Creative Nudge – Mommy’s Little Helpers

Cats

Tonight I am writing to you from the lobby of an airport hotel in Denver. I had 2 flights canceled today, and I decided to crash at a local hotel and catch an early flight. Oh the joys of travel!

This week I’d like to share with you the work of quilt artist Naoko Suziki. Every year she exhibits an epic Cat Quilt at the Tokyo Quilt Festival. There are always so many people clustered around her quilts, you can barely take a photo.

This is her 2016 Cat Quilt – it is titled ‘Together with Mother’. This is a closeup section of the quilt, so you can appreciate the applique and embroidery details in this Mother-and-Kitten quilt.

What is it about Cats and Quilters?

We just love our kitties, and our beloved kitties love our quilts and our sewing spaces. They jump in our lap when we are trying to sew, they roll around on our quilt tops to show their approval, they sleep in our stash, and they make a special effort to leave their hair on our most important projects.

And that’s why we love them.

I’ve included a collage of Cat fabrics currently in stock at eQuilter, to keep Naoko’s cats and kittens company.

Meow!

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Free Pattern – Mirabelle La Vie En Rose

LaVieEnRose

Enter the mystical world of Mirabelle with this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern, featuring the delicate illustrations of Leanne Ellis for the ‘La Vie En Rose Mirabelle’ collection.

Dragonflies, butterflies, vintage roses and lacey cameo portraits give this a magical and sweetly wistful quality. Mirabelle coordinates and a Hoffman hand-dye complete this quilt project in shades of Blush Rose and Dove Gray.

…featuring fabrics by Leanne Ellis and Santoro 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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Credit Where Due

I am starting to upload photos from the Tokyo Quilt Festival. It takes me a little longer because I edit in Photoshop to make up for the less-than-perfect lighting in the baseball stadium, and also because I want to make sure the artists’ names are attached to all of the quilt photos.

Every year visitors come to the show, and post photos without the names of the artists. That is because many of us international visitors can’t read Japanese…but that is no excuse not to include the artist’s name. So you will notice that when the artist’s name is not spelled out in romaji on the namecard or in the show book, I paste in the image of the Japanese Kanji in the image.

I urge everyone who goes to this show to find a way to include the quilters’ names with their quilts, so credit will go where it is due! And of course we hope when our Asian counterparts visit our US quilt shows, they will do the same for us when posting images of our quilts.

You are welcome to share links to my photos and video pages, and to share individual photos, but I do ask that if you copy or save the photo, make sure you repost with my name as the photographer. Thanks! 🙂

While in Tokyo I finally met one of my Facebook friends in person – the Taiwanese quilt artist Danny Amazonas. He was gracious enough to grant an interview, and I had a private showing of his fantastic mosaic art quilts. He has already been on the cover of AQS and Quilt Italia, and I bet you’ll be seeing more of him in the near future. Here is the video interview featuring his work…Enjoy!

Also – an update on our quilt drive for the earthquake victims of Nepal:
We have already sent over many of your donated quilts to Kathmandu, but we have received many more quilts. That is a *good* problem to have! (Many thanks to all of you who have donated your beautiful quilts.)

I just started to reach out to my network to see if we could get some more suitcases of quilts on their way to Nepal, when I got a phone call this morning. I had an invitation to have lunch with Lama Jigme Dorje, a Rinpoche from a monastery in Nepal. He is working to build a school in his mountain village, so all the children, including the poor, the disabled, and the *girls* can attend school! (Right now there is only a school for boys who want to become monks at the village monastery.) He has invited me to come to Nepal to distribute the quilts in person…not sure if I will do that….but in the meantime I’ve tapped into a new network of volunteers who travel to Nepal often. Sophie and I had lunch with him, discussed our quilt project, and received a blessing.

If you’d like to read more about his project and possibly make a contribution to his work, you can visit their website.

If you live in Colorado, I’d love to see you this Friday at the opening of the “No Girls Allowed” exhibit at the Rocky Mtn Quilt Museum in Golden. We are a sponsor for this show – all quilts made by MEN!

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Free Pattern – Goldfinch Garden

Capture

Spring is just around the corner…really!

This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern is a delightful celebration of Springtime blossoms and twittering Goldfinches, in fresh pastels and mid-tones.

The soft Pink and Blue palette (echoing the Pantone Colors of the Year for 2016) are accented with Yellow and Pearlescent Sky Blue, bringing sunshine and happy smiles to your sewing space for the last few weeks of winter.

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Goldfinch Garden’ collection by Dona Gelsinger for Timeless 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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Creative Nudge – Leaves of Morris

Morris

I’ve got a thing for William Morris.

He was considered a radical Victorian designer, which is why his work still inspires us today.

This gorgeous quilt “Acanthus” by Yoko Ueda, was a star attraction in the special William Morris exhibit at the Tokyo Quilt Festival. You can see why!

Along the right side I’ve added some William Morris reproductions and other fabrics in stock at eQuilter now…to pick up the bright colors in Yoko’s absolutely delicious quilt.

Morris’ Acanthus Leaf design is one of his most famous. (You can see it in the plum-colored swatch in the bottom right corner.) This full-sized quilt was immediately recognizable as his Acanthus design – from a distance – and yet Ms. Ueda has made it undeniably her own.

It is very exciting to see the evolution of Japanese quilting over the years, and especially in the big picture, to see how Japanese quilters have inspired US and European quilters…and how Western quilts (and art and design) also inspire our friends in and around Tokyo.

William’s appreciation for Nature and his exquisitely detailed work, was expressed in a stylized technique, inspired by the Arts & Crafts Movement. I see his appreciation for Asian art in his work also…which no doubt later inspired the Mingei (Folk Crafts) movement in Japan.

Art, design and color are part of the spiral which circles around but always returns at a new level. The cycle of inspiration that continues to spiral between the Asian world and the Western world…is a gift for all of us.

Watch for my photos popping up shortly on my Flickr page…I am working on getting all the artists’ names with the images so credit will go where it is due!

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Free Pattern – Route 66

Route_66

Itching to Hit the Road?

Can’t wait for the Spring Riding Season?

Anticipation is half the fun, and this Free Quilt Pattern will get you through the last few weeks of Winter, as you dream about the freedom of a wide open road, and the wind in your hair….

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Route 66’ collection by Dina Donovan for Blank Textiles.

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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Konnichiwa!

I am back tonight from my whirlwind visit to the Tokyo Quilt Festival!….just arrived home from the airport a few hours ago.

Watch for my Creative Nudge newsletter on Weds morning. I have photos of some absolutely breathtaking quilts, plus we are going to have a surprise video in a week or so.

My friends commented on how many other Asian quilters came to the show this time – not just Japanese quilters but also Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipino, and Thai! We noticed there are a lot of Chinese students coming to work in Tokyo as well….working in restaurants. Tokyo is a melting pot, like most big cities, and the pot is being stirred!

Even though it was a very fast trip, I was busy with meetings the whole time, with old and new friends. As you may know, I moved to Hong Kong in 1982, and later after I moved to NYC to work on 7th Ave, I traveled to 10 Asian countries as an import designer. So whenever I get the chance to travel to Asia it feels like going home…on top of the fact that Sophie is from China!

When I first went to Japan in 1983, it was a man’s world. Some of my Japanese women friends say that it is still that way for them, which is frustrating in the quilting world. With the Yokohama quilt show having come to an end, more changes are coming…led by the ladies of the Japanese quilting world…and I can’t wait to see what they will do next!

Give me a day or two to catch my breath, and I’ll start posting some photos on my Flickr pages. I hand-carried 10 copies each of the 2 show books, and those will go online Monday. If you want first crack at them, send an email to Customer Service and they’ll send you a link once they are online.

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Free Pattern – Butterfly Garden

ButterflyGarden

This week’s Exclusive Free Pattern features breathtaking butterfly and floral pairings, framed by an exquisite, white tonal butterfly print and set against delicate amethyst hand dyes.

The sunny, sun-drenched colors of spring come to life in this 52″ square pattern, highlighting the natural beauty of these magical, winged creatures. Enjoy this light and uplifting design!

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Butterfly Garden’ collection by Marylin Barkhouse for Elizabeth’s Studio.

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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Creative Nudge – Bunny Smiles

Untitled-1

Tonight I am writing to you from Tokyo, as I prepare to attend the Quilt Festival here. Today I went to a Kabuki performance, then wandered around the Ginza shopping area, looking for trends and design inspiration.

One thing that hits you immediately in Japan is the amount of CUTE images, logos and products….everywhere! Not just Hello Kitty but also cute Bunnies are everywhere, and this is a photo I took of a ceramic Bunny topping an ornate tassel, at Mitsukoshi Department Store in Ginza.

We have of course stocked up on cute Bunny fabrics because Spring and Easter are just around the corner, and Bunnies make me smile….so I am sending you a smile from Tokyo!

Be sure to watch for my newsletters in the next week. I’ll be at the show Thursday and Friday, flying home on Saturday. I’ll be sharing photos of some of my favorite quilts from the show.

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Free Pattern – Akahana Cranes

ROAKA

This Bonus Free Pattern features a panel with a pair of elegant Tsuru cranes flying over luscious peonies and mums, in sophisticated shades of coral and lacquer red, willow green and ivory, against a tonal graphite black background.

Swirling ribbons and spring bouquets add to the richness and detail of this Asian panel wallhanging, perfect to hang in an entry way or elegant room.

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Akahana’ collection by Red Rooster Fabrics.

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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