Free Quilt Pattern – Furry & Bright

Posted on July 14, 2023 by Luana

What words do you use to describe the artwork of Japanese artist Kayomi Harai?
We would say cute, adorable, and just plain…..Awwww!

This is a favorite collection for Cat Lovers who want to make the most beloved Christmas quilt EVER. Kayomi’s kitten portraits are full of enchanting details and sweet little kitty faces that will melt your heart on a cold Winter’s day.

To make this 56″ x 63″ delightful quilt design, you will start with the central 24″ x 44″ big block panel. Create the side panels by fussy-cutting the allover Candycane Kittens print, and join with Red Hoffman Hand-Dye. Finish with the coordinating Kitten Christmas Stripe and another border of the Red Hand-Dye. Then prepare for squeals of delight when this quilt is given as a gift to a special cat lover. Meow!

…from the ‘Furry & Bright’ collection by Kayomi Harai for Studio E 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).

Don’t miss the ‘Silent Night‘ and ‘Morning Light Delight‘ 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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Summer Up North

Posted on July 13, 2023 by Luana

I’ve just arrived home after a long day of travel, so you’ll have to give me a few days to edit and upload photos from my trip to Finland. On my last night there, I met with members of the Finnish Quilt Guild in Helsinki, and we had a lively evening talking about international quilt trends in the famous award-winning architecture of the Oodi Library building.

As I left Helsinki Airport this morning, Air Force One was expected to land any minute. It’s a lovely time of year to visit there…and the days are still almost 19 hours long….especially up north in Savonlinna where I was attending an opera festival. We saw young children out at playgrounds at almost midnight!

The best thing about my trip? Well besides the opera festival in the castle, it was the strawberries I bought in a farmers’ market. They were sun-ripened, juicy, and it was like eating perfume. (In a good way!) Took me right back to the strawberry fields of my childhood in California.

Now I have 3 weeks to finish a quilt for a collaboration with the Endangered Species Coalition.

Hope you enjoy this photo of boys and boats on a Finnish lake. The sun set by 11 pm but came up again at 3:45 am, and it never got totally dark over the midnight hours. And of course it is the opposite around the Winter Solstice…just a few hours of light during the day. I have to say, the Finns definitely make the most of these long Midsummer days! To all of you in the Northern latitudes around the world ….hope you are having a beautiful cool festive summer.

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:
August 2-7 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK
August 18-24 – Bear Camp in Alaska (via Homer)
Sept 28-30 – AQSG Seminar – Louisville, KY

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Free Quilt Pattern – Wolf Wonderland

Posted on July 9, 2023 by Luana

One of our most popular design motifs is Wolves – representing the wild free spirit of the Northwoods. Tonight’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern features a wonderfully detailed Wolf panel, depicting arctic wolves as they travel through the wilderness.

To make this 59″ x 59″ quilt design, you will create paw-print corner blocks and border units from three neutral toned Hoffman Hand Dyes, surrounding the central scenic panel split into four majestic wolf frames.

This beautiful Lap/Nap quilt is a great gift for wildlife enthusiasts who dreams of running wild and free! Remember the book written by Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes – ‘Women Who Run With the Wolves’?

…from the ‘Warm Summer Days’ collection by David Textiles.

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 ‘Silent Night‘ and ‘Morning Light Delight‘ 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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And Now For Something Completely Different

Posted on July 8, 2023 by Luana

I have always gravitated towards groups of Super-Nerds who are well versed on a particular subject, and not afraid to completely immerse themselves in a specific genre. We do it as quilters, of course. Fat Quarter jokes come with the territory. I also like Star Trek nerds, Photoshop nerds, Monty Python nerds, and Opera nerds. There is something about being with a group of people who tell the ‘nerdiest’ subject-specific jokes, knowing that not everyone will get the punch line.

I am on a trip with a bunch of opera nerds at the moment. The leader of the group has been described as an ‘opera super-guru’ which is quite true. He can stand up and speak on a specific composer or opera topic, off the top of his head for an hour straight without hesitation. You’ve got to respect those super-nerdy chops. Simon translates librettos of operas from Italian, German, French, Czech, Russian and Hungarian and converts them into English subtitles to be shown on screens in theatres during performances, so that the audience can understand what is being sung, and the story-line behind the performance. His wife is Japanese so we also had a conversation about traditional shibori and indigo dyeing techniques.

Today we learned that Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ was written to match the voices of the singers who were available to sing in the first performance. Mozart’s sister-in-law had lost her lower registers but still could sing the highest notes as a coloratura soprano – so the crazy Queen of the Night ‘rage aria’ was written for her limited range. And singers for the rest of eternity will have to struggle with the parts that were written for a specific performer at the time. Mozart was thinking short term, but his music has lasted for over 200 years. Kind of like quilts that end up being antique family heirlooms. The maker thinks she is making a quilt for a wedding, or other ‘current event’, but it ends up having a life of its own and out-living the maker and the recipient. We can only hope that our quilts will go on telling our stories, long after we’ve left our stashes behind.

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:
August 18-24 – Bear Camp – Homer Alaska
Sept 28-30 – AQSG Seminar – Louisville, KY

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Free Quilt Pattern – Silent Night

Posted on July 7, 2023 by Luana

Tonight’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern features a snow covered scene with an illuminated chapel and horse drawn carriages. This peaceful, celebratory scene is surrounded by bountiful pine trees and a shining full moon, set in rich Periwinkle Blues and Honey Gold.

To make this 59″ x 47″ wall hanging you will begin with the Silent Night panel, border with a wintery blue tonal, and piece the borders with coordinating snowflake prints.

Enjoy the warmth of Christmas Spirit on those enchanted holiday nights. Our Silent Night Quilt is just the ticket for your home this winter – make one for your family and friends!

…from the ‘Silent Night’ collection by Abraham Hunter for Northcott Fabrics.

Don’t miss the ‘Baby Safari‘ and ‘Morning Light Delight‘ 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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Hello from Helsinki Finland

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Luana

Hello from Helsinki Finland!
I have just spent a day with Irina here, a quilter who has created a following for her quilt pattern business. I found her online before my trip, and she graciously agreed to meet me on my free day in Helsinki. We walked all over the city, had lunch, and ended up at the Open Air Museum on Seurasaari Island. Here they have brought historic structures from all over Finland, to create a walkable history of how the Finns have lived throughout the last several centuries. We took a tour with a young man in a local costume, and he obliged us by filling in details about the history of textiles in Finland also. We learned that in 17th century farms, the textiles were kept in a separate storehouse building, to make sure they were not damaged by smoke or fire. The textiles were so valuable that they were stored in their own little mini-log cabin.

These houses are scattered amongst the forest on the island. We crossed a 19th century bridge from the mainland to the island, and stepped back through time, just like in a fairytale.

This is a view from inside the Karuna Church, which was disassembled in another village, and moved to the outdoor museum. It used to sit on the shore, and there is a replica of a sailing ship hanging inside over the pews… a prayer for safety and a show of gratitude from someone who survived a shipwreck.

I am sharing an image from inside the little wooden church, of the window behind the altar. Fresh wildflowers sit on a lace-trimmed linen altar cloth. This simple blessing captured the spirit of the day, learning about the Finnish lifestyle and history.

We are past Midsummer here now, but the days are still 18 hrs and 40 minutes long. The sun is rising at 4 am and setting at 10:45 pm. The sky remains light long after the sun sets, glowing from just beneath the horizon. Tomorrow when I go to Savonlinna, the sunrise will be at about 3:30 am, and will set at 10:48 pm. I am sure you know this is because Finland is at such a Northern latitude…and in the winters the days are very short and the nights are long!

At the end of our day together, Irina said she felt we had known each other forever. That is the great thing about the quilting tribe. Wherever I travel, I can always find at least one quilter, and we hit it off immediately. The Worldwide Quilting Tribe share the vibe of compassion, helping, and making. This is the foundation of all the best things in life, in my opinion. We are so lucky to belong to this worldwide family of makers!

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:
July 4-12 – Helsinki & Savonlinna, Finland
August 18-24 – Bear Camp in Alaska (via Homer)
Sept 28-30 – AQSG Seminar – Louisville, KY

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Free Quilt Pattern – Vintage Scrapbook

Posted on July 4, 2023 by Luana

The “Art Journal” collection by J. Wecker Frisch is a standout success, reminding us of our grandmother’s scrapbooks. This striking quilt has an eclectic mix of illustrative styles, which has become the hallmark of Janet Frisch’s work, and the foundation of her worldwide fan base.

The detailed sketchbooks and botanic illustrations were the foundation of 19th Century naturalists, and their precise drawings and paintings described the birds, flowers and insects before photographs took over documentation of species. In many ways these precise illustrations are more descriptive and accurate than photos, which is why we still love this style of rendering of an image.

To make this generous 68″ x 88″ quilt design, you will cut up 3 different panels, then piece together with Solid Parchment Kona sashing, to make the central section. Then add the delicate Butterfly/Moth Journal Stripe, to create the black and white border.

…from the ‘Art 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 ‘Starry Nights‘ and ‘Morning Light Delight‘ 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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Free Quilt Pattern – Starry Nights

Posted on July 2, 2023 by Luana

Take a journey to the forest as the Full Moon rises over a distant mountain range, in this week’s exclusive Free Quilt Pattern. This twilight scene captures that magical moment as the sun has set, and the moon is ascending… when the birds fall silent for the night, and the nocturnal creatures come out into the cool evening air.

To make this 57″ x 57″ quilt design, you will start with the 24″ x 44″ scenic panel, featuring a wandering bear in the foreground, a forest reflected in a lake, and a hawk soaring into a starry sky. The side panels are cut from a large scale ombre forest scene that stretches across the selvedge. Use a Stone texture and pale blue Hoffman Hand-Dye to create the illusion of a window floating on a set-in diamond shape background.

Nature-lovers will adore this view onto a wilderness at dusk, with a captivating landscape that stretches to the distant peaks, and beyond…

…from the ‘Starry Nights’ collection by Hoffman Fabrics.

Don’t miss the ‘Baby Safari‘ and ‘Morning Light Delight‘ 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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Hot Stuff & Cool Notions

Posted on July 1, 2023 by Luana

This is the time of year when we have lots of visitors to Colorado, from Southern States. We see their license plates all over town – from Arizona, Texas, Missouri, Florida, etc. They are beating the heat, usually on their way to the Rocky Mountain National Park. The mountains had lows in the 30s and 40s up there last night, and it snowed in some places!

If you are passing through Boulder, we welcome you to stop by to say hello and have a quick tour of our warehouse (and maybe pick up an order to save on shipping), but remember we are not open for customer shopping. Our staff is too busy processing your online orders! But we do love to meet you if you drop by. It is fun to meet our customers in person. I get to meet many of you at the quilt festivals, but our staff really gets a kick out of putting together faces with names. If you have a quilt with you, bring it in to show us. We’ll put a photo of you and your quilt on our social media, with your permission.

This time of year, a lot of you are sewing in the basement. You might want to pick up one of these lights that adhere to your sewing machine, to give you some extra illumination while you stay cool in the Creative Cellar. And then maybe some colorful Laurel Burch socks to keep your toesies warm. I always think the best time to work on holiday projects is during the hot months. Somehow sewing a Christmas scene or a Winter theme with lots of snowflake prints, makes me feel a shivery little chill.

We are just on the cusp of hitting $2 million raised for non-profits, over the last 24 years. You will see on the top right corner of our home page, we are now at $1,995,100. If you know of a publication who would be interested in our story, please send them our way. Honestly I never dreamed that we would accomplish this, when we started our charity program. You are all a part of this story, and we thank you for your support of our family business over the years. We could not have done this without YOU!

Wishing you all a happy and safe 4th of July holiday here in the US.

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:
July 4-12 – Helsinki & Savonlinna, Finland
August 18-24 – Bear Camp – Homer Alaska
Sept 28-30 – AQSG Seminar – Louisville, KY

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Free Quilt Pattern – Baby Safari

Posted on June 29, 2023 by Luana

This delightful collection continues to sell out, and we managed to get the last remaining yardage from the manufacturer. So for those of you who missed out last time – this is it!

“Sweet” – is the word that comes to mind with this Baby Animal artwork by South African designer Clint Eagar. This exclusive Free Quilt Pattern uses 7 fabrics from his “Baby Safari Animals” collection, to create this 56″ x 67″ quilt design.

We love the soft colors of sand, sky and water….but the expressions on the young animals’ faces are just precious. Gently wrap your favorite little person in this charming wildlife quilt for sweet dreams and quiet playtime.

…from the ‘Baby Safari Animals’ collection by South Africa designer Clint Eagar for P&B Textiles.

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 ‘Full Moon in the Night Sky‘ and ‘Morning Light Delight‘ 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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