Free Pattern – Sew Scary Halloween

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Luana

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Your uncompromisingly eccentric taste has led you on a journey, seeking a Halloween project that nobody in your neighborhood or quilt guild has ever seen…

This Halloween wallhanging would make a fantastic door-panel, because the “HALLOWEEN” swag will blow in the chilly breeze, and the triangle banners will flap every time you open the door for little Trick-or-Treaters. Perfect!

Your corseted witch and the filigree fonts are just begging for embellishment: finish her off in your own unique creative style. Maybe some Metallic Thread, or Glow-In-The-Dark stitching?

…from the ‘Sew Scary‘ collection by Janet 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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The Story of Cecil

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Luana

It was hard to miss the big story of this week: the killing of a lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe. As you may have picked up over the years, protecting endangered species is one of the causes I support, including polar bears, elephants and tigers, but also all the animals that are senselessly wiped out due to poaching and climate change.

I’ve been up to Churchill twice to photograph the polar bears, and I am sure I will go again, because when you look into the eyes of these animals you just have to wonder why humans would knowingly wipe out these amazing creatures. Based on the amount of Polar Bear, Tiger, Lion, Elephant, Whale, Wolf and other wildlife fabrics you all buy, I am guessing many of you feel the same way.

So many animals have been killed but I wondered this week, what was it about Cecil that finally caught the imagination of the public and the media? Although there are many explanations for this, what it reminded me of was the sacrifice of Aslan in the Narnia books. Because of Cecil, people are calling for legislative action to safeguard the remaining populations of these and other endangered wild animals. Did it remind you of ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’ stories too?

The stories we read as children, and the books we read to our children when they are young, often shape our view of the world. This week we have 3 fabric collections from beloved authors and illustrators. You probably all know about the Hungry Caterpillar, but I was delighted to see the Eskimo-themed artwork based on the book “Mama Do You Love Me?”, and the charming illustrations from “Guess How Much I Love You”… all 3 being beloved books that I read MANY times to my 3 kids at bedtime. I just had to buy these collections to share with you, because I bet many of you read these books to your kids too. Maybe now you can make a quilt from the fabric and read the books to your grandkids? *smile*

If you’d like to see more of my wildlife & animal photography, check out these photo albums of my trips to Japan, Australia, Canada and South Africa on my photo pages. I love sharing my photos with all of you – hopefully to give you inspiration for your next quilt!

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Free Pattern – Flower Fairy Dreams

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Luana

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This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern takes you into the magical world of Flower Fairies, with lush blossoms, delicate wings, and charming fairy folk who live in the cascading garden.

Tiny fairy silhouettes dance in rows of diamonds, set in shimmering Rose Pink Fairy Frost. A gorgeous Lavender paisley expands the border, with strips of Turquoise pearlescent Fairy Frost.

This 44″ x 64″ quilt could be a child’s snuggly quilt, or an enchanting wallhanging, and will bring many hours of joy and wonder!

…from the ‘Flower Fairies‘ collection by The Estate of Cicely Mary Barker for Michael Miller 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 – Unfinished Masterpieces

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Luana

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Cornelia got married when she was 23 years old… in 1859. She made this quilt top just before her marriage… maybe when she was 22.

She didn’t quilt the piece until 1907…at the age of 71.

This was one of the quilts that caught my eye (and my camera) at the DAR Museum 10 days ago. I picked up the companion book in the museum gift shop, so I could read the stories about the quilts. (See my newsletter one week ago, about quilts with provenance.)

I’ve only been quilting for 25 years, but I can see how finishing a quilt could get away from one, in this case for 49 years!

Was she trying to finish it for her 50th wedding anniversary? Probably not. She lost her husband in 1889, but she finished the quilt in 1907.

Somewhere in there she had 7 children. I can see her laying this aside for 49 years.

So if you have a pile of UFO’s, don’t give up!

Some quilters go through their boxes and baskets of UFOs (Unfinished Objects), cut them apart, combine with orphan blocks, and re-envision them with a more contemporary point of view.

Sometimes they are a work of art. Sometimes they are made into a comfort quilt to give away.

If you have a half-finished masterpiece, give yourself permission to re-imagine it as a springboard for a new inspiration. Imagine you found it as an unwanted treasure at a yard sale…bring it back to your workspace and give it a new life with new fabrics, new color combinations, creative applique or embellishment treatment. Have fun!

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Free Pattern – Forest Friends

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Luana

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FREE TWIN QUILT PATTERN:

This delightful Woodland-themed quilt features charming illustrations of the wildlife you would find in the woods near a suburban or rural home…we have all of these animals around Boulder! The Fox, Owl, Squirrel, Fawn, Raccoon and Bunny have the look of a vintage storybook.

Set in easy blocks with fresh modern solids, and smaller scale animal and leaf prints, this is perfect for a Twin-sized quilt, or a deluxe Sofa-Snuggler Quilt by the fire in your winter cabin.

Choose between 2 color combinations:

Forest Friends in ‘Wild’ Color Story
or
Forest Friends in ‘Nature’ Color Story

…from the ‘Forest Fellows‘ collection by Sea Urchin Studio 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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Quilts for Nepal

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Luana

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Today our first batch of donated comfort quilts is on the way to Nepal! We have about 50 quilts so far, including several made by our staff, so I want to thank all of you who have sent a quilt, or are working on quilts for those displaced by the earthquake.

The quilts are being hand-carried by the founder of Engineers Without Borders, who happens to live in Boulder. You may recall that I attended a fundraiser for Nepal the end of May, and made some connections with relief organizations at that time. Through those connections, we’ve connected with a CU Boulder PhD student who is volunteering this summer at the camps for those displaced by the disaster. We are slowly building a network to funnel more comfort quilts to Nepal, and I look forward to visiting with our friends in Nepal who can give us photos and firsthand reports in the next month of so. I will keep you updated!

This weekend I am back home, and we are finishing the 3rd week of renovation madness at our house. I am sure many of you have been through this. We’ve been in this house 20 years so moving the accumulated furniture, art, books, etc. into storage for the wood floor installation, then having 4 people share a tiny bathroom after workers broke a toilet on the first day replacing the bathroom floors, well lets say we’ve had a cozy family life the last couple weeks. Every room is either bare – looking like a model home ….or stuffed full of boxes and towers of stuff…but the floors look beautiful!

Of course, we are grateful that we *have* a home, as we’ve packed up your beautiful donated quilts for those who have lost their homes and possessions in Nepal. Thank you for supporting our efforts to help those in need, especially the children.

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Free Pattern – Reindeer Sparkle

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Luana

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The first time we saw this Reindeer Panel at Quilt Market, we knew it would be a SMASH HIT!

We had such a hard time choosing between the rich jeweltone colors, that we decided to offer ALL 3 in this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern. Click through here to see them:

Cranberry Red

Pine Green

Arctic Blue

(with sparkling Gold or Silver Metallic.)

The main panel’s leaping Reindeer is filled with tiny crystalline snowflakes, with more dancing flakes above and below on the selvedge border. The densely layered background has a beautiful texture of tonal jeweltone snowflakes, creating an eye-popping illusion of depth. The border stripe gives this Holiday/Winter wallhanging a cool Nordic feel.

…from the ‘Stonehenge Reindeer Prance‘ collection by Deborah Edwards for Northcott 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 – Telling a Story

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Luana

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Sunday night I returned home from my weekend at the Not Fade Away conference, and my visit to the Sacred Threads exhibit.

The two events go together so well, because Not Fade Away encourages quilters to tell their stories and SAVE their stories for those who will view and treasure the quilt in the future….and the quilts in Sacred Threads all have a spiritual or emotional tale to tell.

This quilt “Determination” by Christina Blais is about the story of Rosa Parks, and it commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. The message was already powerful, but after I saw Christina’s 3 minute “Go Tell It” documentary about her piece, I could never look at that quilt in the same way again. If you go to see the Sacred Threads exhibit, you will see this quilt, and many other powerful pieces.

During the conference there was a fascinating panel of quilt curators, quilt historians, and quilt genealogists. A curator talked about how they decide to bring a vintage quilt into their collection: they ask if the quilt has *provenance*. That means, does it have a history, a STORY to tell. Otherwise it could just be an old quilt from a flea market. It is the story that gives the quilt its value.

How do we give our quilt a story? We make a label. We sign our name. Maybe our signature is embroidered on the front along with the date and the event that the quilt celebrates. We take photos of the quilt…with its maker…with its recipient. We write a letter or a poem or an artist statement to travel with the quilt on its journey. And even before all those steps, we choose fabrics that will tell the story.

In about 2 weeks I am leaving for the UK for the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Please come to see my power point presentation on “International Quilt Trends” on Saturday, then stay for the panel right afterward, on the same topic. ( I am the moderator) I’ll be showing over 200 quilt images from around the world, including the Sacred Threads exhibit. Hope to see many of you there!

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Free Pattern – Sea Turtles

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Luana

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This bold quilt is full of texture and Aboriginal-inspired patterns, with the main print so colorful and ingenious, it is hard to believe this quilt only uses 3 fabrics!

Sea turtles swim through a sea of circles, symbols and dots, set off by a Sandscape blender and a Black dotted coordinate….brilliantly set as an octagon in diagonal rectangles.

…from the ‘Sea Turtles‘ collection by Fabri-Quilt.

Check out our Australian, Sealife and Color Palette collections for more design ideas. Enjoy!

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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Every Quilt Has a Story

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Luana

I am writing to you from the Washington DC area, at the Not Fade Away conference put on by Quilt Alliance. (In Herndon VA, near Dulles Airport)

Before I leave for a full Saturday of conference panels and workshops, I wanted to tell you about our textile bus tour Friday. You may want to take note if you are coming to this area soon!

The DAR Museum has a beautiful exhibit of quilts called Eye on Elegance: Early Quilts of Maryland and Virginia. It runs through Sept 5, 2015. You may recall that last year we filmed three videos at the DAR Museum with curator Alden O’Brien, including a preview of this show in the basement archives. Go to our video page and scroll down to the DAR videos for a behind-the-scenes tour of this beautiful museum!

Our next stop on the bus tour was the fantastic new location of the Textile Museum at George Washington University. Wow, what a beautiful and impressive modern building to house the collections. We saw the “Unraveling Identity” exhibit, which examines textiles from across cultures, exploring individual, cultural, political, and social identity throughout the ages.

We also popped in on the SAQA exhibit “Radical Elements” at the National Academy of Sciences, which was fun because my best friend from childhood has been on the Stem Cell Advisory Committee there for about 20 years…but I’ve never been in the building.

At the end of the day we arrived at the Sacred Threads exhibit, and I had a nice long photo session with this amazing and inspirational collection of spiritual quilts. We continue to be a very proud sponsor of Sacred Threads, and I am just delighted at how the show, and the concept, have grown since Vikki Pignatelli got the idea for a show about Healing, Love, Brotherhood, Grief, and Joy. Lisa Ellis and her crew of loyal volunteers have put on a gorgeous show … again!

We also visited the opening of the quilt installations at the Inova Fall Oaks Hospital (treating cancer patients) on Thursday night, and it was wonderful to see all of the beautiful pieces hung in the private treatment and consultation spaces within the building.

The theme of the Not Fade Away conference is about saving the stories that go with each quilt, because that is what makes the quilt come alive. Each of these quilt exhibits had pieces that had history, memories, passion, anguish, and/or educational information. If only each quilt could speak out loud to us about these stories!

Approach each quilt as if you are meeting its maker, pause and breathe in the essence of the story, and let its message unfold in the quiet space of your heart.

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