Creative Nudge – Japanese Textiles

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Luana

Untitled-1

Two weeks from now I will be in Tokyo, headed to the quilt festival at the Tokyo Dome. Every year that I attend this show is a privilege, and greatly anticipated. A quarter million people come to this show (!) and it is an experience just being among the 35K-40K who attend each day. This year I saved up all my miles so I could get a free ticket on a direct flight from Denver. Yippee!

Here are some photos I took at a museum outside of Tokyo on a previous trip. The central panel is a detail of a vintage Boro quilt, and on the right are 3 Sashiko stitching sample details. Over the years we have expanded our Sashiko category, after I fell in love with vintage and contemporary exhibits in Japan. Whether you are stitching Sashiko by hand, or using a special machine embroidery stitch to mimic Sashiko, there is something about a plump white stitch on an indigo background that never fails to catch the eye. Here you also see blue Sashiko threads on a red or white background.

I’ve set these photos of stitch samples, among some indigo and red traditional designs, (fabrics currently in stock here at eQuilter.com) that might give you some inspiration for your next quilt project.

Did you know that the original idea for our business was to stock imported Asian prints and Bali batiks in the basement of our house? I thought I’d have a nice little part time business and stay home with the kids… ha! Obviously our business expanded beyond our original vision, but I always hold a special place in my heart for these beautiful Asian fabrics. This is because in my 20’s I lived in Hong Kong, and then moved to New York and traveled to 10 countries in Asia as an import garment designer. I spent every spare minute visiting museums, galleries, temples and historic buildings during those years, and that formed the foundation of my love for Asian art and de sign. Later that love brought us to adopt a little baby girl from China, but that is another story!

My Flickr page has reached a milestone – over 10 million views! If you have not checked out my quilt and travel albums yet, grab a cup of tea and enjoy the tour. (Or better yet, join me on one of my tours to Cuba or Churchill this year.)

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Travel Calendar:
Jan 18-23 – Tokyo Quilt Festival
May 8-15 – Luana’s CUBAN ARTS TOUR! – Registration Open NOW
Nov 15-20 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Churchill

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Free Pattern – Painted Ponies

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Luana

Painted_Ponies

We can’t help but smile when we see these magical painted ponies, dancing on air, full of flowers and sassy style! Leaping and galloping horses are embellished with blossoms and other hand-drawn designs.

This 50″ x 62″ Free Quilt Pattern uses the Painted Ponies collection by children’s book illustrator Roberta Morales, who lives here in Boulder and has also worked at eQuilter over many years. Because of this, she knows that horse fabrics are always a favorite with eQuilter customers, so you could say that she designed this collection just special for YOU!

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Painted Ponies’ collection by Roberta Morales 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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New Year, New Goals

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Luana

With the new year comes a desire to sweep out the old and make room for the new. That’s what we are doing this week at eQuilter…clearing out our scrap bundles, re-configuring our warehouse, making room for new fabrics and new projects.

We have TWO tours coming up this year –
our Cuba Arts Tour May 8-15 with hand-picked music, art and cultural experiences in a custom-built trip for eQuilter customers. Join me for a Designer’s Eye View of the Colors and upcoming Design Trends in this fascinating island nation.

Includes round-trip chartered airfare from Miami to Havana/Cienfuegos to Miami, five nights at the historic Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana, 2 nights accommodations in Cienfuegos/Trinidad, (both hotels overlooking the ocean) Cuban visas, all ground transportation within Cuba, guided tours, seminars, lectures, visits to Cuba’s preeminent museums, private concerts, dance performances, most of your meals, and many other arts-related activities and events.

Register online NOW to save your spot before it fills!

Watch for details of another Polar Bear tour in November, to be announced soon in our newsletter.

I’ll be in Tokyo the week of Nov 18, to cover the Tokyo Quilt Festival which opens Nov 21. I have a couple surprises to share with you from this trip – stay tuned!

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Free Pattern – Van Gogh Irises

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Luana

Van-Gogh-Irises

There is nothing more satisfying, after a busy holiday season, than whipping out a quick but absolutely gorgeous quilt project!

This Free Wallhanging Pattern features one of our most popular panels – now back in stock!

Make it your own with Hand-Dyed Oliver Twist or shimmering Metallic threads, paints or embellishments. Then hang up your masterpiece to celebrate the New Year!

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Vincent van Gogh’ collection by the Van Gogh Museum and the Vincent van Gogh Foundation for Robert Kaufman 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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Creative Nudge – Cuban Arts

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Luana

Cuba

Dear Friends,
To close out the year, I wanted to share another collage of photos from my recent trip to Cuba. I am still being inspired by the colors, art and music of this island nation…a little sad knowing that things will change quickly as relations between Cuba and US are normalized…but excited that I get to go back in the spring, to capture more of these photos! (Perhaps you can join me!)

Over the years, we’ve had occasional Cuban Jazz bands come to perform here in Boulder, and they inevitably explode into a swirl of salsa dancing in the aisles of the concert hall. I’ve been playing the music of Tito Puente and the Buena Vista Social Club while working in my studio, and I always seem to have a pot of beans soaking overnight in my ongoing quest for the perfect batch of Cuban Black Beans. (I think I converted the kids with the last batch.)

For many of us, the arts are a celebration of Life. Music, Visual Arts, Dance, Cuisine…these are all ways to express Joy, Passion, Curiosity, Ambition, Hope, and so many other aspects of being Human. What a gift, that we can give these things to ourselves and others! In the photo collage above, you see musicians, and also some of the artwork at the Crafts Center in Old Havana. The paintings are bold and bright, like the salsa and rhumba music heard everywhere in the streets of Havana.

Thank you for all the very kind letters that we have received this year. Providing this service to you is a great joy for us, and it is an honor to make a living by choosing, cutting and shipping all the beautiful fabrics that flow through our warehouse.

It is also a great joy to be able to share these creative inspirations with you each week, and I hope that these images and ideas have helped to stretch your creative repertoire. We look forward to serving your needs in 2016, and we hope you can dream those big crazy dreams and create with wild abandon and an open heart.

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Free Pattern – Wisdom of the Plains

Posted on December 29, 2015 by Luana

Wisdom-of-the-Plains

These wild African animals are full of words of wisdom as they travel across the savannah. Bold silhouettes of lions, elephants, zebras and giraffes are packed with lines of text in this striking 47″ x 60″ Free Quilt Pattern.

Earthy hues of Natural, Taupe and Bark Brown are contrasted with Dusty Aqua and Soft Teal. Coordinates reflect the color palette in animal stripes and tribal woodblock designs. Notice how the wide stripes are cleverly used as a scenic vista, above and below the central pieced pattern.

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Wisdom of the Plains’ collection by Tara Reed 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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One Stitch at a Time…

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Luana

I hope by now you’ve had a chance to play around on our fabulous new website, which we announced a week ago. Thanks for all the lovely comments…we are excited also!

It was a tough holiday for us. We marked the 20th anniversary of the loss of our daughter Hanna on the Solstice. Her loss was the inspiration for our charity program, which has raised over $1.3m for orphans, disaster and medical relief, breast cancer research, and environmental organizations.

You may recall that a year ago Paul gave me a male puppy for my birthday present, as a companion to our female golden. Alfie has been a most beloved and special doggie, but on Christmas Eve we rushed him to the animal hospital, at 5 am Christmas Day he went into surgery, and a couple hours later we learned there was too much damage for him to live a quality life…so we made the difficult decision to let him go, and he did not wake up from surgery. I shared this on my Facebook page yesterday, and thank you to everyone who left comments. It is heartbreaking for our whole family, to say the least.

However, I saw plenty of other people on Facebook yesterday who have just lost spouses, siblings, and pets. Some went into the hospital…some just got out of hospital (like my friend Mark Lipinski), so I am thinking of all of you who have gone through losses and challenges over the holiday, and I am sending you a big hug.

I also saw so many of you announcing new grandbabies, being on the cover of a magazine, celebrating with reunited & extended family, finally finishing a quilt, but I also saw a dog who ran away on Christmas, and all the terrible storms this weekend. Despite the holiday season, life continues to unfold, and we take it as it comes.

However, NASA released a new photo of Earth, this blue marble spaceship we share as it travels through space and time. This perspective invites us to view our lives, our world, even our quilts, from a different perspective.

As one year draws to a close, and a new year full of hope and challenges, bumps up against the starting gate, I know that you will join me in making quilts, sewing for ourselves and others, to make sense of this life and share our hearts…one stitch at a time.

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Free Pattern – Elise Medallion

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Luana

Blue

Merry Christmas from Luana and Paul, and everyone here at eQuilter!

We’ve been saving this absolutely stunning quilt pattern (our free eQuilter Exclusive Pattern of the week) just special for the holiday, knowing that you’ll be busy sewing again in a week or two!

We hear the Nutcracker’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” with graceful ballerinas, when we look at this swirling choreography of Paisleys and Peonies. An elegant kaleidoscope of luscious blue florals is surrounded by garlands of blossoms in the border.

Enjoy!

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Elise’ collection by Chong-A Hwang 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 – Quiet Beauty

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Luana

Untitled-1
The crazier the holiday season, the more I yearn for the quiet beauty of nature. The more I get stuck in holiday traffic, the more I crave a quiet walk in the snow. The more I am bombarded with multiple emails, the more I wish to escape to my studio, for the simple pleasures of color and creativity.

This year I have seen thousands of beautiful quilts, from New Zealand to Mexico, from Texas to England, ranging from Modern to intricate Traditional, to Abstract Comtemporary. I have tried to capture the nuances of these quilts, to share in photos, to inspire and inform.

Some things just can’t be captured in a photo, like the shadows of three-dimensional textures, the shimmer of vintage silks, and the subtle variations of color in pastels or inky dark tones. Photoshop is my friend, and I work over the photos to try to tell the quilt’s story more accurately, when the lighting of an exhibition hall is spotty. Ultimately I want to share a bit of the “Aha!” moment that I feel when I first behold a brilliant quilt.

So here I wanted to share a quilt from Quilt National at the Dairy Barn, by Janet Windsor. Her work “Crumbling” has cotton, silk, velvet, wool, felt, and rayon. Her vertical banner quilt depicts striated rocks, and the pebbles formed by the crumbling stone. She collected these fabrics all over the world, and describes the process of creation as “magical” as the stones and striations emerged under her needle.

You can see how she was happily carried away by the creative process.

I have set this three-dimensional quilt into a collage of richly colored fabrics that depict the textures and patterns of Nature. Perhaps you are craving some of Nature’s organic and geological textures as well. As you race through the holiday celebrations, knowing that the Winter sewing months are almost upon us, carry the quiet patient resilience of Nature in your heart…

Here in Colorado, we have a special song to celebrate the quiet of a snowy Christmas morning in the mountains, and I’d like to share a couple versions with you.

We wish you a beautiful holiday season, full of the love and warmth of family and friends,

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

Check out our videos from international quilt festivals, Quilting Arts TV and more, on our eQuilter Video Page. (5 NEW Videos from Houston!)

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Free Pattern – Jurassic Jungle

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Luana

Jurassic-Jungle

Happy Winter Solstice!

As you plan for the Winter Sewing Months ahead, here’s a fantastic
Free Quilt Pattern for the budding Dinosaur Archaeologist in your family!

We just love Dan’s distinctive illustrative style, and his realistic details, in this fabulous fossil-fest!

In case you haven’t noticed, we just launched our BRAND NEW WEBSITE this weekend, and our Free Pattern Designer has had an awesome update as well – where you can design your own patterns, email them to friends, and the quilt image is now infinitely scalable. (Wow!)

…featuring fabrics from the ‘Jurassic Jungle’ collection by Dan Morris 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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