some of our most popular products over the years,
and this week’s Free Quilt Pattern features a lush abstract panel using a swirl of design elements from Gustav Klimt’s most famous paintings.

Look closely at “The Kiss” and “Portrait of Adele” (as seen in the film “Woman in Gold”) to see some of these iconic design elements that will forever say “Klimt” to art lovers.

All of the coordinates in this design, are shimmering with gold accents or gold spatter, giving this an opulent look that rivals the gold-leaf laden paintings of the Viennese painter.

…from the ‘Intrigue’ 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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Warehouse Garage Sale July 9!

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Luana

What an amazing week this has been! We were so honored to have the Dalai Lama visit Boulder Colorado. I took the 3 kids to the morning lecture, and it was a lifetime experience to see him in person, but the sound system was terrible and we had a hard time understanding about 30% of what he was saying. I went home and watched the afternoon session on streaming video, and heard every word. So now I am thinking I should just watch some videos of him speaking. All of us were mesmerized by his lecture about living a compassionate life, and being agents of change for peace and justice, for those less fortunate.

Sophie turned 14 on Friday, and Sunday is her “Finding Day”. She was found on the steps of a public building when she was 2 days old. Today we went to a reunion for kids adopted from China, and it was so fun to be around all the other Chinese adopted girls (and a few boys). Our adoption agency was CCAI and they have expanded beyond China, bringing kids to the US for adoption from Haiti and Eastern Europe. They have brought almost 12K babies and kids to their loving forever homes, since they started their mission. It is great to reconnect with these amazing people! Here is my Adoption Diary in China from April 2003.

For our friends in the UK, gosh you have gone through an emotional roller-coaster this week! I am still planning to come to the Birmingham Festival of Quilts in August (we are sponsoring the VIP lounge, and I am going to be the guide on a bus to the Royal Shakespeare Theater Saturday night!)…so I hope to see many of my friends there on Saturday night or Sunday at the show.

The reservations for the Polar Bear Tour (November) and the Cuban Arts Tour (September) are snapping shut, so if you were thinking of joining us, now is the time to make a phone call and sneak in before the reservation window closes!

Our eQuilter Public GARAGE SALE is going to be on Saturday July 9th, in our new classroom space. If you have a group that wants to make an appointment to preview the sale, we can arrange for you to visit before that date, if you call Dana in Customer Service. We’ve had 3 groups visit and they’ve enjoyed some *awesome* deals, but there is plenty more! Hours and details for the Garage Sale will be forthcoming – watch our newsletters!

I am sad to hear that Bill Cunningham has left us, for the big bicycle ride in the sky…. His fashion photos on the streets of New York City were legendary, all from the vantage point of his bicycle. I will truly miss his observations of fashion wildlife on the streets of the city.

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