Tonight’s Free eQuilter Pattern combines our new Moon Dragons panel with Dragon Icon Stripes and Dragon Scales, now available in rich Sapphire hues.
To make this magnificent 54″ x 65″ design, you’ll begin with the dramatic 29″ x 44″ panel, add the dragon icon totem stripes, with the dragon scales on the outside border. The saturated hues are accentuated by the solid black background.
This breathtaking quilt design featuring magical dragons against a brilliant moon will have a commanding presence as a wall hanging, or make it into an adventurous lap quilt.
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this exquisite quilt pattern (orders $100 and over, no coupon needed).
Order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our thousands of fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.
Tonight I am sharing a collage of images from my recent trip, inspired by the warm colors of Autumn and historic architecture. And because Art is everywhere in Italy, I thought you’d enjoy this image of a bear in a cappuccino cup. (Note the tiny paws on the rim of the cup!) This was at a tiny cafe in a village of 1500 residents.
The images above include an inlaid marble table in a mandala design, and a huge ornate wooden door. I am uploading images from my trip on my photo pages and hopefully you will find some color and design inspiration there.
Why do we love visiting Italy so much? For me it is the deeply ingrained appreciation of the arts. When I am there, I feel like a fish swimming in the ocean. We all gaze at Beauty together, and we all sigh together. The sunset takes on new meaning. We pause to notice small details of creative genius that are expressed on every street corner. Architecture, music, fashion, color and design is a part of everyday life. I go there to fill up my well.
You don’t have to go to Italy to find Beauty every day though. As you know, it is in the eye of the beholder. If you get in the habit of capturing one idea every day, by going for a walk with your camera phone, by visiting a gallery or museum, or dropping by the studio of a fellow artist….this is how we keep those creative gears turning. We find ideas in the bakery, in the floor tiles, and the infinite rabbit hole of the internet. The scarf of a passer-by on the street may lead to your next quilt project. Keep your artist antennae turned on when you are out and about!
Today Paul and I were discussing how to translate some of those images onto our exclusive line of fabric in the future. I am full of ideas and inspiration!
Travel/Quilt Dates: Oct 31 – Nov 3 – Houston Quilt Festival Nov 13 – Canada (CQA) Zoom Lecture December 5-13 – Textile & Costume Italy Tour. Alpine Xmas Market Extension Dec 13-15. Jan 21 – Visions Museum Zoom Lecture
Tonight’s Free eQuilter pattern features a vibrant night garden, filled with brilliant hummingbirds, owls, hedgehogs & chameleons.
To make this 57″ x 73″ quilt design, start with the central 24″ x 44″ moonlit garden gate panel, then piece the borders with two coordinating forest animal prints. The solid black background sets off the brilliant hues of these magnificent night garden fabrics.
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this exquisite quilt pattern (orders $100 and over, no coupon needed).
Order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our thousands of fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.
We are thinking of all of you affected by the hurricane, and we hope you, your loved ones, your home and your stash are safe.
Things don’t always go the way we plan. I got home Wednesday night, decided to be a responsible human being so I took a Covid test Friday morning….and was shocked to test positive with no symptoms! Now I have mild symptoms and I am isolating in the bedroom. My last booster was mid-July so hopefully that is protecting me from something worse. Ugh.
However I came home with a sketchbook full of paintings from Tuscany/Umbria, and then spent a few days with a curator friend on the Ulysses Coast, and visiting the Caserta Palace and the Belvedere Silk Textile Museum. I think my favorite activity during the painting retreat, was going to a paper studio and making my own version of marbled paper. As a result, we are adding that activity to my Italy tour in December!
It is bird migration season, and although I am limited to my bedroom, I have the window open and I am using the Merlin app to identify the birdsong that is showing up in my backyard today. Right now I am listening to a chorus of Grackles, a Downy Woodpecker, and Blue jays in the distance. One thing I decided from this trip is to stop and enjoy the small simple things all around us, on a daily basis. I hope you are also finding joy and inspiration in the changing seasons.
I’ll be back in the studio working on a couple small quilts for a museum show, and also editing my TONS of photos from the trip to share with you next week!
sharing your love for fabric, Luana and Paul
Travel/Quilt Dates: Oct 31 – Nov 3 – Houston Quilt Festival Nov 13 – Canada Zoom Lecture December 5-13 – Textile & Costume Tour – Italy. Alpine Xmas Market Extension Dec 13-15. Jan 21 – Visions Museum Zoom Lecture
Our newest, best-selling Masked Mysterious Kitty fabric is featured in tonight’s Free eQuilter pattern! Behold the all seeing eyes of this mystical kitty; her masked, mesmerizing portrait captures the intensity of this cosmic cat’s gaze, surrounded by marbleized colors and opulent embellishments.
As a wall hanging, this is a real conversation piece for the true Cat lover. Or use this as a Nap quilt or small bed coverlet for fantastical feline dreams. This just might be your cat’s favorite new quilt!
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this exquisite quilt pattern (orders $100 and over, no coupon needed).
Order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our thousands of fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.
Our Mystical Wolf panel is the feature of this week’s Free Quilt Pattern. This mesmerizing portrait captures the wisdom, loyalty & intensity of the wolf’s gaze, emerging from a wild, mystical forest.
To make this 51″ wide x 60″ high quilt design, you will start with our exclusive 29″ x 44″ digital-printed panel. Piece the wild paw-print blocks and borders with our rich and vibrant forest leaves coordinate and sea-breeze hand dye. Aqua and deep jade hand dyes frame the outer border and binding.
As a wall hanging, this is a real conversation piece for the true wildlife lover. Or use this as a Nap quilt for powerful wilderness dreams.
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this exquisite quilt pattern (orders $100 and over, no coupon needed).
Order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our thousands of fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.
This last week I’ve been on a self-care trip that was planned the last year of my mom’s life. I just finished a one week painting retreat in Umbria, and this weekend I am meeting a friend in Rome to spend a few days on the coast. Today is Sophia Loren’s 90th birthday and is therefore an unofficial national holiday. Sophia’s famous quote is: “Everything you see, I owe to spaghetti.”
Sunday is the Fall Equinox, when the Northern and Southern hemispheres are in balance … when day and night are equal. Now the days will shorten and the nights will lengthen in the Northern hemisphere. We feel an autumnal chill here in the hilltop ancient town of Citta della Pieve. While here, I visited our host’s ancient home. The main part of the house is the medieval era, the ‘wine cellar’ was perhaps catacombs, and below that is an Etruscan tomb where you can still see the marks of the tools on the walls where the cave was carved out 3000 years ago. Standing in a space like that certainly puts things in perspective. The ‘new’ addition was from the 1800s. Time has a different meaning here.
I’ll be flying home on Wednesday, and will share photos from my trip then. I’ve been painting for a week and I am a happy camper! I hope you have also had a creative weekend, looking forward to the change of seasons.
Looking forward to sharing my inspirations with all of you!
sharing your love for fabric, Luana and Paul
Travel/Quilt Dates: Sept 15-25 – Painting Retreat – Tuscany Oct 31 – Nov 3 – Houston Quilt Festival Nov 13 – Canada Zoom Lecture December 5-13 – Textile & Costume Tour – Italy. Alpine Xmas Market Extension Dec 13-15. Jan 21 – Visions Museum Zoom Lecture
Tonight’s Free eQuilter Pattern combines our dragon & dragon egg prints with our bold Steampunk Dragon panel. Our Steampunk and Dragon fabrics are wildly popular, and this exclusive design combines both themes into one fabulous Steampunk Dragon Quilt!
To make this magnificent 75″ x 75″ design, you’ll begin with the dramatic 43″ x 44″ panel, and then add the coordinating dragon stripes, Hoffman ocean blue hand dye and solid black to display a fierce dragon empire!
This breathtaking quilt design will have a commanding presence as a wall hanging, or make it into a Lap quilt for an escape into fantasy flying dreams on the back of your own fiery dragon!
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this exquisite quilt pattern (orders $100 and over, no coupon needed).
Order the pattern as configured, or customize it to your liking with any of our thousands of fabrics. Just place your desired fabrics in your Wish List, and these fabrics will appear in the Fabric Selector below the pattern.
Many of you know that I lost my mother last November. For those of you who are currently caretakers, I will share a story. During that last difficult year, I had a dream of going on a painting retreat to Italy. My mother always supported my artistic passions, so when I got an email from my friend Elizabeth a week after Mom left us, saying she had one spot that had opened up in her Tuscan painting retreat, I knew that was Mom bringing me a blessing. I had a modest amount of money that came to me, and that is how I decided to give myself this self-care trip.
So now the time has come. I am on a flight to Rome this evening, and will spend next week painting in Tuscany. Then I will meet up with my friend who recently retired as the curator of the art gallery at the US Embassy in Rome…and we will have a 3-day girlfriend retreat. I am taking my Nikon of course, and will be sharing creative inspiration on my personal Facebook page, and later edited photos on my photo pages. I’ll be practicing my Italian for the Textile & Costume Tour I am hosting in early December. (We have ONE spot left so if you’d like to join us, snap it up now!)
I am in between finishing one big art quilt, and starting a new one when I get back. Exhausted by the state of the world and the election, I am going to unplug and immerse myself in sunshine, flowers, and art. (Maybe some wine and cheese too….) This afternoon I am dashing over to a local nursery to photograph their annual Dahlia Show, before heading to the airport.
Looking forward to sharing my inspirations with all of you!
sharing your love for fabric, Luana and Paul
Travel/Quilt Dates: Sept 15-25 – Painting Retreat – Tuscany Oct 31 – Nov 3 – Houston Quilt Festival Nov 13 – Canada Zoom Lecture December 5-13 – Textile & Costume Tour – Italy. Alpine Xmas Market Extension Dec 13-15. Jan 21 – Visions Museum Zoom Lecture
I am back from Tarrytown NY, where I was attending the American Quilt Study Group Seminar. As AQSG president Nancy Bavor noted, this is a little out of my usual oeuvre, but nevertheless I enjoyed hanging out with some of the most serious quilt history nerds on the planet. And I learned what is Linsey Woolsey! I thought I knew a lot about textile history and production, but there is always something new to learn. And…I learned from a historian named Rabbit Goody.
This delightful vintage confection (above) is a 19th century quilt from New York state, part of a collection that was presented by Sharon Waddell at this event. The applique reminds us of the fine handwork that we see in contemporary Japanese quilts. I took this photo as I ran through her exhibit, and the next 2 times I tried to return the doors were locked, so I am sorry I was not able to photograph the information card next to the quilt. I tried.
Anyway, this event attracts museum curators, journalists and authors, historians and quilt celebrities. One of the talks I attended was about Jean Ray Laury, presented by Tara Miller. Many of you older quilters will remember Laury. She was born 9 years before my own mother. One of Laury’s most significant books was ‘The Creative Women’s Getting-It-All-Together at Home Handbook’ written in 1977. My mother could have used that book. When I was a young mother juggling babies and a new business, I could have used that book!
I met her near the end of her life, when she visited Boulder and was the guest of honor at a party here. She sat down next to me and said she had heard such good things about me and my business. I was so honored that she even knew who I was! She was so kind and encouraging, and had these fabulous big red glasses which I remember very clearly.
Laury’s theme was empowering women, and one of her most well-known quilts was “Barefoot and Pregnant” made in 1985. It was inspired by an ignorant quote by a male politician. You can imagine.
Jean Ray Laury was a prolific quilter, a feminist, and an instigator. She helped women realize that they could be creative without sacrificing their responsibilities at home. From what I know, she became more sassy as she aged. May we all live long and be so sassy.
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