I’ve just finished up
a few days at the
quilt festival in Nantes France, enjoying my visits with quilters from all
over France, all over Europe, and all over the world! What a great joy it is to
share our passion for fabric, color and stitching. It is also so interesting to
see the local color palette preferences, alongside Dutch, and other European
color palettes represented among the vendors. We had fascinating discussions
about how local weather and landscapes affect the various local color
preferences.
Each year the Color Marketing Group (CMG) collaborates on updated color
palettes for North America, South America, Asia and Europe. I feel like N
America and Europe tend to be more conservative, and S American and Asia tend
to be more adventurous. It is always interesting to compare these global color
trends, to the color trends I see at quilt exhibits around the world. We
certainly see this at eQuilter – that our overseas customers tend to order a
different color palette than our US customers. Color trends can start on one
continent and then bounce across the ocean to another continent, influencing
design decisions not only in textiles, but also home dec, car finishes, graphic
design, house paint and flooring. (I’ll be attending the CMG conference again
in November.)
eQuilter sponsored the QuiltCon exhibit at this Pour l’Amour du Fil event, and
this Modern Quilt exhibit was packed with enthusiastic admirers every time I
walked by. My talk on International Quilt Trends was translated into French by
the show organizer Carol, and the video will be online soon.
My curator friend from the US Embassy in Rome flew in to spend the week with
me, and we had a fun dinner with Kathy Doughty one night. (The American
designer for Free Spirit who lives in Sydney Australia.) It was fun to get to
know her better. Kathy’s booth was mobbed every time I walked by. We have a
parallel history working in the design industry in NYC in the 80s. I got a
little sneak peek of the line she is putting together for Fall Quilt Market in
Houston, and we definitely agree on some specific color trends for 2020…a
certain shade of Green in particular!
I’ll be in Paris on Monday and Tuesday, visiting with Parisian quilters and
visiting Notre Dame. Watch for my Midweek Creative Nudge e-newsletter Weds
morning.
sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul
