Here we are again my friends, observing another strange Christmas after another strange year. Yes we are all sick and tired of this, but we still have each other. We have our quilt guilds on Zoom, our Fabriholic friends on Facebook, and if we are lucky we have a local group who shares our views on keeping safe while meeting up in person. We continue to live in historic times, and many of you are making quilts to document the ways it has affected your lives.
But seriously, can you imagine going through the last 2 years without quilting? We are so blessed to have found our way to this little corner of the universe. When I am stressed or sad, when my head is too full of jumbled feelings, or when I just need to find my Zen place….there is always a needle and thread, and my fabric stash waiting.
A few days ago we had our Ugly Sweater Contest, had a lot of laughs, and generally blew off steam at work. Our warehouse elves have been hard at work getting those packages out, so we had some giggles and chocolate on our way out the door for a long holiday weekend. You can see photos on our Facebook page.
As you gather with loved ones this weekend, to celebrate and rest, all of us at eQuilter send you our holiday wishes and gratitude. We wish you love, peace and health as we head towards a New Year.
…sharing your love of fabric, Luana and Paul
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Santa is not the only magical being who lives at the North Pole. This week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern features a dazzling Ice Queen riding a Polar Bear under a shimmering Aurora Borealis.
To make this 64″ x 55″ quilt design, you will start with the incredibly detailed 36″ x 44″ digital-printed scenic panel. Add the Indigo stone texure, twilight Ombre sky, and rippling Northern Lights to make this quick and easy project.
The details in the central panel will capture your imagination: The expression on the bear’s face, the crystalline snowflakes,and the tumbling Arctic animals in the lower left hand corner…will keep you enthralled with the luscious painterly artwork.
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this wonderful 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.
In 1958 the first edition of “Jolly Old Santa Claus” was published, with the lush oil-painted illustrations by George Hinke. (1883-1953) George was born in Germany and came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1923, worked in a print shop, and eventually opened his own studio. He was commissioned by Ideals Magazine to create art in his classic nostalgic style.
As a child (born in Milwaukee), I devoured every tiny detail of Hinke’s illustrations. If you are familiar with the book, you know that there is a cat hiding in every scene. I loved finding the elf mishaps, I loved the soft fur of the reindeer, the Black Forest clock on the wall of the workshop, and I could hear the sleigh bells jingling as the reindeer were hitched to the magical sleigh. What I loved most was when I realized that these images were PAINTINGS which meant that if I was an artist, I could create images like this too. This was an absolute miracle for my little brain to contemplate.
When my parents split up and I moved to college at 17, my childhood book collection was liquidated. This was one of the books I mourned for a long time. (Along with Uncle Wiggly) When it was reprinted so I could buy a copy to read to my own children on Christmas Eve, I literally had tears running down my cheeks. What joy to see those beloved scenes again, and share with my own young children!
Hinke’s style of Santa Claus art has now been duplicated in so many ways over so many years, that I imagine not many realize the influence he has had on today’s Christmas illustrators and designers. Every time we get in a new Santa Claus panel that is reminiscent of his work, I smile and think that George must be a guardian angel looking over the shoulders of another generation of holiday artists.
And so we are all inspired by those who come before us. Even when we create something brand new, it was first part of the creative soup in our brains, that has been brewing our entire lives. For those of us who crave visual stimulation, and then allow the colors and designs to flow out of us into our quilts and textile art, it is simply the creative life force of divine consciousness that is guiding our hands and hearts.
In this season of Faith, Hope, Love, and Charity…may we all harness this as a Force for Good….to guide our sleighs safely through this holiday season and into the New Year.
…sharing your love of fabric, Luana and Paul
p.s. Mission of Love is filling up a 53′ foot trailer with disaster relief supplies, departing Dec 28 for Bowling Green Kentucky which was hit by 2 tornadoes Dec 11. If you would like to help with basic humanitarian needs for those who have lost everything, we urge you to support this effort with our trusted non-profit partner. Details on our Facebook page.
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The gift of a beautiful Poinsettia at Christmastime is such an expression of joy and love, and this week’s exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern is a huge Ruby-Red Poinsettia that will be treasured for years to come. You can purchase this seasonal quilt kit now while we still have this limited edition panel, and get an early start on a holiday gift for next year.
To make this dazzling 67″ x 67″ quilt design, you will start with the 43″ x 44″ digital-printed huge flower panel. Sew the pieced border with Red and Green Stars, and a White Snow blender.
Please note that we also have the Pink Poinsettia and White Poinsettia panels in stock now, in case you want to re-design with your own color combination. See instructions on customizing your quilt, at the link below.
Consider finishing the project by freemotion-quilting with Metallic Thread, and be sure to use a Metallica needle and Sewer’s Aid thread lubricant for metallic stitching-success!
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this wonderful 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.
Now is time of year when Gift Certificates become the supreme choice for last-minute shoppers…to Give and to Receive! We can send them out email, even on Christmas Eve. Drop a hint and you might get one too. *wink*
My painted 54″ fiberglass bear “If Mama Bears Ruled the Earth” is now on public display in Chautauqua Park here in Boulder. It will be there through April 3 when the fundraiser auction ends and some lucky winner will take it home. I met the juror and he told me that the 15 artists (including Barbara Beasley) were chosen from 100 applicants, so I am feeling kind of proud of this accomplishment. I enjoy quietly sitting on the bench nearby, and watching the children play on the bears.
The construction in my new studio space finally finished yesterday, and although it is not quite ready to be fully set up, I’ve carved out a space to plug in my BERNINA and finish my current project for an exhibit that has been delayed several times during the pandemic, but now has an imminent deadline. The construction delay (from 1 week, to 5 weeks) was due to supply chain and labor issues, and was very stressful. But what can you do? I will spend the last 2 weeks of the year organizing my new space and plowing ahead with new projects for a creative New Year. Can you believe it? …2022 is just around the corner now.
We are having a severe winter drought here, so the topic of the week has been Winter Watering. We will either have to turn on the sprinkler system, or get a really long hose, to water our young trees on the property. You may recall we moved into our new eQuilter building 3 years ago, and we had to replace some trees last year, so the current drought has become a concern for all of us with new trees. Planting trees is a way to fight climate change and bad air quality, but you have to give those young trees a chance to put down some deep roots.
This week we’ll be having our Ugly Christmas Sweater and Holiday Costume Contest at the office, so I’ll be posting photos on our Facebook page. Please note we will be closed on Friday Christmas Eve and Friday New Years Eve so our staff can enjoy the holiday.
Send us your photos of the holiday quilts you’ve made with eQuilter fabrics this year, and we’ll put them on our social media this week!
…sharing your love of fabric, Luana and Paul
Quilt/Travel Calendar: Jan 18 – Apr 9, 2022 – New England Quilt Museum (NEQM) “For the Love of Gaia” exhibit Feb 16-19 – QuiltCon – Phoenix Arizona Sat, April 9 – “International Quilt Trends” lecture – NEQM Closing Reception October 2022 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Churchill Manitoba Canada
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Tonight we celebrate the Beauty of the Garden, with colorful Songbirds visiting a lush haven of jeweltone blossoms. This collection is an amazing example of how technology (digital printing) can bring the artist’s original illustration to life.
To make this 69″ x 69″ quilt design, you will start with the gorgeously detailed 24″ x 44″ scenic panel, then cut up and piece 2 of the vignette block panels for the side sections. Add the engineered stripe and coordinates to finish with a clever border.
We offer this exclusive eQuilter Free Quilt Pattern to you this week, because we know the holidays will be over soon enough, and this is a special project that will bring you joy over the coming Winter months of sewing time. This one’s for YOU. We are so grateful for your support of our family business in these challenging times, and consider this a hug of gratitude at the end of another long year.
PLUS – you’ll receive Free USA / 50% off INTL shipping when you order the fabrics for this wonderful 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.
“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
As we head into the darkest week of the year, approaching the Winter Solstice, I am thinking about all the ways I can appreciate the longest nights of the year. We’ll have 9 hours and 21 minutes of sun tomorrow. The sun set here at 4:35 pm tonight, and night falls heavily in late December like a door slamming shut. These quiet dark nights are good for sewing, sipping tea, reading and resting.
“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.” – Mary Oliver
Light pollution has spoiled our view of the Milky Way over the decades, but I have memories of a few remarkable nights when I experienced the galaxy strewn across a black velvet sky in a light show that left me speechless. The ones I remember most are – reclining in a high mountain meadow in a sleeping bag when I was at summer camp as a kid, and more recently being blown away by the Southern skies on a pitch black night, on the Southwest coast of Australia. The Milky Way was like fireworks reflected in the bay!
Because of this love of stargazing, every night I go out to look at the sky, without fail. These days I do it when I take my dogs out to pee, before I go to bed. Before I knew Paul, I would go out on my back porch to look at the stars at midnight. When I met Paul and visited his house for the first time, the garage opened up and there was a huge telescope taking up half the garage, and I knew he was the one. We bonded over our mutual love of Star Trek and Monty Python.
“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” – Anne Frank
Some of you may feel that we are going through a dark time. Our hearts go out to those affected by yet another natural disaster – the tornadoes that hit 5 states a few days ago. I want to let you know that thanks to the eQuilter charity fund, we donated to the Community Foundation of West Kentucky (based in Paducah) and the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund. We are relieved to know that the Quilt Museum in Paducah was not affected.
On the other hand, we are entering the Season of Light, which we celebrate next week when the Solstice marks our return to longer days. As we prepare for the season of love, generosity, and compassion…I hope you have some quiet time to contemplate the stars and the New Year ahead.
“It’s better to light a candle, than to curse the darkness.” – Confucius & Eleanor Roosevelt
We are celebrating all 50 states of the United States of America in this week’s Free Quilt Pattern. This exclusive eQuilter quilt design would make an excellent teaching tool as a wall-hanging, or a nostalgic trip around the country as a Lap Quilt or Nap Quilt. The states are alphabetized so it is easy to find your favorite states. This is quite a conversation-starter with beloved iconic images and symbols from around the country.
To make this 55″ x 47″ quilt design, you will start with the large 36″ x 44″ panel, featuring a ‘Retro Postcard’ from every state….a reminder of how we used to collect postcards from every state we visited on those family road trips.
We’ve finished off this quilt design with 4 different Earthtone Stonehenge textures, to symbolize the journey across our rugged landscape. Because this is made from a grid panel, you can do an easy faux ‘stitch in the ditch’ around the postcards which means this is kind of a cheater quilt with a border. This is a great quick gift for your favorite person with a bad case of Wanderlust!
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.
Today I went by myself to see the musical play “A Christmas Carol” based on the Charles Dickens novel. They have given the same production every year in Denver and I have seen it many times over the decades. The Victorian costumes, the singing and dancing and of course the message, are often just what I need to get in the holiday spirit. This production was particularly emotional because they had to skip 3 years. The first year was for a theater renovation, and then of course …the pandemic happened. I felt safe to go because they are requiring that everyone be vaccinated and masked. There is a new middle-aged actor playing Scrooge. I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the older gentleman who has played the role for so long…but I was not surprised.
And so we are coming out on the other end of a wormhole and everything has changed, whether we like it or not. Some things have speeded up, like our adaptation to being educated and entertained online. Some things have slowed down, like the supply chain that will bring some of our gifts next year. This week I had to laugh – when a Christmas gift I ordered in September 2020 – finally arrived in time for Christmas 2021!
This coming week we are working hard to get your holiday gifts out the door. If you order something that is meant to be a gift, give us a call and we’ll try to push it out the door a little faster. We have a team of elves in the warehouse who can work some magic if you let us know it is a last minute gift. For the non-quilters in your household, our Artisan Chocolates will please almost anyone, and you can slip a few bars in with that order of precuts and thread. We do still have a good selection of Quilt-themed Calenda rs in stock, but when they are gone that’s it folks!
Otherwise we are getting into that time of year when Gift Certificates become the supreme choice for last-minute shoppers…to Give and to Receive! We can send them out by mail or even by email on Christmas Eve.
…sharing your love of fabric, Luana and Paul
Quilt/Travel Calendar: Jan 12 – Apr 9, 2022 – New England Quilt Museum (NEQM) “For the Love of Gaia” exhibit Feb 16-19 – QuiltCon – Phoenix Arizona Sat, April 9 – “International Quilt Trends” lecture – NEQM Closing Reception October 2022 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Churchill Manitoba Canada
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