Creative Hero

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Luana

I am inspired by creativity from many different mediums… not just quilting, not just fiber art, not just painting and drawing…. but also fashion, graphic design, cooking, and music.

One of my creative heroes is musician Jake Shimabukuro, who is performing in a few days here in Boulder. He grew up in the rich cultural sea of Hawaiian arts and traditional ukulele music, and completely reinvented the image of a previously maligned instrument. (think Tiny Tim and "Tiptoe Through the Tulips")

If you have some time, explore online videos with Jake playing jazz, flamenco, rock and classical music on his 4-string ukulele. It will blow open any preconceptions you might have had about this unassuming instrument.

From his first viral video, to his current rock star status, Jake took something something simple and traditional, and totally made it his own. And wow, does he OWN it!

I see it as a parallel to what has happened in the quilting world over the last few decades. First there was a recognition of the value of vintage patchwork and traditional applique quilts, and collectors began to drive up the value and appreciation of the artform. (Hawaiian quilts were coming on the collector's radar screen about that same time.)

Then a few pioneering creative people started using "quilting" as a medium to explore a new artform. Most of those early quilt artists are nearing retirement age, and we have lost a few of them already. There was a second wave of contemporary quilters who stretched out the term of "quilting" so far that they caused controversy, before being accepted and awarded. (Think the painted quilts of Hollis Chatelain, for instance.)

Now we have the third wave of quilters who seek a modern design aesthetic, and these days even their spare design movement is being reinterpreted and reinvented by creative textile artists.

It is a great time to be a fiber artist! For the most part we can have completely different artistic points of view, but we can all come together at the Houston Quilt Festival and celebrate our shared passion, while discussing our various quilting idiosyncracies with gusto.

Vive la difference!

or… Long live the Aloha Spirit!

 

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Creative Nudge – A Spicy Soup

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Luana

3GoldLadies_550

I am home, recovering from a 12 hour time difference, and mulling over impressions from my tour of India. There are so many things I want to be sure to remember…the myriad of smells and sounds on the street, the impossibly clashing but stimulating color combinations, the smiles of the people with lives of extreme simplicity, and the endless creativity of those who had nothing but time on their hands.

One thing that really struck us was that the people who had the least – still had COLOR. The women who lived in the most primitive and challenging of conditions, wore the most saturated colors, and the most interesting color combinations.

For two weeks I watched no TV, and severely limited my exposure to the outside world. (With the exception of checking the news on our Colorado flooding.) I wanted to create a clear context, with which to experience the colors and creativity of India. I wanted to limit the distractions of modern life, and be as present as possible with the people I met each day. It is so easy to gloss over the difficult aspects of day-to-day living in a developing country. We don't even realize when we are looking away, not wanting to see…

So I looked. I looked at everything. I took as many photos as I could, so the camera would see and remember what my eyes and brain could not process when I was overwhelmed and oversaturated. What the camera saw was the exquisitely detailed handwork on the textiles, but also the twisted limbs of the beggars along the River Ganges. The camera saw intricate designs in the tilework of the mosques, but it also saw the ravages of time and a hard life on a mother's face. I wanted to see all of these things, and more… to remember.

Ever since I arrived in India, I've had some of the most colorful, detailed, long-winded dreams at night. The first night I was there, I had a powerful psychological nightmare that gave me something to think about during the day. The trip was an empty crucible into which my subconscious dumped itself every sleep cycle. It was an opportunity for self-discovery that went way past Creative Inspiration.

It was a brief moment in a lifetime, for a cleansing, a healing, and a rebirth. I don't know what it means yet, but I know the soup that has been bubbling in my subconscious crucible will reveal itself in so many ways, as I live, love and create in the next several months.

We are accepting comfort quilts for Colorado Flood victims. You can drop them off or ship them to us at:
eQuilter.com
5455 Spine Rd, Suite E
Boulder CO 80301

I have an artist friend who lost her home and studio, and all her artwork. She lived in the town of Lyons which is still evacuated and unlivable. We will call upon our local contacts to make sure that each donated quilt is personally delivered to someone who has suffered a great loss in the flood. Many thanks to those of you who have offered to send quilts!

Namaste….
Luana

*The photo above was taken at the Amber Fort in Jaipur…the Three Golden Muses?*

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Colors of India

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Luana

My feet are back on US soil now, and I am having
a 4 hour layover at Newark Airport. My journey back will be 36 hours
door-to-door, from the hotel in Varanasi to my home in Boulder Colorado. I saw
lots of flood damage in India, so there was a curious parallel during my trip
as I read about Boulder, but saw the effects of last month's monsoon floods in
rural and urban India.

As I have posted on my blog
and on my personal Facebook page
during the trip, I've had queries about whether eQuilter will carry Indian
fabrics.

Actually, we have always carried fabrics from India, and designer collections
inspired by India. I've made a list of these below, so you can start to see the
fabric that inspired me to go to India, and what is inspiring me to create over
the last couple weeks.

Indian themed categories:

Bollywood,
Elephants & Faux Ikats

Paisleys,
Peacocks
& Tigers

Fabrics from India:

Cotton
Yarn Dyes and Ikats from Textile Creations

Shot
Cottons from Kaufman, Andover, and &
Lam? from Textile Creations

eQuilter
Value-Priced Batiks

Designers Inspired by India's Colors:

Jinny
Beyer – from the years she lived there.

Kaffe
Fassett – he keeps a village employed with his yarn-dye
and shot cotton orders.

(See my video
interview with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably about his shot cottons!)

I'm dreaming in these Indian Colors:

Saffron Gold

Jaipur Orange

Red Curry

Rajastan Pink

Lime Green

Peacock Teal

Jodphur Blue

Ganges Lavender

More Color Inspiration:

Hindu Wedding Red

Turmeric and Marigold

Krishna Blue

Rice Paddy Green

Lotus Pink

Taj White

Henna Red

Red Fort Terracotta

One of the biggest spice surprises on the trip was the color and smell of
*fresh* Cardamom seeds! I have never seen them so fresh and green at the Asian
market in Boulder, but now I have to try and track them down. The smell is
sweet and spicy but really clears out your sinuses!

Many thanks to our friend and hostess in Delhi – my new friend Anju.

If you follow my
fellow traveler Pam Holland, you'll also see more photos and videos popping
up on her blog. She is on her way to Dubai today, and will be teaching in
Abruzzo in Italy next weekend.

I have several thousand photos and I am distilling them down and posting on my Flickr photo page.…but
now I have to go catch that plane home to Colorado!

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Creative Nudge – On to Varanasi

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Luana

Many of you who follow my travels and creative essays may have already figured out that I write and send these essays very spontaneously. It is a creative challenge that I made for myself when we started our midweek Creative Nudge a couple years ago.

Right now I have about 15 minutes to write down my thoughts, pack up, and head for the airport to our last destination – Varanasi.

Two days ago, what was supposed to be a 6 hour cross-country drive, turned out to be an 11 1/2 hour drive on severely rutted rural “highways” which ran through remote areas (don’t even think about what would happen if we broke down) and punctuated with crazy crowded noisy villages full of people, cows, trash heaps, pigs, goats, bicycles, all headed in different directions at the same time.

Travel is a great test of character, and every day we’ve felt like part of all of the day was like being in a National Geographic documentary. We did not take the usual tourist trip, but the 3 of us hired a car and driver, and took off in search of the most interesting photography subjects. Traveling in India is not for the faint of heart, especially if you go off the tourist track. I certainly wouldn’t recommend this trip for just anyone. There are days that we had to prepare for the worst so we could be happy if everything went as planned. Ha!

On the other hand, I must say that we could have exposed ourselves to many dangerous situations here, but we did not. We had a driver and a guide. We stayed in nice hotels where we knew we could eat safely. We did not go out alone or at night. If too many people crowded around us hawking their wares or begging for money, we left quickly and spoke forcefully to anyone invading our space.

I’ve seen extreme poverty up close, and interacted with people living lives of hopeless destitution, but each new culture carries its own heartbreaking version of what it means to be poor. The villagers we see as we pass through rural roadside villages, are so poor they can’t afford to send their children to the free public schools here. That is really something to think about. However we were happy to see that many rural children DO go to school, and that will drive the progress of this densely populated nation.

It has been an intensely rich experience of colors, textile arts, fabrics, sights, sounds and smells. As many have said to me, it is impossible to explain the constantly intense experience of being in India, but once you visit here, you know. It is beyond words. However I have taken thousands of photos and I am working to condense them down into a visual story for you.

I’ve posted many photos already on my photo page, and also several videos on my personal Facebook page. I also purchased several gorgeous elephant and horse-themed embellished wall hangings which I will make available on eQuilter when I return. (thanks to my buying assistants and fellow travelers – Pam Holland and her sister Jan!)

I am unplugging now, here in Khajuraho, and flying to Varanasi. Tomorrow we tour this sacred city on the banks of the River Ganges, and Friday I begin my long journey home with an extra suitcase, and a heart and mind full to the brim with emotion, inspiration, and exquisitely complex memories.

Feel free to share your thoughts on my blog.

Namaste….
Luana

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Colorado Floods

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Luana

 

I am writing to you tonight from Agra in India, after visiting the Taj Mahal today. As you can imagine, it is very surreal to be reading about the flood devastation in Colorado, when I am on the other side of the world. A couple days ago I was at a textile dealer in Jaipur, and when I mentioned I was from Boulder, he immediately said ?Oh, you had the big flood!?? so obviously it was heavily covered in the international news.

So far I know of one friend who is homeless from the floods, and I imagine I will learn of others when I return. Our family and staff and fabric warehouse were ok during the flood ? some of us had to bail water out of our basements but to my knowledge that is the worst of any damage in our eQuilter family.

Many friends and customers have asked how they can help our flood victims. We are grateful for your offer!  A couple years ago we collected and distributed quilts for those who lost their homes in the Colorado Fires. It is hard to believe that once again in our foothills community, and around the Front Range area, we are looking at so many people whose homes and belongings were devastated by the flash floods.

I am halfway through my trip, so I will be home next weekend on the 28th. If you would like to send us comfort quilts and bed quilts for flood victims, we will make sure they are personally distributed to those most affected. You can drop them off or ship them to us at:

eQuilter
5455 Spine Rd, Suite E
Boulder, CO  80301

If you would like to make a donation to a local organization that is helping flood victims, please take a look at the list below.

I will be writing more about my trip to India in the midweek Creative Nudge newsletter in a few days. In the meantime you can follow my travels on my personal Facebook page, and on my Flickr photo page.

Many thanks to all of you who have called and emailed, expressing concern, and wanting to help in our post-flood community!

HelpColoradoNow.org is a partnership between the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) and Colorado Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (COVOAD). This initiative brings together government agencies and nonprofit organizations so they may better assist communities affected by disasters.

Emergency Family Assistance Association: For all emergency needs for residents of Boulder and Broomfield Counties: http://www.efaa.org/

Community Food Share:  For emergency or ongoing food needs for residents of Boulder and Broomfield Counties:  http://communityfoodshare.org/

Salvation Army: Help those affected during the days of storm ahead and during long-term recovery. The Salvation Army uses 100 percent of your disaster donations in support of local disaster relief operations. To give, visit imsalvationarmy.org or call 1-800-SAL-ARMY (1-800-725-2769) and designate "Colorado Floods."

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Road to Jaipur

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Luana


JamaMama_W

I am writing to you from a hotel in the countryside, about a half hour outside of Jaipur in India.
In a few minutes I?ll be leaving for our daytrip to Jaipur ? the Pink City.

We've only been here 3 days and I feel like I have been here a week.
Having traveled extensively throughout Asia, and having spent a month in Sri Lanka in 1987, I had an idea of what two weeks in India would be like? but?

There is no amount of logical foresight that can prepare one for the
experiences of a tour across India.
Yesterday we made the 6 hour roadtrip cross-country from Delhi to the
Jaipur area, and by the time we arrived at our country hotel we were all
completely exhausted! There was so much to see on the road? With all the photos we took,
we still could never capture the depth and breadth of what we
experienced on the highways and villages.
The sacred cows chewing garbage in the road medians, the monkeys
chattering and bouncing in the trees, the camel convoys driven by
white-turbaned farmers, the homeless children selling water and flowers
at the toll stops, the ladies in billowing saris sitting side-saddle on
the backs of scooters, the painted lorries (trucks) parked along the
roadsides (waiting to roll at 9 pm), the endless stream of buildings
that are half-built or half-destroyed, the fields of barley and the
distant huge factories, the trucks overloaded with workers spilling out
the windows and clinging to the back bumper and roof?I've seen photos of
these things but it always strikes one as an incredible snapshot in time when you take that picture?

Our trip has not been without surprises.
Last night as we turned off the highway, we ended up taking a long drive
down a twisting dirt road filled with cows and goats, dips and rocks,
mudholes and the occasional human.
A half hour from when we had turned off the main road, I finally entered
my private villa and realized what was so special about this remote
hotel.
I had to do a 180 degree turn in my expectations, but as I settled into
embracing a countryside spa experience (when I was expecting a plush
city hotel close to the sights of Jaipur) I was able to shift into a
place of peaceful surrender.
Which of course was exactly what I needed!

This morning on the way down the rock path to breakfast, I almost
stepped on a big green slug on the pathway.
?Hello!? I said.
?What message are you bringing me today?? I find that Nature always
brings me messages of wisdom, when I can slow down enough to understand
the message.
?Slow down? enjoy the peaceful quiet of Nature? the slug seemed to
whisper with each bob of his antennae.

I will continue to post photos every day or two, as I am able.
(with the help of the internet gods.) This photo was taken at Jama Masjid ? a mosque in Delhi.
This beautiful mother had 5 small children, and she was very happy to have their photo taken.
She had a grace and quiet wisdom about her that we will always remember.

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Creative Nudge – Lady Liberty as Muse

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Luana

Liberty_550

When you read this, it will be September 11, the 12th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Towers.
Because I had lived in the East Village
in NYC for many years, even though I had started a new life back in
Colorado in 1990, that day is seared into my memory as it is for most of
you.

It was also the starting point of our comfort quilt program for disaster victims, in partnership with Mission of Love.
On 9/11, I watched the towers come down on TV.
Then I went into the office to tell our staff what I had seen.
We held hands and prayed for peace and understanding, and all we could think of was…what can we do to help?

We put out the call to our customers, and over 3000 quilts came pouring in.
They were distributed in NYC to families who had lost a loved one, or who had otherwise been directly affected by the event.
Mission of Love, and some of my old friends in NYC
who were part of my spiritual network, made sure that each quilt was
personally placed into the arms of someone who had suffered a loss.

I snapped this photo in March of this year, about an hour before Sophie and I visited the memorial park at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan.
I have a very special attachment to Lady Liberty.
When I lived in NYC in the 80's, I was very fortunate to be able to climb all the way up into her crown, and look out across the harbor to the World Trade Center's twin towers.

In 1986 I went to her Centennial Celebration and joined in the giant lovefest that the city has for Lady Liberty.

Honestly, whenever I see her in person,
I get teary-eyed.
I know I have ancestors who saw her as they arrived in the US, so
perhaps there is a genetic memory of the emotional intensity they must
have felt when they saw this grand lady greeting them with her
illuminating torch held high.

We have friends in the quilt industry who lost loved ones on 9/11/2001, and today we send them love and wish them peace.

We thank all the quilters who rushed to send quilts after 9/11/2001, but
also all of you who sent quilts after Katrina, the Haiti earthquake,
the Japan Tsunami, the Colorado Fires, Hurricane Sandy, and the tornado in Oklahoma.

I am leaving Friday for India, the largest democracy
in the world, but also a land of great contrasts of beauty and poverty.
Through Facebook and my contacts as a Bernina Artisan, I am grateful to
have connected with a fellow quilter (and Bernina lover!) in New Delhi,
who is going to host Pam Holland and I on Sunday.
We will gather with a group of quilters for a special dinner on Monday
night, before leaving on our cross-country adventure Tuesday morning.

We have uploaded the last 3 videos from Birmingham Quilt Festival, bringing the total to 12 videos from this European quilt exhibition.

You may notice that we now have topped 100 videos on the eQuilter video page! Please take advantage of the inspiration and information that is contained in all of our quilt videos…
it is there for you to enjoy!

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Birmingham Videos Part 3, India Trip

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Luana

I am posting the last few videos from the Birmingham Quilt Festival in the next couple days, before I leave for my next big adventure on Friday the 13th.

Did you catch my video interview with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably? Of course we carry all the shot cottons, yarn-dye stripes, and books that are mentioned in the interview.
You'll hear him talking about his fabrics from India.

I have just uploaded Part 1 & 2 videos of the Pictorial Quilt Exhibit, which was sponsored by eQuilter in Birmingham. This is one of my favorite categories, which is why we sponsor this of course!

Please note that we now have the book Abataka which was mentioned last week in the Mary Fisher video.

So are you wondering why I am going to India on Friday? I am meeting my dear friend Pam Holland (artist, teacher, author, and fellow international adoptive mom) and we are going to tour India for 2 weeks.
We are both photographers and artists with a passion for color and
textiles, so we are working our way across the country from New Delhi,
Jaipur and Agra, to the banks of the sacred river Ganges at
Varanasi…with a textile theme in mind.

(I took a road trip on the Great Ocean Road in Australia last year with Pam, after we made several videos at the Melbourne Australasian Quiltfest)

This is my first time to India, although I spent a month in Columbo in
Sri Lanka, in the late 80's.
I arrived a week after the civil war started, and as our flight was
about to land at Columbo Airport, the gentleman next to me quipped "This
flight was blown up a week ago!" – as if that was a piece of
information I needed to have at that moment.

Well I assume this trip will be quite different, and my goal is to take a
TON of colorful and inspirational photos, which I will share with you
when I return.
(Maybe a few while I am there, but I expect I'll be too exhausted at
night to work on editing photos while on the trip.)

Those of you who came to my interview with Jinny Beyer
at the Not Fade Away conference, will remember that I peppered her with
questions about the time she lived in India, and how it inspired her as
a designer.

I have made a connection with Bernina India in Mumbai, but I need to
make connections with quilters in New Delhi so hopefully I can meet some
Indian quilters next week on Sunday.
If any of you can help me with this, I'd be most appreciative!

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Creative Nudge – Kaffe Interview

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Luana

KaffeBrandon_550

One of the special things about traveling to
quilt festivals is the opportunity to meet the talented
celebrities of the industry.

We were lucky have a chance to visit with Kaffe Fassett
and Brandon Mably at the Birmingham Quilt Festival, in their " Shots
and Stripes" booth, promoting the book of the same name. Our video interview
is online now, and yes, I had a crook in my neck after looking up at Mr.
Tall Kaffe during our three-part interview!

Brandon spoke about their
lives as artists, Kaffe showed us a quilt made for the Missoni family, and
then they both talked about their trip to Egypt with Amy and
David Butler. Fascinating!

The exhibit and the book are about beautiful quilts made strictly from Shot
Cottons and Yarn-Dyed Stripes, which are handwoven in India. I am leaving for
India in 10 days, so I've been really paying attention to Indian textiles as I
prepare for this adventure.

This last weekend in the UK, there was a scene in the TV show Coronation Street
where a character was
in bed reading Kaffe's biography. Juicy colorful reading!

Of course all of you Kaffe fans know that we have
stocked his prints, shot
cottons, yarn dyes and books for many years. We have so many of his
products that we had to split it into two categories!

This is the 9th video from the Birmingham Quilt Festival, and I have a few more
to post before I leave for India. It is so interesting to see what European
quilters are doing these days, and I love to see the cross-pollination of
media, techniques and color trends. Modern quilting style is showing up across
the pond, and it is also fun to see the European interpretation of this design
aesthetic.

See this, and
our other videos from the Birmingham Quilt Festival on our eQuilter video page!

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Birmingham Videos Online – Part 2

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Luana

This weekend I have a 2nd batch of videos up
from the Birmingham
Quilt Festival. Bonnie McCaffery and I met up to make several videos
about the art quilts and the artists at this big European quilt gathering.

eQuilter was the sponsor of the Pictorial Quilt category, and I was delighted
to interview the winner of the exhibit – Stephanie Crawford.

I've also posted my review of the Group Quilts in Birmingham, and a 2-part
video with the Dutch quilters who call themselves Wiolan.

There are 8 videos online now from Birmingham, and more on the way in the
coming week! Watch out for my interview with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably.

Due to new ownership, this year in Birmingham the names of the quilters were
posted next to their quilts. This may seem like a no-brainer, but previous to
this there was just a number next to the quilt, and you had to look up in the
show book to see the name of the quilter.

In this age of social media, and ever-evolving ways of online promotion, I
think it is fantastic that now the attendees (and fellow quilters) can
immediately see the quilt, identify the quilter, and share the image and name
online.

I was surprised when I went to the Canada quilt festival in May, that the still
were not allowing photos of the quilt exhibit. I think it is the only quilt
festival I have been to in many years, that was still forbidding photos of the
exhibit. They
graciously allowed me to come in and take photos to share with you, but I
hope next year you will open up the show for you to also share images of those
beautiful quilts.

The truth is – quilters LOVE to take photos and share their excitement with
each other online! I get a kick out of the Tokyo
Quilt Festival because there can be 10 people tightly clustered around a
quilt at one time, taking closeup photos of stitching details with their
smartphones.

The most important thing is that the name of the quilter always go out with the
image when sharing, so she or he gets credit. Those images can be reposted and
repinned hundreds or even thousands of times, so it is important that we
include that information from the start. On my photo page you will see
that I now make the image file name – the name of the quilter – so if someone
copies and saves the image it can carry the name of the quilter along.
Something to think about…

I am leaving for India in less than 2 weeks, so I am working on getting more Birmingham
quilt photos posted before taking off on my next adventure!

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