eQuilter Blog

The hot bright colors from Latin America continue to filter into the color trends of the US, along with the Day of the Dead, indigenous Mayan textiles, and Mexican folk art florals. It is a whirling melange of colors, like the ruffled and tiered skirts of Mexican dancers.

If you've visited places like Santa Fe, San Antonio, or Sedona, you've been exposed to Hispanic and Latino food and culture. Guacamole and Margaritas are ubiquitous, and restaurant chains like Chipotle and Qdoba spread the gospel of the Burrito from coast to coast. Lady Guadalupe spreads her garment of many floral colors, and invites us in to worship the divine beauty of the Rainbow.

There is a palette of colors that come from Mexico and Central America, which are being absorbed into mainstream culture. These are colors that make us smile, and put us in the mood for a Fiesta!

Hot Mexican Pink, Chili Pepper Red, Cactus Flower Pink, Mango Orange, Lime Green, Amethyst Purple, Golden Topaz and Turquoise are the colors of the jewels, flowers and spices of the Hispanic culture.

I used to design jewelry, and I took buying trips to Arizona and Brazil to look for colorful stones. Navajo turquoise, Golden Topaz from Ouro Preto, Amethyst from Belo Horizonte, and Colombian Emeralds were the colors that filled my dreams when I closed my eyes. The flowers and spices filled my senses in the markets, and I saw all these colors reflected in the fabrics worn by the local people. In the open markets, you experience the colors with all 5 senses!

When you work with these colors in your sewing studio, turn on some Latin music and let the rhythm move you!

The photo above was taken on my trip to Guatemala with Mission of Love, during the Cleft Palate Surgery Trip. This indigenous Mayan woman is showing her daughter how to hand-weave the brightly colored ikat yarn-dyes, for which Guatemala is famous.

Upcoming Quilty Travel:
Sept 20 sponsor of Quilters Take Manhattan
Sept 29 Quilt Exhibit, US Embassy, Rome
Oct 13-19 Polar Bear Tour, Churchill
Oct 24-29 Quilt Festival Houston
Nov 14-16 Color Marketing Group, Orlando
Jan 16 2015 – Presenter at Quilt Symposium in Manawatu, New Zealand

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We've had some chilly evenings here in Boulder, and some leaves are already beginning to change. It seems that Fall may arrive early this year, and the changing of the seasons always makes me think of the opposite seasons that are changing now Down Under, and all across the Southern Hemisphere. There, our Aussie, Kiwi, South American and African friends are finishing up the Winter season and preparing for Spring.

A couple years ago I traveled to Australia for the first time, and it was a powerful visual experience. I started with the quilt festival in Melbourne, then rode up the coast on the Great Ocean Road.

The colors of the quilts shifted me into a different gear right away, and by the time I arrived at Cape Otway to photograph the Koalas in the Gum Trees (Eucalyptus), I was as wide-eyed and curious as a child. Seeing a Mob of Roos taking over a golf course at dusk, and a flock of wild Cockatoos take over a beach town, had shown me that anything was possible there.

The Aboriginal art was powerful and had a pulsing visual effect on me. However I don't think you need to live in, or travel to Australia to appreciate Koalas and Aboriginal paintings. I began to think about dots in a different way too – not just as the pleasant retro polka dots we like to use here – but as a shimmering expression of Light and Dark.

Here we have a collage of Australian-themed fabrics, built around a photo of a little Koala fellow from my trip there. Yes we think of Kangaroos when we think of Australia, but there are also the Emus, Platypus, Dingo, Wallaby, Bandicoot, Echidna, and the rich ocean life of the Great Barrier Reef.

As we approach the Spring and Fall Equinoxes in the North and South Hemispheres in a few weeks, I imagine a Square Dance as our North steps into Fall, and you in the South move into Spring, and the Earth does a Do-Si-Do into yet another shifting season, encouraging us to let go of one season as we prepare a place in our schedule, our life, our heart and our sewing studios…for another season of quilting.