Free Pattern – Sunflower Flourish

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The Summer Solstice is almost upon us, and the abundance of the season is unfolding in our gardens, but before you know it we’ll be celebrating the Harvest season at the end of summertime.

This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern gathers armloads of Sunflowers and Black-Eyed Susans, hangs them on a garden trellis, and wraps them in sheaves of shimmering copper, gold and green leaves.

Large realistic sunflowers have amazing detail, and the whole project is enriched with plenty of gold metallic.

Featuring the ‘Shades of the Season‘ collection by Robert Kaufman Fabrics.

To help with this quilt construction, we’ve prepared a special ‘eQuilter Quick Tips’ video titled,
Narrow Piecing on Point featuring Dana Chapman, our Customer Service manager.

And you’ll receive free USA / 50% off International shipping when you order the fabrics for this gorgeous quilt pattern! (orders $100 and over)

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 – Pastel Confections

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Travel can bring us some of the most exciting inspirations for our creative work, and museums are often the fountainhead for a whole series of works that are inspired by another era.

Knowing how many of you love to work with floral fabrics, particularly images of lush full-blown roses, I wanted to share these couple images from the Silver Collection Museum at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. (with a collage of eQuilter florals)

Vienna is a city full of discreet pastels, often outlined in gold metallic. Buildings, furniture, porcelain and desserts are in varying shades of blush pink, banana yellow, aqua and mint…trimmed in ivory and gold metallic. In these 2 images, a set of sugar pots, and a lace-edge plate have a color story of a Robins Egg Blue with gold metallic, accented with hand-painted flowers. I was so charmed by this set of floral porcelain confections!

Everywhere I go, I find my quilter friends. Tonight Vienna publisher Gabi Maier and her daughter very graciously took us for a tour of the new modern architecture of WU, out for a drive around the Vienna Woods, up to see the view from Kahlenberg, and then we had a locally produced dinner at a delightful hidden Heurigen (farmers’ wine tavern) in Nussdorf.

The mass transit system here is amazing, and in fact we were able to hop on a hillside tram right in front of the Heurigen, and take it all the way back into the city just a couple blocks from our hotel…with memories of wild berry strudel dancing in our heads!

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Free Pattern – Greeting the Moon

Greeting_Moon

This Bonus Free Pattern is a quiet scene with 2 cranes gazing at the rising moon, in sophisticated shades of Gray and Ivory, with accents of Lacquer Red.

Swirling waves and misty fog add to the contemplative nature of this Asian panel wallhanging, perfect to hang in an entry way or elegant room.

Featuring ‘Greeting the Moon‘ by Keiichi Nishimura for Red Rooster Fabrics.

And you’ll receive free US shipping when you order the fabrics for this gorgeous quilt pattern!
(orders $100 and over)

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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Danube Blues or Strauss March?

This week I am writing to you from the musical city of Vienna in Austria. After saving up United points and hotel points all year, (free tickets! Whoo-hoo!) we are on a musical tour to celebrate Sam’s scholarship to music school! However we’ve had a sad start to our trip…Sam came down with a terrible viral infection and has been in bed sick for the first 2 days of our 6 day trip. So if you’d like to send him some healing prayers, the poor kid could use some help. What a bummer. Here’s hoping the Danube Blues transform into Radetsky’s March by tomorrow!

I’ve had to rearrange our plans so hopefully he can still get to see some of the highlights of the city early next week before we fly home. Mason and I managed to attend a Vienna Symphoniker concert at MusikVerein last night, and today we toured the State Opera House. We’re going to meet up with a Viennese Facebook quilter friend Tuesday too!

So in travel, as in life, the best laid plans sometimes have to be flexible. Darn it!

I am fascinated by all the articles these days about how to be more creative. They say to make yourself sleep deprived, exercise more, have empty space in your life and get bored, go out in Nature more, etc.

Quilters usually don’t have that problem, do they? They just build up an *awesome* stash (with a little help from eQuilter – *wink*) and then just go play with their fabrics, and Voila! Creativity strikes! The sewing machine beckons!

Now if you have a totally *awesome* stash, and then you get sleep deprived, I wonder what would happen? Personally I like to get a really good night’s sleep and then go rearrange my studio, and then the magic happens.

How about you?

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Free Pattern – Saint Nicholas

Saint_Nicholas

This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern captures the moment when Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, aka Saint Nicholas pauses to visit with his woodland friends in a silent snowy landscape.

Bluejays, Chickadees and gentle Deer gather around, set in silver glittery metallic coordinates. Note the special snowy blue and white ombre cleverly used in the borders!

Featuring the ‘Saint Nicholas‘ collection by Chong-a Hwang for Timeless Treasures.

To help with this quilt construction, we’ve prepared a special ‘eQuilter Quick Tips’ video titled,
Marking for Matching Magic featuring Dana Chapman, our Customer Service manager.

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 – Diego and Frida

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Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo had a powerfully intense creative relationship. It is hard to imagine how two such strong artistic personalities made a life together, but they both created a body of work that was strongly influenced by the other.

I have written about my recent visit to Mexico City, when I visited Frida’s Blue House, and also the linked studios of Diego and Frida.

Diego was a mural painter, and if you spend time in Mexico City, you will see his monumental works all over the city.

Above is a collage of Southwest, Mexican-themed and Frida Kahlo fabrics, with a section of Diego’s murals depicting Mexico’s history at the National Palace in Mexico City.

In this section of the mural, Diego depicts the painting and dyeing of fabrics in many colors, by the indigenous Aztec peoples who lived in the area before Mexico City was built.

In the last week we’ve been watching the movie Dances With Wolves, and since then I’ve been thinking about all the indigenous cultures whose colors and art are rapidly disappearing.

Diego saved the story of Mexico in this mural…how many of you are documenting the stories of indigenous peoples around the world?

My interest in world art and cultures is reflected by the wide selection of unique fabrics that we carry – especially the Australian Aboriginal art, the African art and hand-dyes, Hand-Painted Panels from Bali, and Guatemalan hand-loomed Ikats.

This morning I am off to explore an entirely different type of art and culture…watch for the weekend newsletter!

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Free Pattern – Poinsettia Bouquet

Poinsettia_Bouquet

This beautiful Christmastime wallhanging features a stunning Poinsettia panel, with a color story of Pink, Red and Green set off by a Black and Charcoal backdrop.

Tiny floral sprigs and holly leaves form boughs of holiday greenery, in the engineered border stripe. Look closely and you’ll see special touches of Tartan Plaid and Gold Metallic, to make this unique design a holiday tradition in your home for years to come!

Featuring the ‘Christmas Splendor’ collection by Color Principle for Henry Glass.

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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Nepal, Athens and Vienna

Last week we were a corporate sponsor for a fundraiser for the Nepal Earthquake and Doctors Without Borders. On behalf of our customers, we made a $2000 donation targeted to relief efforts already on the ground in Nepal. The fundraiser brought in a total of $113K.

As a result of our continued networking on this effort, I can now invite you to begin sending comfort quilts for earthquake survivors.

We will collect them here at the eQuilter warehouse, and they will travel to Nepal in a variety of ways over the next approximately 6 months. Some may go on a plane as cargo, and some may travel in the suitcases of volunteers who are going to help. My Nepalese friends say that quilts are needed for the upcoming winter season and they will welcome these donations.

As always, I will work carefully with trusted partners to make sure that the quilts go directly to those in need. You might want to do a little research online to see the colorful culture of Nepal – i.e. bright colorful quilts are preferable. Lap quilts, twin and double quilts are most needed. As details come into focus we will put up a relief project page with guidelines.

Feel free to share this information with your quilt guilds who might have interest. Quilts can be shipped or dropped off at our eQuilter warehouse in Boulder, Colorado.

Please note that I will be at the last few days of Quilt National just before Labor Day weekend – giving my “International Quilt Trends” lecture and power point presentation. If you have not seen this bi-annual show at the Dairy Barn in Athens Ohio, I invite you to come see the exhibit and attend my lecture in September.

You may have heard about the 4 tornadoes and flash-flooding that hit just north of us a couple days ago. The tornadoes were very close to some of our staff who live in Longmont, but none of us were impacted directly. Thanks for your concern! Yes that is a very freaky event for this area, but so were the September 2013 floods here. People are certainly talking about Global Climate Change, and wondering whose weather we’ve had here lately! Not normal Colorado spring/summer weather, for sure…

We’ve been watching that Kevin Costner classic “Dances with Wolves” at our house this week, somewhat inspired by all the Native American fabric designs that rolled into the warehouse this week. It is still a great movie! 4 hours long including the Intermission…beautiful cinematography.

I’ve been saving up my United and hotel points all year so….

I will be back in Vienna Austria June 11-18. (Yes, this coming week!) If you live in Vienna and would like to get together, send an email to eQuilter and they will forward your message directly to me. My boys (26 & 18) are coming too (Mason speaks German) so if you have young adults who might like to meet them, it would be great to have local friends for them too. Last time Mason went to Vienna he met up with the son of a Viennese business contact of mine, and they had a great time. Quilters are so friendly and we love to meet you wherever we travel!

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Free Pattern – Orchid Beauty

Orchid_Beauty

This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern has realistic pink and lavender orchid blossoms in an engineered stripe for the border and diamond inset….set off with a checkerboard of flowers and a tonal Hoffman hand-dye.

Featuring the ‘Orchid’ collection by Chong-A Hwang for Timeless Treasures.

To help with this quilt construction, we’ve prepared a special ‘eQuilter Quick Tips’ video titled, Pressing Seams for Perfect Squares featuring Dana Chapman, our Customer Service manager.

And you’ll receive free US shipping when you order the fabrics for this gorgeous quilt pattern! (orders $100 and over)

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 – China Blue and Hidden Meanings

Untitled-1

A couple weeks ago I shared a beautiful Imperial Yellow dress from the China exhibit at the Metropolitan Art Museum’s Costume Institute. (New York City)

This week I am sharing a dress from another section of the exhibit – the blue and white dresses that were inspired by blue and white “Willow” and other Chinese porcelain.

This dress shown is also featured in the Museum’s marketing materials – and rightly so – because it is such a rich expression of the blue and white porcelain artform… reinterpreted into fabric.

In the photo collage above, I’ve mixed 2 views of the dress, with some of our favorite Asian (Japanese) designs.

Many motifs in Chinese art and design, have close counterparts in Japanese art and design: stylized waves, cranes, dragons, koi fish, peonies, chrysanthemums and wisterias for instance. The ubiquitous shades of Blue Indigo are deeply ingrained in the textile traditions of both cultures.

We have many fabrics which are distinctly Japanese (geishas, kimonos, sushi, etc.) but many Asian fabrics have symbolic meanings in several Asian cultures. Chrysanthemums for instance represent life and rebirth, so they are popular themes for baby showers and birthdays.

Dragons are a powerful symbol, and many of you have used hand-painted dragon batik panels for your quilts and wearable art projects.

A quilt full of Asian symbols can carry a wealth of hidden meanings for your intended recipient. You can put this information on a label on the back of your quilt, decoding the secret message for your beloved!

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