Dear Humans – Get Your Act Together

Posted on June 7, 2023 by Luana

Today was a travel day. Door to door it was 13 hours, but I made it to Halifax Nova Scotia. It is cool and rainy here, and the fires from the last week are now under control. I am excited to attend the awards ceremony of Quilt Canada on Wednesday night. It will be live streamed at 7:30 Atlantic Time (that is one hour later than Eastern Time) on the Canadian Quilters Association Facebook page. I’ll be up on stage at some point giving out at least one cash award, sponsored by eQuilter.

Since I haven’t seen any quilts here yet, I wanted to share the work of this extraordinary Canadian quilter. I photographed Sue Sherman’s large quilt at Quilt Canada last summer in Vancouver, then I featured it in my Quilting Arts TV segment on Canadian Quilters … and then this quilt won the Master Award for Thread Artistry at Houston last fall. You can see a video of that QA TV segment here.

Sue’s artist statement reads:
“The animals are sending a message to humans, offering their opinion about the state of things. Humans fill the sky with empty talk about addressing habitat loss and climate change, but don’t really do anything to help.”

This is a 94″ x 64″ whole cloth quilt painted with thickened dyes on PFD cotton. It is an original design based on photos taken by Sue, after a trip to Kenya. She was interviewed by Bob Ruggiero of Quilts Inc about her work, last fall. You can see that video here.

I am meeting Sue for the first time in-person tomorrow, to discuss our mutual interest of Art and Activism. (and Opera!) If you also love wild animals, you can check out our large category of Wild Animal prints, and then choose The Wild Foundation as your 2% donation during the checkout process.

We have a new interview with Bob this week, where I am discussing the ‘Celebration of Color’ contest and exhibit, which is also sponsored by eQuilter. You can see this exhibit at this summer’s Long Beach Quilt Festival, and it will also be at the Houston Quilt Festival in the Fall. You can see the video interview (including color trends) here.

I am here as a sponsor, to meet with Canadian quilter friends, and of course to photograph the show!
The “E” key on my laptop just broke tonight so that is going make for an interesting wk!

Sharing your love of fabric…and color…
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 – Tina’s Garden

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Luana

These lush juicy blossoms are so realistic, you’ll want to lean over and smell the imaginary fragrance of the garden! This week’s Free Quilt Pattern captures the full blown opulence of a summer garden’s colors with exquisitely detailed photo-realistic flower images.

To make this 72″ x 72″ quilt design, you will start with the central 42″ x 44″ Big Flower panel. Then you will layer a coordinating allover floral, Kona Solid Black, and the matching floral stripe to create the engineered border.

This is a quick and easy quilt design that makes for a great Summer gift or Summertime Nap quilt. If you are a freemotion quilter, we can imagine quilting around the shapes of the big flowers, then filling the solid background with a dense quilting design. Have fun with this one!
(And maybe pick up some more Black thread.)

…from the ‘Tina’s Garden’ collection by Tina Leto for Clothworks.

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 Jewels‘ and ‘Dream Catcher Owl‘ 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 – Dream Catcher Owl

Posted on June 4, 2023 by Luana

A mysterious owl emerges from the shadows to take you on a magical flight through Dreamland, in this week’s Free Quilt Pattern. This is one of our exclusive blockbuster customer favorites that has just come back into stock – grab it before it disappears into the darkness again!

To make this mesmerizing 52″ x 65″ quilt design, you will start with our exclusive Rubin 30″ x 44″ digital panel, featuring an enigmatic glowing Owl and a shimmering Dream Catcher with feathers. Piece the border with our coordinating Golden Dragonfly design, and the smaller Owl coordinate, plus Solid Black to give the illusion of luminous golden light emerging from the darkness.

Is it a dream? An Owl Shaman? An ancient wise spirit?
Only you can say Whoooooooo those eyes belong to…..

…from the ‘Inspiration’ 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).

Don’t miss the ‘Steampunk Jewels‘ and ‘Call of the Wild Winter Wolf‘ 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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Buzzing with Creativity

Posted on June 3, 2023 by Luana

Happy Pride Month! Our shelves are bursting with Rainbow and Pride fabric designs.

Sunday June 4 is National Hug Your Cat Day – but I am sure you were going to snuggle with your kitty anyway today, right? If you miss out – don’t worry – International Cat Day is August 8.

My presentation on “Art and Activism” at Quilt National (Dairy Barn Art Center in Athens Ohio) is now available to view online at this link. It is a one-hour power point lecture for those who want to make a difference with their art practice. I hope it will inspire many of you to express your emotions through your textile art. (Watch on a larger screen if you can, not a phone screen, to appreciate the images!)

While I was at the quilt festival in Nantes France, I spent time with Herma de Ruiter who posts a Daily Stitch Practice “Going Round in Circles” on her social media. She uses Wonderfil Perle 8 embroidery threads which come in a fabulous range of solid and variegated colors in several boxed collections. And so, I just had to get some for our eQuilter customers!

They are in stock now, including the Alison Glass collections. I have added photos to my Nantes gallery, from Herma’s exhibit, so you have an inspiration for this wonderful line of hand-embroidery threads. Also check out Gilliam Travis’ embroidered quilts on this page, with whimsical Fair Isle and Mitten blocks. Of course we carry a wide selection of needles for your hand-embroidery adventures.

Now I am super excited about this new group of products, because my Swedish grandmother was an embroidery artist, and I treasure the pieces I inherited from her! I am working on a new quilt for an Endangered Species Coalition exhibit, and I am dreaming up ways to include these gorgeous threads as I finish the piece. I’ve been chatting with Lepidopterists and Entomologists for this project. Can you guess what it is?

Have you made something wonderful with eQuilter fabrics?
Send us your photos to share with other eQuilter fans on our social media!

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:
June 6-11 – Quilt Canada – Halifax, Nova Scotia
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 – Steampunk Jewels

Posted on June 2, 2023 by Luana

Our exclusive Steampunk collection just came back in stock last night, and we wanted to offer this pattern before it blows out again! Enter the esoteric world of Steampunk Jewels in this week’s Free Quilt Pattern, featuring our own digital-printed panel full of exquisitely detailed gears and jewel-like treasures representing a dragonfly, seahorse, hummingbird and butterfly.

To make this 59″ x 67″ quilt design, you will start with our exclusive 36″ x 44″ panel. Fussy-cut the Steampunk allover to make the corner blocks, then piece 2 gear prints and a Turquoise Hoffman Hand-Dye to create the borders. The Golden Yellow and Blue/Turquoise colors really pop on the Espresso/Taupe contrasting background.

Hardcore Steampunk fans will just adore this unique and highly-stylized quilt design!

…from the ‘Steampunk Jewels’ 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).

Don’t miss the ‘Bijoux Kitty‘ and ‘Golden Pals‘ 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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Celebrating Beauty

Posted on May 31, 2023 by Luana

This last weekend I was in Ohio at the opening reception for Quilt National at the Dairy Barn Arts Center. It was so wonderful to see so many artists/friends after the pandemic years. We recorded my talk on Art and Activism, and that video will be available later this week. We will also have the show catalog soon. Contact Customer Service if you are interested in a copy!

Memorial Day is considered the start of the Summer season here. This is my favorite time of year in Colorado, when the foothills are green from the Spring rains, and the peaks are still white with snow. On my way to work each day (my 1 mile commute) I appreciate the view and am grateful to be able to live in a place of such natural beauty.

Sometimes the world around us is not so beautiful, but we can learn to look for beauty in everyone we meet, and in everything we see. Some quilt artists literally focus on capturing and expressing inner and outer beauty, and Galla Grotto is one of those artists. You may recall her Mother Earth quilt which was in the exhibit I curated – “For the Love of Gaia”. It reminds me of a Russian Madonna icon painting. Which is not surprising because…she is Russian. I met her and first saw her Mother Earth quilt at Quilt Canada in 2017.

Galla fled Russia for her artistic freedom, and ended up in Ukraine, but then she had to leave again for similar reasons. She ended up in France, and that is how I finally met up with her again, at the quilt festival last month in Nantes. When the war started, she had to help evacuate her daughter from Ukraine. She has certainly seen a lot of ugliness in her life.

However Galla is known for her beautiful stylized portraits of women. You can see one of them in the image above, set in a collage of eQuilter fabrics. I am uploading images of her gallery in Nantes for you to enjoy. (You will see one image of her Mother Earth, and my Stardust Mothers, hanging side by side in this show.) The good news is that she will also have a gallery at the Quilt Festival in Houston this Fall!

Galla is hand-carrying her exhibit to Houston 2 weeks before the show, and she is looking for teaching opportunities in the US while she is waiting those 2 weeks in October. She is very well known as a teacher and artist in Europe, but she is just being introduced to the US this Fall. Would your guild possibly be able to host her for a workshop? If so please send us an email so we can connect you. (She would need a translator from French, Russian or Ukrainian.)

Thank you for supporting our family-owned business.

Sharing your love of fabric…and color…
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:
June 6-11 – Quilt Canada – Halifax, Nova Scotia
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 – Call of the Wild Winter Wolf

Posted on May 29, 2023 by Luana

Savvy quilters know that Summer is the time to get started on holiday gifts, and
our exclusive eQuilter Wolf Patterns are one of our most popular project categories for gifting. Wolves live in tight family units – the wolf pack represents a beautiful combination of loyalty and freedom. The wolf is highly intelligent and represents a deep connection to instincts and intuition. Does this remind you of someone?

To make this 61″ x 74″ quilt design, you will start with the intensely intimate Wolf portrait in a 30″ x 44″ digital printed Hoffman panel. Use a gray stone texture and 2 Hoffman Hand-Dyes to create the top and bottom panel representing the wolf tracks of the pack. Finish the border with these same 3 tonal fabrics.

If you have not played around with the eQuilter Free Pattern Designer, we invite you to get started with this particular design. There are so many color options – for instance by adding Red this could become a unique Quilt of Valor project. (See link below to customize.)

…from the ‘Call Of The Wild’ collection by Hoffman 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 ‘Bijoux Kitty‘ and ‘Golden Pals‘ 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 – Winged Glory

Posted on May 28, 2023 by Luana

Nothing beats the thrill of seeing a Bald Eagle in the wild, a symbol of freedom as the American National Bird. The American Bald Eagle is an Endangered Species comeback story, and to many of us it also represents not only patriotism, but also our commitment to save those species who are still on the brink.

This week’s Memorial Day Free Quilt Pattern features Northcott’s Glory triptych panel with majestic eagles soaring over rocky mountain peaks. The superimposed American Flag makes this panel a Patriotic treasures.

To make this 69″ x 55″ quilt design, you will piece coordinating cloud borders around the central 30″ x 44″ panel, then miter the fabulous eagle and mountain stripe, and finish with a Stonehenge Gradations Mystic outer border.

…from the ‘Winged Glory’ collection by Rick Kelley for Northcott 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 ‘Bijoux Kitty‘ and ‘Golden Pals‘ 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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Memorial Day at Quilt National

Posted on May 27, 2023 by Luana

Hello from Athens Ohio, where Quilt National has just opened up at the Dairy Arts Center. This prestigious and very competitive art quilt exhibit never fails to impress and delight. I can see all the pent-up creativity from the pandemic, being expressed in this group of stunning quilts. eQuilter is a sponsor, and this afternoon I gave a talk on “Art and Activism” as a fundraiser for the organization. We recorded the talk so if we were successful, I’ll have a link to the talk available for all of you in about a week.

I know 2 of the 3 jurors this year – Irene Roderick and Dr Carolyn Mazloomi. I got to chat with Irene over lunch today which was great because we know of each other, and we know all the same people, but we’ve never been able to sit down and visit. I said “Irene, It seems like you came out of nowhere, but I know that can’t be true … what’s your story?” She laughed and said it was indeed true – she started quilting in 2016! She was encouraged by Kathy York to enter her work in shows. She not only was juried in – she won awards! We carry Irene’s book and it is one of my favorites.

Mary Mattimoe won Best of Show here, with her quilt “Not Enough Time” which is about the loss of 2 co-workers to gun violence. She came and spoke to me last night at the Artist Dinner, and said she is a longtime eQuilter customer! Please Note: We will be carrying the Quilt National catalog book as soon as possible – in the next month but hopefully sooner!

We hope you are having a relaxing Memorial Day weekend. We pause to remember those we have lost, not only veterans, but also those we have lost over the pandemic, and I am also thinking of those lost in the Ukraine war. It gives me comfort to know that through the eQuilter charity program, we are sending money to help those affected by the war. Mission of Love has been sending containers with food, medical supplies and your donated quilts to Poland. In collaboration with local authorities, emergency teams from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are at the scene of the missile attacks in Ukraine, providing medical consultations, psychological first aid, and essential relief items to those affected.

I’ve been in contact with Diane Bonnet in Uvalde this last week (the one year anniversary of the school shooting) and they have received thousands of quilts for the community. For those of you who sent

I’ve been in contact with Diane Bonnet in Uvalde this last week (the one year anniversary of the school shooting) and they have received thousands of quilts for the community. For those of you who sent quilts, she sends her deepest gratitude.

Together we remember those lost, and we take action on their behalf, and to honor their memory.
We wish you a peaceful and creative holiday weekend.

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:
June 6-11 – Quilt Canada – Halifax, Nova Scotia
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 – Bijoux Kitty

Posted on May 26, 2023 by Luana

This luminous tabby cat is the center of attention for this week’s exclusive Free Quilt Pattern, in glowing gemstone hues of turquoise, amethyst and sapphire…..with jewel-like accents of rich gold metallic.

To make this 48″ x 66″ quilt design, you will start with the screen-printed 24″ x 44″ central cat portrait. We’ve added 3 collection coordinate blenders and a Hoffman Hand-dye to create the diamond border, and a matching stripe for the binding.

“Bijoux” means jewels or jewelery in French.
What is your pet name for your precious kitty?

…from the ‘Bijoux’ collection by Chong-A Hwang for Timeless Treasures.

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 ‘Out of This World‘ and ‘Golden Pals‘ 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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