eQuilter Blog

Free Pattern – Life’s Little Pleasures

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Luana

Skulls and Roses are the theme of this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern, for those of you with a more Gothic design aesthetic…

Whether you collect Day of the Dead, Halloween, Steampunk or Grateful Dead fabrics, this black and red checkerboard quilt design lends itself to many different possibilities.

Skeletal soul mates (on a black or white background) spend a leisurely day in the rose garden painting, playing the violin, writing poems and conversing. …featuring ‘Life’s Little Pleasures‘ by Nicole’s Prints for Alexander Henry 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.

Many thanks to Larene Smith for this exquisite quilt pattern.

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 – Island Paradise

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Luana

I am just finishing up a trip to Hawaii to visit Paul’s 91 year old mother, and we stopped in Maui for a couple of days to see the whales, and go to a luau. This time while on Oahu, we did the Pearl Harbor tour which is very sobering. My dad and uncle were stationed in Hawaii after WWII, and my name was inspired by Hawaii. I have so many connections to Hawaii, it is a pleasure to visit family here whenever possible.

Sophie and I always love to see a luau when we can fit it in, and I love to photograph the dancers and their colorful costumes. Here is a photo of the young ladies in their pink dresses and white floral leis. (in a photo collage with some eQuilter Island/Floral/Batik fabrics.)

We’ve been to Maui several times over the last 20 years, but somehow I’ve never made it Upcountry. We finally made it yesterday, and our destination was the Ali’i Kula Lavender Farm. It is a purple oasis in a sea of green hills, halfway up Haleakala Mountain. When you arrive, you are immersed in the view and the fragrance of Lavender! Heavenly! Then you can have a Lavender Scone with your Lavender Tea or Lavender Coffee, maybe with a little Lavender Honey or Lavender Chocolate.

There is something about standing in a field of blooming flowers, that stays with you the rest of your life. I’ve been in fields of lavender and sunflowers in Provence, more lavender in the Cotswolds (UK), fields of Iris in our own town of Boulder, and some day I’d like to experience fields of tulips. People may wonder why one would go out of their way to have this experience – and I would say – because it stays with you the rest of your life! It is like a waking dream, where the color and fragrance stretches as far as the eye can see, and it washes over you as you walk through the fields of blooms. You can have some of this experience in a Botanic Garden, but standing in a field of one type of blooming flower is a peak experience. Try it this Spring, and see!

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Family Matters

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Luana

It’s Spring Break, and Sophie and I are in Hawaii visiting Paul’s 91 year old mother. We lost Paul’s dad in December, and we’re trying to help out his mom who is now living alone after 68 years of marriage. She was an expressionist painter and has a great home filled with art, but we are so worried about her being there alone now.

Yesterday she brought out her collection of insanely complex origami creations, made by her, Paul and another brother over the years. Today she and Sophie made beautiful pieces of art that look like tie-dyed fabrics, by folding rice paper and then dipping in food coloring. I feel so lucky to be married to a man who grew up in such a creative household!

Tomorrow we are finally going on a tour of Pearl Harbor. Over the years we have not gone because our kids were under the age limit, then because the tickets were booked up in advance. I finally figured out you can now go online at 7 am, the day before you want to take the tour, and book it from a limited amount of tickets available 24 hrs ahead of time. I’ve been coming to Honolulu for 20 years and I finally figured this out!

One thing I still haven’t done is visit Doris Duke’s Shangri-La residence/museum. I always forget and then by the time I arrive here, the tickets are booked up the whole week. Maybe next time I will finally remember to get the tickets early! Hope this tip helps some of you plan ahead if you are coming to Oahu this year.

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Free Pattern – Kimmidoll

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Luana

This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern was inspired by the popularity of the Nobuko collection, and interlocking Japanese puzzle boxes.

We’ve combined the adorable Kokeshi Doll figures with with graphic florals and elegant Asian blenders, using rich black and red lacquer tones.

…featuring the ‘Nobuko-Believe’ collection by The Aird Group for Quilting Treasures.

This pattern was designed in EQ7, which is available here at eQuilter.

Many thanks to Larene Smith for this exquisite quilt pattern.

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 – Acres of Flowers

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Luana

When I travel, there are so many special moments that I try to capture with my heart, and my camera. Today I want to share one of those moments with you.

During my recent visit to Mexico City, I took a day to tour through the city with friends. We started our day visiting the giant wholesale flower market – Mercado Jamaica.

We parked on the street, in front of a huge mural that stretches 2 blocks long and is about 20 feet high. It is huge! I stood among the parked cars, trying to capture images of the people walking by in front of the mural, with armloads of flowers.

Mexico City is a city of murals, with Diego Rivera’s work everywhere you go, in old and new buildings across the sprawling metropolis.

There is a new breed of muralists who see themselves as Street Artists, or Graffiti Artists. The painters who created this monster mural are part of a collective called Germen, cofounded by Jonathan Ulsis Mendez and Luis Enrique Gómez Guzmán.

As Graffiti and Tagging have evolved into Street Art as a respected art form, it has cleared the way for many young artists’ work to be shared with the public. The urge to fill a wall with color and design inspires quilters and street artists alike, and occasionally we see a quilt that is big enough to be a mural. When a quilt takes on the role of Public Art, it allows a message to be broadcast to passers by, giving a visual exclamation mark with no words spoken.

I’ve added a few of our flower fabrics to give you the feeling of the flower market – surrounded by baskets and buckets of fragrance and color for acres and acres!

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Modern Trends on National Quilting Day

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Luana

Now that I am back from my recent trips to Mexico and Santa Fe, I’ve had a chance to edit and upload photos from QuiltCon which was in Austin Texas last month.

It was a lot of fun to see how Modern Quilting has grown and changed in the 2 years since the first QuiltCon. I also appreciated hearing artist Luke Haynes and collector Bill Volckening speak about quilts from very different perspectives.

Modern Quilting is about a clean design aesthetic, but also the local chapters make the MQG very welcoming to beginners who want to get started and enjoy the process of making a quilt. As the movement has grown, it has also expanded into a more competitive format where workmanship and creativity are very important for a public show. I heard many people comment on how the quality of the quilts had gone way up with this show, although the modern design aesthetic still makes this genre of quilting very accessible.

Today is National Quilting Day, so we wish you a Happy Quilting Day today, tomorrow, and all the other days of the year that we all celebrate by making quilts and sharing our love of quilting with others.

…and now…back to my current quilt project!

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Free Pattern – Spirit Guides

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Luana

This week’s eQuilter Exclusive Free Pattern features haunting images of Native American prayers by firelight, with the spirits of totem animals glowing in the wisps of smoke.

These blocks are taken from a detailed panel in the ‘Tucson’ collection by Elizabeth’s Studio, and then a larger pieced block is created to evoke the weavings and artwork of Navajo and other tribes.

Two possible color stories are shown above, and you can switch the border fabric between amethyst and sky blue to match your own color scheme.

This pattern was designed in EQ7, which is available here at eQuilter.

Many thanks to Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar for this exquisite quilt pattern.

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 – Golden Hours and Cricket Song

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Luana

The first official day of Spring will mark our calendars on Friday. Spring’s arrival is unpredictable but greatly anticipated, like a traveler from a faroff land who travels long, and arrives with a knapsack full of flowers and poetry.

Tonight I went outside, hoping to see the solar storm and Northern Lights. Instead, under heavy cloudy skies, I smelled the rain that is coming, and I also smelled the Earth waking up and releasing the fragrance of green and brown and purple and pink…waking up and pushing toward the morning sun.

Because we are part of the tribe of artists and makers, we remember when we smell the waking Earth, and we begin to collect the colors that remind us of Spring and Summer, of love and abundance, of golden hours and cricket song.

In that first breath of Spring’s awakening, we remember all that can be created in the season of rebirth, and we remember the Child Within whose creativity is as natural as taking a breath and speaking our truth out loud.

May Spring’s awakening find you, and reveal the depths of your Creative Heart.

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Variations on a Latin Theme

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Luana

It just so happens that I am soaking in a spicy bubbling salsa of Latin/Spanish/Mexican inspirations for another week. I didn’t plan it that way… it just happened!

While I am still excited by my visit to Mexico City (the Quilt Convention, Frida Kahlo’s house and studio, etc.) and this weekend I am in Santa Fe with some musical friends. Today I am going to the International Folk Art Museum, and yesterday I visited the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. All of this book-ended by more fabulous Mexican cuisine which is a favorite of mine. Sophie is with me and she really enjoyed the Docent Tour at the O’Keeffe Museum yesterday.

When you walk around the Plaza in Santa Fe, you are exposed to such a heady mix of colors, textile embellishments, jewelry and fashion. Some of the stores are obviously geared toward the super-wealthy clientele that jet in from California and Texas, and I took photos of some of the yummy inspirations around town:
Fancy tri-colored cowgirl boots with swirling motifs and contrasting top-stitching.
Over-dyed giant silk Hermes scarves.
Kantha quilts from India, refashioned into casual jackets and coats.
Hand-dyed and block printed Silk Dupioni in shimmering Indigo and Terra Cotta/Red/Pink/Coral color stories.
Oversized gold metallic crocodile motif hand-screenprinted across the front of a coral linen sweater.

It used to be that I would come to Santa Fe and see my Guadalupe panel print design from Kaufman made up into products in shop windows all over town. It hasn’t been reprinted in awhile so now I see knockoffs of my Guadalupe panel all over town. Oh well…

Sunday at 4 pm we are going to see our friend conduct the Santa Fe Symphony at the Lensic Theater. In the meantime we are hanging out with his wife and daughter, our buddies who also play violin and cello. (she’s a professional musician)

Unfortunately Katie Pasquini Masopust is out of town teaching this weekend, so we won’t be able to visit her studio. Perhaps some of you have attended her Alegre Retreats?

Pam Holland is a few hours south of here, doing her fundraiser quilt festival in Alamogordo, New Mexico. My grandpa lived there as a boy so I hope to get down there some day.

Check out local Boulder quilter Lea McComas’ new book on Thread-Painted Portraits. You’ve probably seen photos of her award-winning quilts, including Bike Boys which won a prize in Houston.

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