eQuilter Newsletter - March 23rd, 2025
New Fabric CLEARANCE - New Designer Prints + Quilting Treasures

March 22 is World Water Day. Some of us have the relative luxury of clean abundant water. However there are many places in the world where accessing water is a daily struggle. So today eQuilter is donating to organizations who fight for clean non-toxic water, and help to build clean water systems for communities desperate for this basic element of Life.

Our quilt fabric industry has been moving towards water sustainability for years, although lately the opposite is often reported. Please do not confuse the waste and pollution caused by the garment industry and 'fast fashion', with our little quilt textile industry. It is especially important to point out that the mature digital-printing textile industry is a low-water and low-pollution industry compared to standard printing and dyeing factories. This is one of the reasons we have championed digital printing over the years.

For those who still think digital printing is low quality - I invite you to catch up with modern present-day quality digital fabrics. When the digital printing industry was in its infancy, there were some sub-standard products that went out to quilt shops and the public. This is still true often with pigment digital printing, but the modern digital-printing factories use multi-million dollar printing machines that have been fine-tuned to use dye sublimation with precise printing techniques. The dye soaks into the fabric and bonds to the cotton fiber on a molecular level. (unlike pigment printing) There is a lot of mis-information being projected onto the quilt fabric industry, so when you read about the waste and toxic by products of the fashion industry, keep in mind this is a separate but much larger industry.

I will remind you that I came from the fashion industry, and visited about 400 factories in 10 Asian countries during those years when I lived in LA, Hong Kong, and then New York. I hope to write a magazine article on this topic later this year, based on what I have learned over the years. It is a topic I have discussed with our quilt industry suppliers for years. It is a topic we should all consider, especially when purchasing garments. I saw the sins of the garment industry making cheap fashion in developing countries, which is why I was so happy to find the quilting industry in the early 90s. In the 80s, when I was designing high quality expensive garments, we rejected those factories, but I will never forget what I saw....

Needless to say, eQuilter's exclusive digital printed fabrics under the Rubin Design Studio label, are dye-sublimation printed at the highest quality factories. We are known for our quirky creative designs. When our customer demand outstripped what we could get from our suppliers, we started our own line, and our customer have been loving our collectible artwork ever since!

My favorite new Rubin design this week -
the Mystical Octopus!

sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul

Follow my artist blog here.

Travel/Lecture Dates:
Apr 3-6 - SAQA Conference - St Pete, Florida
April 23-26 - Washington DC - Private Event
April 27- May 3 - Alegre Retreat - Gateway Colorado
May 23-26 - Quilt National - Dairy Barn, Athens OH
June 18-20 - Quilt Canada - Toronto Ontario

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

See Luana's Artist Blog, 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.