Hello From Houston!

Posted on November 1, 2023 by Luana

Hello from Houston!
I have just finished placing orders at the Quilt Market (trade show), and Wednesday evening the Quilt Festival opens to the public.

Tuesday I took a bus tour to the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange. They are currently hosting an exhibit inspired by the PBS series ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ based on the stories of Dr. James Herriot, a veterinarian in the 1930s Yorkshire Dales in England. Actually the veterinarian Alf Wight used the pen name of Herriot to write a series of books about his experiences, and the current beloved series is a remake of the original BBC series that ran from 1978 to 1990. The current quilt exhibit covers a wide range of creatures from around the world, and even under the sea. Paul and I just adore this sweet PBS series, as we are animal-lovers ourselves.

This striking quilt caught my eye at the museum today – titled ‘Ruby’ – by Tanya Littman. She was inspired by 3 vintage drawings. It was constructed by fused applique and machine stitching. (The side panels in this image are from a sea turtle panel currently in stock at eQuilter.)

Mary Koval has also curated an exhibit of antique quilts from her own collection, currently at the Texas Quilt Museum. There is something for everyone at this museum.

If you are coming to the Quilt Festival this week, be sure to look for the 3 exhibits sponsored by eQuilter. You will see our rainbow logo on each of these special exhibits. My quilt ‘Women’s Rights are Human Rights’ is part of the ‘Women’s Voices’ gallery. I will be in this exhibit from 11 am to 1 pm on Thursday, to give tours through the gallery and speak about this project. I hope you can join me.

We thank you for supporting our family-owned business, which allows us to sponsor important exhibits such as these.
I’ll have photos from Houston next week!

Sharing your love of fabric…
Luana and Paul

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, review our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Travel/Quilt Calendar:
Oct 27 – Nov 3 – Quilt Market/Festival – Houston TX
(Thurs Nov 2 – 11 am to 1 pm – Women’s Voices exhibit.)

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Free Quilt Pattern – Royal Kitty

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Luana

A Royal Kitty is the center of attention for this week’s exclusive Free Quilt Pattern! King Kitty sits in a lavish throne between plush curtains, a scepter and goblet in his paws. And don’t miss the mouse and bird royal courtiers!

To make this 60″ x 64″ quilt design, you will start with this exquisitely detailed 36″ x 44″ central kitty panel. Then piece our exclusive gemstones corner diamonds and ruby red Dream Ombre, all set against a solid black ground.

This quilt will make a delightful lap quilt or wall hanging for your kitty loving friends and family!

…from the ‘Perfect Pets’ collection by the Rubin Design Studio, designed exclusively for eQuilter.

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

Luana and Paul Rubin

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A Week of Quilt Festivities

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Luana

I am writing to you from Houston Texas, where the Quilt Market (trade show) has started today. It has been 4 years since I attended this show in person. I am here to preview and order fabrics that will ship to us over the next 3-6 months. It is always exciting to see what new trends and ideas the designers have dreamed up to entice us in the near future. Next week is the International Quilt Festival, and eQuilter is sponsoring 3 special exhibits, as I mentioned in Wednesday’s e-newsletter. However I don’t have much to report, because I am dashing this off before I go to the first day of Market!

In the meantime, our fellow chocoholic-fabriholics will be happy to know that our first chocolate shipment of the cold-weather-season is arriving Monday, so you can start to place your orders for our artisan chocolates (including Vegan chocolates) over the weekend. There has been a recent discovery of some chocolate brands that have higher levels of heavy metals, so I want to assure you that we have reviewed that report and none of those brands are in our selection of high quality imported chocolate products. If you are not familiar with the eQuilter chocolate program – we discovered long ago there is a short list of things that most quilters love besides fabric: Cats, wine, and chocolate! We can’t sell you the wine, but we are heavy on the Cat fabrics (as per last Wednesday’s newsletter), and we know you can’t wait until the cooler weather allows us to stock and ship our chocolates. It is not unusual to receive orders for a spool of thread, and 5 chocolate bars. Shhhh – We won’t tell!

A reminder that I’ll be hosting an informal talk in the ‘Women’s Voices’ exhibit here, on Thursday Nov 2, from 11 am to 1 pm. My quilt “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” is part of this historic exhibit. Please stop by and say hello!

Watch for my e-newsletter on Wednesday morning, with a report on Quilt Market Trends.

sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, comment on our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Travel/Quilt Calendar:
Oct 27 – Nov 3 – Quilt Market/Festival – Houston TX
(Artist Speaker in “Women’s Voices” exhibit on Thurs Nov 2)

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Free Quilt Pattern – Let’s Take a Ride!

Posted on October 27, 2023 by Luana

This bright and fun Free Quilt Pattern is just perfect for that little one who’s ready to ‘Take a Ride’ in your family…I bet you know just the child who would enjoy these happy zoo animals in their favorite vehicles.

Make this 48″ x 58″ quilt as a Crib Quilt, or for the most fantastic Play Mat! Your favorite little person will find a Red Caboose, a Green sports car & Jeep, a Yellow Bulldozer & School bus, a Turquoise Van, an Orange Submarine, a Blue Rocket ship, a Red Sailboat & a Rainbow Hot Air Balloon to capture their attention on each ‘page’ of this Soft Book which has been cleverly turned into a child’s play quilt!

Start with the traveling animal frames from the main panel, then mix in the fun zoo animal allover coordinate, and finish it off with our exclusive Rainbow Stripes print. We know this will bring a big smile to the lucky kid who receives this animal travel-themed quilt.

…from the ‘Let’s Take a Ride!’ collection by Carol Wickman and Nicole in den Bosch for Elizabeth’s Studio.

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

Luana and Paul Rubin

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CATS-R-US

Posted on October 25, 2023 by Luana

I think you know by now that we are animal-lovers here at eQuilter. The Rubin household has 2 dogs (including our new puppy!) and 3 rescue cats. I don’t know how we would have survived the pandemic without our furry friends at home. Many of you have discovered our many animal fabrics, including cats dogs horses birds ….wild animals and farm animals….Northwoods and Arctic wildlife…and Pop Woodland prints. And guess what? Our customers are crazy animal-lovers too! That is why we carry so many animal prints. The only other groups of categories that come close, are FLOWERS.

This week we have this absolutely gorgeous Tiger scenic panel, plus our new collection of anthropomorphic Costumed Kitties in our exclusive Rubin digital line of fabrics. For those of you who just can’t get enough Cat fabrics, this one’s for you! Many of you have joined my Facebook group – Luana’s Fabriholic Kitty Club. This is for fabriholics who have been blocked by their friends because they post too many cat memes. You are welcome at the Kitty Club!

Friday I am flying to Houston for Quilt Market and Quilt Festival. eQuilter is sponsoring 3 special exhibits and I hope you will take the time to find them if you are attending. We thank you again for supporting our family-owned business, which allows us to sponsor these quilts at the International Quilt Festival, and many other events around the US and the world.

eQuilter-sponsored Exhibits in Houston: (Look for our Rainbow Logo!)
1. A Celebration of Color
2. Good Trouble – John Lewis & Voting Rights
3. Womens Voices – from the Clinton Presidential Center.

I will be the Artist-in-Attendance at the Women’s Voices exhibit on Thursday Nov 2, from 11 am to 1 pm. Lea McComas will also be in the exhibit much of the time. We have sent the last 30 copies of the Women’s Voices catalog to Houston, and it will not be reprinted. Come and claim your copy and you can get at least one of the artist’s signatures in the exhibit. This is probably the last time this historic exhibit will be seen all together in public so I urge you to stop by.

I will be documenting the show and sharing photos with you again, but in the meantime you can enjoy my photos of other quilt festivals in the recent and distant past, on my photo pages.

Sharing your love of fabric…
Luana and Paul

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, review our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Travel/Quilt Calendar:
Oct 27 – Nov 3 – Quilt Market/Festival – Houston TX
(Thurs Nov 2 – 11 am to 1 pm – Women’s Voices exhibit.)

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Free Quilt Pattern – Autumn Flower Fairies

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Luana

Tonight’s exclusive eQuilter Free Pattern takes you into Cicely Mary Barker’s magical world of Flower Fairies, dancing and playing in the autumn forest, with lush blossoms & berries, delicate wings, and charming fairy folk.

To make this quick & easy 53″ x 72″ quilt, you’ll combine fantasy scene fairy panels with coordinating single border print, and a blue Hoffman hand dye.

This delicate design could be a child’s snuggly quilt, or an enchanting wallhanging, and will bring many hours of joy and wonder!

…from the ‘Flower Fairies of the Autumn’ collection, by The Estate of Cicely Mary Barker for Michael Miller 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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

Luana and Paul Rubin

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That Golden Glow

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Luana

We have had one of those glorious Colorado Fall weeks, with brilliant yellow, orange and red foliage against intensely clear blue skies with mild temperatures. I hope you have been enjoying some of your own gorgeous Autumn weather as well. In couple weeks rain and wind will blow all the leaves from the trees, so the Trick-or-Treaters can shuffle through crunchy piles of leaves as they go door to door on Halloween. I know many of you are busy sewing last minute costumes for your kiddos.

This morning I woke up to an other-worldly golden glow in our bedroom. The sun had risen up in that clear blue sky, shining down on our Golden Locust, Ash, Linden and Maple trees in our back yard….and the warm glow suffused the room and awakened me to a dreamlike vision. But it was real! When you work with color every day, these ethereal moments of color magic take on a feeling of heightened senses, and you carry it throughout your day. We hope that as you work with our colorful fabrics, you have a similar experience.

Congratulations to all the Colorado quilters and textile artists featured in the new Colorado issue of Quiltfolk Magazine. Paul and I are so delighted to be included. You will find our profile on pages 100-105.

Are you going to Quilt Festival in Houston? eQuilter is sponsoring 3 exhibits, including the “Women’s Voices” quilts. I will be present in the exhibit on Thursday from 11 am to 1 pm to sign the catalog and talk about our experience at the Clinton Presidential Center last December, when they hosted an artist reception during the Women’s Voices conference. Hope to see you there.

sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, comment on our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Travel/Quilt Calendar:
Oct 27 – Nov 3 – Quilt Market/Festival – Houston TX
(Artist Speaker in “Women’s Voices” exhibit on Thurs Nov 2)

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That Golden Glow

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Luana

We have had one of those glorious Colorado Fall weeks, with brilliant yellow, orange and red foliage against intensely clear blue skies with mild temperatures. I hope you have been enjoying some of your own gorgeous Autumn weather as well. In couple weeks rain and wind will blow all the leaves from the trees, so the Trick-or-Treaters can shuffle through crunchy piles of leaves as they go door to door on Halloween. I know many of you are busy sewing last minute costumes for your kiddos.

This morning I woke up to an other-worldly golden glow in our bedroom. The sun had risen up in that clear blue sky, shining down on our Golden Locust, Ash, Linden and Maple trees in our back yard….and the warm glow suffused the room and awakened me to a dreamlike vision. But it was real! When you work with color every day, these ethereal moments of color magic take on a feeling of heightened senses, and you carry it throughout your day. We hope that as you work with our colorful fabrics, you have a similar experience.

Congratulations to all the Colorado quilters and textile artists featured in the new Colorado issue of Quiltfolk Magazine. Paul and I are so delighted to be included. You will find our profile on pages 100-105.

Are you going to Quilt Festival in Houston? eQuilter is sponsoring 3 exhibits, including the “Women’s Voices” quilts. I will be present in the exhibit on Thursday from 11 am to 1 pm to sign the catalog and talk about our experience at the Clinton Presidential Center last December, when they hosted an artist reception during the Women’s Voices conference. Hope to see you there.

sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, comment on our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Travel/Quilt Calendar:
Oct 27 – Nov 3 – Quilt Market/Festival – Houston TX
(Artist Speaker in “Women’s Voices” exhibit on Thurs Nov 2)

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Free Quilt Pattern – Sewing Journal

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Luana

Today we bring you a Free Quilt Pattern for J. Wecker Frisch’s wildly popular, vintage sewing-themed collection. These exquisite designs utilize antique drawings & loose-leaf paper to emulate the feeling of a collage or scrapbook.

To make this generous 68″ x 80″ eQuilter quilt design, you will combine the two 24″ x 44″ digital block panels with coordinating newspaper ad print and the stunning fashion model stripe. The black sashing makes these extraordinary prints really pop. This quilt announces your love of sewing in a vintage scrapbook style.

…from the ‘Sew Journal’ collection by J. Wecker Frisch for Riley Blake Designs.

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).

Don’t miss the ‘Steampunk Kitty‘ and ‘Haunted Halloween‘ quilt patterns!

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.

Click Here for a Video Tutorial of the Free Pattern Designer.
Download Instructions for the pattern at the bottom of the pattern designer page.

Luana and Paul Rubin

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Stitch by Stitch, Hand to Hand, Making a Circle

Posted on October 18, 2023 by Luana

This week I am reaching back to April, to share this beautiful quilt from the Pour l’Amour du Fils quilt festival in Nantes, France. This is from the Quilt Nihon gallery at this French quilt exhibit.

Best of Quilt Nihon 2021
Maker: Toyoko Nakajima – Japan
“Hand to Hand, Make a Circle”
Floral Medallion, hand-applique.

As you will see on my Asia Travel pages, I started going to the Tokyo Quilt Festival in 2010. I went every year until January 2020, which was the very last time this show was held at the Tokyo Dome. My memories of those years are so precious, and I am glad to have all the photos saved in my online albums. Sophie Quinn came with me to this last Tokyo show, and Covid chased us home. Hard to believe…that was almost 4 years ago. I also traveled to Japan in the 80s when I lived in Hong Kong and was working in the garment industry. Mostly I went to Osaka to source textiles. I miss traveling to Japan.

So you can imagine I was thrilled to see these Quilt Nihon pieces in France earlier this year!

If you have had the chance to admire the workmanship of Japanese quilters, I am sure you share my fascination and admiration of quilts created by these talented meticulous quilters. Here in the US, we have an internationally known award-winning Japanese quilter who continues to win prizes all around the world – Kumiko Frydl. She specializes in miniature quilts and she won the top prize in Birmingham this summer for her intricate mini-quilt. Kumiko has won so many top prizes for her tiny quilts, I have lost count. (Here we are together in Birmingham.)

The quilt above is a symphony of appliqued blossoms and trapunto stitching. The lighting was not ideal, but I hope the image gives you a sense of the mastery expressed in this piece. I will be at the Houston Quilt Festival in a couple weeks, and I promise I’ll be out there with my camera recording the new quilt masterpieces to share with you. It has been 4 years since I went to Houston and I am anxious to see the artistry on display.

eQuilter is sponsoring 3 special exhibits. I’ll tell you more about these next week.

Sharing your love of fabric…
Luana and Paul

* The photo above was taken by Luana Rubin at the Pour l’Amour du Fils quilt festival, in April 2023.

Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok pages for Color and Design ideas.

See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, review our blog, or follow us on Facebook.

Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.

Travel/Quilt Calendar:
Oct 27 – Nov 3 – Quilt Market/Festival – Houston TX
(Thurs Nov 2 – 11 am to 1 pm – Women’s Voices exhibit.)

Luana’s Art & Activism lecture is now online.

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