QuiltCon

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Luana

This evening I’ve just returned home from QuiltCon in Pasadena, and once again it was so interesting to see how the Modern Quilt Guilds around the world, and the Modern quilters individually, have continued to grow in terms of their creativity and the quality of the exhibit.

One of the strong themes this year was triangles and tessellated shapes, and an exploration of using similar interlocking pieces but creating an overall feeling of movement through the use of color and value.

There were political quilts, large scale portrait quilts (including a *fabulous* big portrait of David Bowie!), and creative graphic cityscapes.

There was a large challenge exhibit “Glitz” using this graduated metallic dot print from Michael Miller.

I love the quilts using bright colors mixed in with solid natural linens. (There is a parallel trend in Japanese quilts which is so exquisite!)

The special exhibit of Molly Upton’s quilts from the 70’s was poignant, when discovering that she died at the age of 23. So creative and prolific!

There were spontaneous-pieced quilts, but there were also very carefully crafted and meticulously planned quilts. There are stringently simplified designs, and wildly innovative explorations in piecing. So much diversity is exploding out of this Modern Quilt movement!

As you may have noted above, we have 2 Modern Quilt magazines that just landed in the warehouse in the last couple days, so take a look at those new titles. I am uploading quilt images this weekend so watch my photo pages!

Also for our friends in Mexico and Latin America, I am excited to confirm that I will be arriving at the quilt festival in Mexico City this Friday evening Feb 26, staying for the festivities Saturday and Sunday.

My Polar Bear Tour is now open for registration and filling fast, so if you are interested, call our NatHab rep Aly and sign up for a payment plan!

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Travel Calendar:
Feb 26-28 – Mexico City Quilt Festival
March 5 – Lecture at BERNINA Presser Foot – Longmont CO
May 8-15 – Luana’s CUBA ARTS TOUR
Nov 15-20 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Registration Open Now!

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Free Pattern – Radiant Roses

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Luana

Radiant-Roses

Capture the magic of summer sunshine with this dazzling 55″ x 74″ Radiant Roses quilt. The Free Pattern features large, lush and fiery roses, surrounded by scarlet rose petals and a brilliant striped border print – an eQuilter Exclusive!

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Rosa’ 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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Yvonne Porcella – A Remembrance

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Luana

Porcella

The Quilting World lost one of its luminaries and founding mothers earlier this week – Yvonne Porcella was making art from her hospital bed in the last days of her life – an artist to the end and still excited about color and design.

She faced repeated visits to the hospital in her fight against ovarian cancer, and always managed to keep her sense of humor, her grace and dignity. Her curious spirit and her deeply rooted creative perspective brought her joy and strength despite her ongoing health challenges.

She was the founder of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) and I met her when I joined the Bernina Ambassadors. She was kind, welcoming and enthusiastic no matter who she met. I never heard her say a disparaging word about any fellow quilter or artist, which in these days of online flame-throwing, is one of my favorite attributes of Yvonne.

Because of Yvonne, we have been a sponsor of the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles for many years. We started by sponsoring a retrospective of her work, and I was amazed by the turnout for her opening reception.

I saw her last year at Sacred Threads, but also spent time with her in Houston the year before, when she had a special exhibit with her work. I offered to take some headshot photos of her in the exhibit, and this is my favorite. (above) It really captures her spirit.

Yvonne’s playful abstract bright quilts were instantly recognizable, and we sold out of her biography photo-book last year. She is so beloved in our industry, but if you didn’t get a chance to meet her, take a moment to watch this video interview from the SAQA conference in Arlington, VA.

I hope to honor Yvonne’s life by carrying on her curious, playful, welcoming and enthusiastic spirit. We were lucky to know her.

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Free Pattern – Curious Cows

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Luana

Curious-Cows

Full of curiosity, the cows in this 49″ x 63″ barnyard quilt are making friends with all the other animals! Squirrels, swans, chicks, cats and dogs all want to join the fun.

So don’t be shy! Gather up these light-hearted fabrics, make your own ‘Curious Cows’ quilt and snuggle with these friendly farm animals today!

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Farm Life’ 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.

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Cuba and Churchill, Frida and Diego

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Luana

The deadline for our Cuban Arts Tour is about to snap shut, so if you want to join us please sign up online NOW! … we still have a few open seats. Be sure to include your contact info if you send in a last minute deposit!

Our tour is going to have lots of special experiences highlighting the authentic arts of Cuba, staying in the historic seaside Hotel Nacional, not the standard tourist fare that is being offered by other tour companies. (I went to Cuba to scope out this trip, so grab a spot if you want to see this island nation before it opens up and changes forever….)

My Polar Bear Tour with Natural Habitats is now open for registration and HALF FULL, and space for this trip is *extremely* limited so check out the details and call Aly to register right away to guarantee your spot on the Polar Rover in Churchill Canada! Payment plans are available.

This week I will be at a fashion conference in Las Vegas, then will be at QuiltCon Thursday and Friday. I hope to see many of you there!

Also for our friends in Mexico and Latin America, I am excited to confirm that I will be at the quilt festival in Mexico City, arriving Friday evening Feb 26, staying for the festivities Saturday and Sunday.

Last year when I went to this event, I took a day to visit the Blue House and the studios of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and saw the exhibit of her clothing and accessories which was sponsored by Vogue Mexico. It was great to see this finally, because I have loved the movie “Frida” and often work in my studio with the soundtrack playing. She’s been a great inspiration, and our Frida fabri cs are always popular with eQuilter customers, along with our Day of the Dead fabric designs.

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Free Pattern – Aussie Mates

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Luana

Aussie_Mates

Your favorite little person will be hopping with happiness over this
adorable 42″ x 58″ Down Under quilt, with a Koala, Kangaroos, Emu, Pelican, Parrot, Possum, and more smiling Australian critters.

Colorful Tree Frogs alternate with animal names in the black and white block border, and you’ll appreciate how that black and white check theme is carried through on the inner border. Strips of Flame Red add that perfect pop of color to make this a favorite in the playroom or nursery!

Hang it on the wall, or save it for Storytime or a special Naptime treat!

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Aussie Mates’ collection by Delphine Cubitt for Henry Glass.

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 – Black & White & POP!

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Luana

Untitled-1

One of the great trends going on now in quiltmaking is all about COLOR –

Graphic modern quilts are using that old
Black + White + Color combination.

Here is a Black + White + Orange quilt made up of lots of wonky little log cabin blocks. (Center of image) I have set it in a collage of fabrics now in stock at eQuilter, to give you some ideas about what fabrics you could use in your next project. I always love analogous color stories, so I mixed in some Berry/Orchid shades, along with the Juicy Orange.

Mieko Miyama has used the most interesting mix of black printed fabrics in her quilt – “Log House on the Flower Hill”. Have you ever seen Black-and-Charcoal fabrics, and wondered how they can be used? Here is a great example! She also mixed in some black/charcoal prints with gold metallic accents. This brings such an unexpected rich feel to the quilt. (This quilt was photographed at the Tokyo Quilt Festival last month.)

This quilt was part of a larger group of Log Cabin quilts. The modern Japanese interpretations of this traditional block, were absolutely delightful!

My first quilt block was a Log Cabin, so I get a kick out of seeing what quilters are still doing with this favorite old block. The classics live on forever!

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Free Pattern – Bejeweled

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Luana

Bejeweled

This week’s 64″ x 74″ exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern showcases Caryl’s painterly textures in a modern pieced design. Shimmering diamonds and crystalline shapes ‘pop’ against the black backdrop in this eye-catching beauty!

As you probably know, Caryl is an icon of the industry, and her work is currently being honored in “40 Years of Color, Light & Motion” at the University of Mississippi, in Oxford, Miss. You can see our interview with Caryl on our video page!

…featuring fabrics from the ‘New Wave’ collection by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry for Benartex.

You may order the pattern as configured, (click through here to see the specifics!) 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.

Many thanks to Toby Lischko for this exquisite quilt pattern.

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Men and Quilts

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Luana

Last night I went to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum’s opening reception for “No Girls Allowed” – the 13th biennial exhibition of quilts made by men. It was juried by our friend Bill Gardner, and it was SO much fun to go to a quilt party with so many creative men! We are a corporate sponsor for the event, and we are just tickled to support this opportunity for the guys to show off their talent and their passion for quilting.

Paul has become a quilt designer for our eQuilter Free Pattern program, so to us this is a no-brainer. Just in case you missed it, be sure to check out my interview with quilt artist Danny Amazonas!

This week I spent a couple days in Durango, and attended some meetings regarding the toxic mine spill into the Animas River. I have made a quilt on this topic and I have been more involved in issues of environmental toxins since our daughter was poisoned at her public school.

Now that the problem in Flint Michigan has become front page news, and the methane spewing at Porter Ranch in SoCal has caused evacuations, people are starting to wake up to the fact that these problems are often covered up. So I think I will make a few quilts about this ongoing and escalating issue in our world. Several of our charity recipients work on issues of communities being poisoned, and wilderness/wildlife being polluted. Fortunately the world is starting to wake up to the serious longterm issues caused by these toxins. If you want to learn more, follow Erin Brockovich on Facebook!

Joe Cunningham’s quilt about the Flint water disaster was featured in The Detroit News this last week. I didn’t see him at the event last night, but I was thrilled to see his Activist quilt featured in the news! Go Joe!

Some people call this political art but since this is an election year I am afraid that term could be misinterpreted, so I call it Activist Art. Artists have been using their work to make public statements (or secret messages) for millennia.

Have you made quilts to bring awareness to an issue like this?

My Polar Bear Tour with Natural Habitats is now open for registration, and space for this trip is also *extremely* limited so check out the details and call Aly to register right away to guarantee your spot on the Polar Rover!

We are approaching the deadline for the Cuban Arts Tour registration, so if you want to join us please sign up online now!
Travel Calendar:
Feb 18-19 – QuiltCon in Pasadena CA
March 5 – Lecture at BERNINA Presser Foot – Longmont CO
May 8-15 – Luana’s CUBA ARTS TOUR! – Limited Space Remaining – Sign up NOW!
Nov 15-20 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Registration Open Now!

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Free Pattern – Draw Near

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Luana

Draw-Near

This week’s Free Pattern is a 50″ x 69″ wallhanging that glorifies the life of an artist!

Due to popular demand, we’ve restocked a favorite collection, celebrating the joys of drawing and coloring. As adults rediscover the meditative qualities of doodling, painting and playing with colors, this Artist-themed group has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity.

Features artsy details like paintbrushes, crayons, watercolor paints, drafted patterns, portfolios, and dress forms.

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Draw Near’ collection, which is part of the ‘Handmaids’ series by J. Wecker Frisch for Quilting Treasures.

You may order the pattern as configured, (click through here to see the specifics!) 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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