eQuilter Blog

Our youngest child Sophie started high school (9th grade) on Thursday, and Sam starts his sophomore year in college on Monday. Those of you who have followed our family’s story over the years, will feel the same sense of shock that I do! Sophie is practicing her violin, preparing to audition for a seat in orchestra, and Sam just auditioned for placement in a band. He’s been practicing his sax for 6 hours a day. Maybe some day we can invite you to one of his concerts, as he is a performance major.

My double-header trip last week was pretty exhausting, so I am resting this weekend. I am going over all the photos I took at the Festival of Quilts, and listening to Puccini opera music while I catch up on correspondence. It was also very interesting to talk to quilters in England, and fellow opera-lovers in Italy, about Brexit, and the refugee crisis. We know that at least one of our charity recipients – Doctors Without Borders – is helping those affected by the upheaval in Syria.

Next week in my midweek Creative Nudge newsletter, I’ll be talking about trends (!) emerging from the Birmingham exhibits, from quilters around Europe. Right now I’m editing and sorting through a couple thousand photos, so I can post images of the quilts that are pointing toward new trends, or setting extraordinary benchmarks of design and technique. I love seeing how creativity evolves through the filters of different cultural traditions and aesthetics.

In Europe and the UK, there seems to be a lot less concern for that old squabble about “What is a quilt?”, than there is in the US. I find the continuing exploration of fiber art to be refreshing for the most part (although some of it is a head-scratcher at times) and I appreciate that a show called the Festival of Quilts is so open to these creative explorations that obviously go way beyond the current definition of a Quilt.

I also really appreciate that a sizable chunk of their exhibit space is dedicated to different categories of Junior Quilters…cultivating the quilters and textile artists of tomorrow! The Tokyo Quilt Festival also has a prominent section for Junior Quilters, and we can only hope that more quilt festivals in the US will welcome entries by kids and teenagers.

SAQA’s “Celebrating Silver” exhibit was in Birmingham, and got a fantastic response from what I heard. Congratulations to all of you with a quilt in this beautiful collection.

Our heart goes out to those in Louisiana affected by the floods. If anyone is coordinating a comfort quilt project for flood victims, let me know and I will share the information.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

Last night I arrived home, after spending the weekend at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK. This is the biggest quilt festival in Europe and it is great to see all the European and UK flavors of creativity as I walk the show. I am still pondering all the quilts I photographed at the show, and thinking about the trends I saw emerging.

One of the things that struck me was how many quilts there were with African themes and African fabrics. One quilter wrote about her quilt – “Africa – Our Future”. Despite all the refugee problems emanating from Northern Africa, there is still a recognition that the continent is a huge untapped resource.

There was also a lot of attention on issues such as animals going extinct, and climate change. Some quilts were very subtle and some were very blatant and direct in their message.

This bold quilt by Ingrid Agering “African Star” uses a traditional quilt design with bold African prints in the pieced star….and a graphic circle of elephant silhouettes. There was a lot of intricate quilting in the white background. It drew a lot of attention and admiration from the festival attendees, and was placed in a visible location.

We have always carried African import prints, African animal fabrics, and African batiks/panels. Since my visit to South Africa for the 20th anniversary of Apartheid ending (with Carolyn Mazloomi’s quilt group, to see their Nelson Mandela quilt exhibit there) I’ve had an even greater appreciation for the colors and traditional fabrics coming from this vast continent.

Next week in my Midweek Creative Nudge, I’ll be posting quilt photos and talking about other trends from the show. Kudos to Ingrid for this bold beautiful quilt!

The quilt is shown in a collage of Elephant and African-themed fabrics now in stock at eQuilter.com

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

2016 Travel Calendar:
Sept 3 – Water is Life – Embassy Reception – Frascati Rome
Sept 18-25 – CUBA Arts Tour #2
Oct 6 – Dairy Barn – Athens OH – “Intl Quilt Trends” Lecture
Oct 29 – Nov 4 – Houston Quilt Market & Festival
Nov 11-13 – Color Marketing Group – Albuquerque
Nov 15-20 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Churchill Canada