eQuilter Blog

My big Creative Nudge for you this week is that I've uploaded a bunch of quilt photos from the Houston Quilt Festival!

Check out my photo page and you'll see over 100 photos uploaded so far – more on the way! (And our first 2 Quilt Festival videos will be up on our video page starting tomorrow.)

This quilt (detail above) was one of my absolute favorite quilts at the show, and judging by the constant crowds inspecting it closely, it was a real hit with the quilters too! (See the whole quilt on my photo page)

"Dixie Dingo Dreaming" is by Susan Carlson. I have 2 of her books, and I just love her techniques. (Serendipity Quilts is still in print, and we have a few copies still in stock) As you may have noticed from my Tokyo Quilt Festival photos, I like taking photos of people as they take a close look at the quilts. There were plenty of people leaning in closely and trying to figure out how the heck Susan created this effect!

It is a carefully assembled collage of dotted fabrics, that gives the effect of a Pointillist painting by Georges Seurat. The original image was essentially posterized, then each segment or value was translated into a different dotted fabric.

And have you guessed yet what fabrics she used? It is all imported Australian fabrics from M&S Fabrics, created by Aboriginal artists Down Under. Absolutely fabulous!

I am including links to Australian fabrics and magazines below, plus a link to our African fabrics. If you like the colors in this art quilt but like to work with something a little larger scale, I think you'll like our beautiful collection of African themed prints, and imported African fabrics. Our African batiks and hand-dyes make a nice complement as well.

Our 14 year old played a solo in a high school jazz concert tonight, and he had kind of a rough night. He's had stomach flu, so he was not real perky to begin with, but somewhere between the band room and the stage his reed split, and he had to go on with the show with a split reed. Needless to say he was not thrilled with his solo, although I suspect few in the audience noticed. We encouraged him to resolve his frustration by thinking about how he could avoid the split reed in the future (carry a spare in his pocket for performances) and he was feeling better by bedtime.

When quilters make a mistake, we use the Frog Stitch (Rippit! Rippit!) and keep sewing til we get it right. We know we have to learn from our mistakes right away or we'll have a bobbly quilt top or a warped border. I think that making quilts is a way for us to work through our problems in life, because as we discover and fix problems in the quilt, we are somehow working through issues in our head. Ripped a hole in the quilt top from too many Frog Stitches? No problem! Just applique a nice big flower on top! Now add a few more for a garland, and suddenly a mistake becomes an award-winning embellishment. I just love how that works.

sharing your passion for fabric…
Luana

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"Emerald Isle" – Tour of Ireland
June 5 – 15, 2012
11 Magical Days with Luana
including the Intl Quilt Festival of Ireland

Try our new eQuilter Exclusive Pattern Designer!

Above: Mary Buvia, winner of the $7500 World of Beauty Awards, sponsored by eQuilter.com

This last week one of the icons of the industry passed on – Saul Kaufman of Robert Kaufman Fabrics. I attended the service in Los Angeles and found that even though I never met him (he retired about the time I moved from the garment industry to the quilt industry), I knew him well through the company he built, and the next generation that is running the company now.

Our family and eQuilter staff send our deepest sympathies to the Kaufman family, but we also know that they truly celebrate the legacy he has left behind in this multi-generational company. We wish you peace Saul.

My next trip is not until December 26th, so now I can turn my attention to the next event – OMG Thanksgiving is in 2 weeks?! – and Christmas events starting in a few weeks. I am in serious catchup mode, or as I say around here, ketchup and mustard mode, so I can whip my house into shape for the holidays.

The kids and I have been talking about making this holiday season as simple as possible. I must admit we do love doing some sort of holiday decorating in the house (with our collection of artsy and sentimental ornaments collected from all over the world) – but we are all talking about just one or two special gifts and not accumulating more "stuff". Perhaps you and yours have arrived at a similar conclusion.

We are having a heckuva windstorm here tonight, as I work on a slide show from Quilt Festival. Watch for it on my photo page or my blog…you'll see it pop up on Sunday.

I got the good news that our trip to Ireland is filling up fast, so if you've been mulling over the possibility of dancing an Irish Jig with me next June, please do sign up and ask for the payment plan! We'd love to have you on our Happy Irish Tour Bus and the FIRST EVER Irish Quilt Festival! (Be sure to click on "View the trip itinerary" on this page, for all the FABULOUS details, and the affordable price!) You can see my last tour (to Bali) on my photo page.

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When you think of Batiks and Hand-Dyes, think of eQuilter.com!

Currently we have over 2200 Batik and Hand-Dye products in stock...and more coming every week.

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You may have seen this photo on my Facebook page already, but I got such a big response that I thought I should share it in the midweek Creative Nudge. Sophie and I were walking around Quilt Festival, taking photos of our favorite quilts and our favorite quilters. We came across Rita Verroca with her award-winning quilt, and Sophie asked if she could have her picture taken with Rita and her quilt.

Sophie was so surprised and thrilled when Rita grabbed her and wrapped her in the exquisite quilt. At first I gasped "Oh no!" but then Rita insisted " That's what quilts are for!" and hence this incredible photo! It makes me smile every time I see the two of them in this image…and Rita is right. That's what quilts are meant for.

Now of course wall-hangings and textile art that is embellished and painted and loaded with various mediums… well that is another story! But it all comes from the same place: our love of color, fabric and design.

Isn't it great when you imagine a new use for technology, and then it happens? For awhile now I've been wishing I could use my iPhone like my old transistor radio that I had as a kid…to listen to current news and interviews. Then WNYC put out an app that streams live radio, and this morning I listened to a fabulous interview with Annie Leibovitz about her pilgrimages to special places, to take her special photos. (If you have time, do listen to the interview, and be sure to wait for the little gem of wisdom at the end.)

In 1988 I was lucky enough to attend a photo shoot at her Manhattan studio. I had a shop and a gallery in the East Village and I was asked to bring some of my wares to this photo shoot. What a great experience. I was 29 years old then.

When you read this Wednesday morning I'll be arriving at LAX to attend the funeral of Saul Kaufman, patriarch of Robert Kaufman Fabrics. All of us at eQuilter send our deepest condolences to the family. The baton has been handed to the 3rd generation of this family business, and we appreciate all that this company has done for the industry.

Now that we've had our first real frost here, and the trees are dropping flurries of golden and red leaves, it is time to bring up a very serious topic… FLANNEL!

Do you live in Flannel Country? Do you measure your winter snowfall in feet, not inches? Do you measure the value of a quilt, by how warm it keeps you on brutally frigid nights? Do you scoff at pretty little floral lap quilts? Have you made a quilt with such thick batting that it had to be tied, not quilted?

There are some parts of the country that consume prodigious amounts of flannel. Utah is one of those states that I hear has an insatiable appetite for fuzzy fabrics. Brushed cotton is nice, but if you are a serious flannel connoisseur, you can't wait to breathlessly stroke a new shipment of high quality flannels that feel like butter.

We know how you feel.

I also know that once you've skimmed off the cream in your local quilt shop's flannel department, there might be a few more things you need to make the next great flannel quilt.

Type in "Flannel" in the eQuilter search box and currently we have over 700 flannel products. Can you imagine how much space this takes up in our warehouse? A new full bolt of flannel takes up as much room as 3 bolts of cotton poplin. You can just imagine our staff carrying these big fat fuzzy bolts of flannel to the cutting tables!

This time of year we are in Flannel Heaven.

Baby flannels, solid flannels in pastels and earthtones, plaid yarn-dyed flannels, Christmas flannels, blender flannels, dot and stripe flannels…the list goes on.

There are, of course, many different qualities of flannel. The less expensive flannels will usually be thinner. The more expensive flannels are mostly thicker and softer, with higher quality printing and more saturated colors.

Pre-washing flannel is a real hassle, because it is a looser weave, and the edges can fray in big annoying thready knots. Some people stitch along the edges before pre-washing to stop the fraying. Flannel can shrink but if you make a quilt with unwashed flannel, it will shrink some and create nice texture after its first washing.

You don't have to make a quilt with flannel only. My favorite quilt (which I just pulled out and put on our bed) is a mixture of blender (tonal) flannels, hand-dyed cottons from Bali, and cotton sateen. The mix of of textures both visual and sensual makes for an interesting quilt. I started with a packet of hand-dye and batik strips, and added the flannel and sateen. Scrumptious!

A lot of quilters have been mixing flannel with Minkee and Plush. This way you get a super-luxe dreamy soft quilt top. You can also use plush for the backing of a pieced flannel quilt top. Really the possibilities are endless! Don't ask if it is ok to mix these fabrics – just go ahead and play around with some sample scraps and figure out what kind of machine settings you need to sew together these playful cuddly fabrics! For a country look, you can mix lightweight denim or chambray, with plaid flannels and floral prints. Think John Denver's "Country Road".

This weekend Sophie and I went to Sunflower Farm, and went on the horse-drawn hayride with the mountain peaks as a backdrop. I remember as a girl, going on an evening hayride gripping mugs of hot cider, snuggling under quilts and looking up at the big starry sky.

What's your favorite Autumn quilt memory?