Best Laid Plans

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Luana

DSCN8350
I'm sorry I can't report to you on the SAQA annual conference in Santa Fe,
because I had to fly home yesterday so I could have an emergency root canal
today! However I did manage to spend 24 hours in Santa Fe, and as I walked
around town taking
photos, I realized that I need to go back there
soon.

The night I arrived in Santa Fe, I had a big clue that things
wouldn't go as planned. Hertz lost my reservation, and didn't have a single car
for me. Even though I had my reservation in hand, they just kind of shrugged and
blew me off. The Avis rep happily told me he had just one car left that he could
rent to me…at double the Hertz price. Instead I called a taxi, and enjoyed the
sunset while waiting in front of the rustic adobe airport terminal.

That
night I wandered into town, found a
restaurant with some vegetarian options and lots of local color, and found a
seat at the community table. As I sat there chatting with others at the big
table, I realized I had eaten there the other time I visited Santa Fe…25 years
ago!

When I came out of the restaurant, a colorful shop window caught my
eye. I crossed the street with camera in hand, and took a photo of…one of my
Guadalupe
fabric designs! So there is an example of a design process going full circle:
from my design inspiration in Santa Fe 25 years ago in the cathedral there, to
my return, and my fabric design being used by another artisan to create a final
product. I just love when that happens!

My next trip is in a couple weeks
– I'll be in Penticton, Canada for the Quilt BC
award ceremony on May 15, then headed straight for Quilt Market in Portland
Oregon that weekend.

A week later (!) I will be at Quilt National in Athens Ohio on May
24-25.

Quilt Alliance has just announced their event Not
Fade Away to be held July 20 in conjunction with Sacred Threads. I was very
honored that they asked me to interview Jinny Beyer for the Q.S.O.S. project,
during the demonstration portion of the event. I'll also be on a panel with Pat
Sloan addressing the topic of "Social Media for Quilters".

So I hope to
meet many of you at these events. If you are there and you see me, please don't
be shy! Come up and say hello – I'd love to meet you!

* Tickets for Hover Home
Fundraiser * –
Sunday May 5, 2 pm in Longmont, Colorado
Storytelling
by Luana to support a Victorian estate.

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Creative Nudge – Joy of Making

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Luana

RobotWoman1_550

Over the last few days I've been out doing creative fieldwork…observing the
joy that comes from making one's own design.

Over the weekend Denver had
our own StarFest, which is the galactic Sci-Fi version of ComicCon. For 3 days
the convention was overrun with geeks…er… people in Star Trek and Star
Wars costumes, DIY Klingon and Dr Who Costumes, and other character costumes
ranging from Captain
Jack Sparrow…to Wonder
Woman. The vast majority of the costumes worn were obviously made by the
wearer, who clearly spent hundreds of hours bringing their ideas to
manifestation.

It was good to go and see all that raw, crazy,
over-the-top creativity and ingenuity. Sometimes we crafters think we have the
corner on the DIY market, but there were some serious costume designers who have
regular dayjobs but spend their nights and weekends dreaming up highly detailed
costumes and accessories. Whoa, some of those big guys who not only dress as
Klingons, but also speak the Klingon language, wax poetic when they talk about
how they sourced their Klingon "uniform" details.

On the other end of
that scale, today I taught my first 5th grade quilting class. We spent our first
session designing quilt blocks, cutting out templates, choosing fabrics, and
pinning paper templates to the fabric. The kids were TOTALLY into it – both boys
and girls. We are creating a Civil
War inspired quilt, and our goal is to present it to a veteran before the
end of the school year.

What really struck me is how the pure joy of
making something, was just as strong with both the Klingons and the 5th graders.

If you follow me on Facebook, you
already saw that I was posting from Klingon and Steampunk
costume seminars. Mason's comment about StarFest was "I've never seen so many corsets
in one place in my life!" Yes how true. Our mothers burned their bras and
girdles in the 60's and 70's, so our daughters could wear laced corsets
in the new millennium.

Tomorrow I am flying down to Santa Fe to attend
the SAQA annual conference. Hope to see some
of you there!

The image above is the winner of the SciFi category of the
costume contest. Check out my other
photos from Starfest!

* Tickets for Hover Home
Fundraiser * –
Storytelling by Luana to support a Victorian
estate.

* SAQA & Andover
Fabrics Call for Entries *

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Finding Your Tribe

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Luana

As the world just seems to get crazier by the day, one way we can find comfort
is with our tribe. These days we don't necessarily stay in the tribe of our
birth, but rather, we go out and find those of like mind, who share our heart's
desire and our passion. We bond with others over similar interests at work, at
play, in worship and in our travels. We bond with groups through pop culture,
crafting, dietary preferences, and sport. We even find our tribe through
academia, and our studies of history and science.

Obviously, Quilters
and Fiber Artists are such a tribe! We have annual and seasonal gatherings. We
form clans based on aesthetic preferences, seeking a kindred spirit of our
preferred medium and technique. Garment sewers and costumers are a parallel clan
with a lot of crossover to the crafting and quilting clans. When we travel
abroad and meet other quilters and crafters, we are immediately accepted as part
of the worldwide tribe.

This weekend I am at a regional gathering of
another such tribe. I am at Starfest in Denver which is a costumer's dream. So
many of the attendees are wearing elaborate and artistic costumes, which are a
combination of purchased items and garments or accessories which they have made
or embellished themselves. I just attended a session on Klingon Kostuming (yes,
with a "K") and then another one on Klingon Kustoms. These people have found
their tribe, and theirs is such a pure joy as they share and partake of their
costuming rituals. Even though I was not in Klingon costume… er…
Kostume….. it so much fun to sit in on a couple hours of Klingfest.

On
a larger scale, we've watched the Boston Tribe go through an attack, a battle,
and a joyous celebration in the streets. It just got me thinking about how we
bond with larger groups of people, and how we can become a brother or sister to
a total stranger when we are taking part in a tribal event. The pure joy and
brotherhood we feel when we are part of a larger group of like heart and mind,
is a euphoria that erases stress, and can actually be a healing
experience.

So this weekend, whether you are with a group of quilters,
costumed sci-fi
characters, or Bostonians… I hope you can partake in the joy of tribal
living with your fellow humans. We are all still trying to comprehend what
happened in Boston, and in our hearts, we are all part of the Boston tribe this
weekend.

The ultimate tribe of course is Humankind, and as we Earthlings
prepare for Earth Day on Monday, I invite
you to review
our charity recipients such as Rainforest
Action Network, and Ocean
Conservancy, who are working to preserve the environment and the creatures
that inhabit this planet, as we travel through our solar system together on
Spaceship Earth.

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Creative Nudge – Ten Thousand Daffodils

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Luana

Doves1_550

*
April 15.

Across the years, a date full of profound events that have shaped the future.

The birth of Leonardo da Vinci.
The death of Lincoln.
The sinking of the Titanic.
The start of the Tiananmen Square demonstration.
Black Friday.

The bombing of the Boston Marathon.

It is also the day that William Wordsworth took a stroll through a lakeside bed of daffodils, inspiring this poem:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed?and gazed?but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

*****************

While I watched the events in Boston unfold in the news, these 2 doves
perched in a tree outside my window, resting from the snowstorm.

I share this image of peace with you, as we are all trying to understand what happened in Boston.

It is a good time to pull out our fabric, needle and thread, and make
something with our hands.
When the world has gone crazy, we find our peace in our handwork.
Each stitch is a prayer for peace, a question asked, an affirmation of
the thread that runs through all of Life and connects us all.

Wishing Peace and Healing to the people of Boston, and to those who have suffered a loss.

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I Know It When I See It

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Luana

People often ask me how to spot new trends. It is an elusive subject, and I
honestly don't know if it is something that is innate, or a talent that can be
learned. I do know that anybody who goes into retail or design better have at
least a little bit of trend-spotting skills, or they will be lost when trying to
make choices for what will sell 6 months or a year from now!

Color
Forecasting is one type of trend-spotting. Pantone has taken the art of color
forecasting to the level of a Breaking News item, with their Color of the Year.
We may well ask, what does the Color of the Year
mean? Is it something that is selling well at retail right now, something that
we'll see flooding the stores for the next year, or something designers should
be putting in their next collection?

Well, it is all 3, depending on what
industry, what price point, what area of the US (or the world!), and what age of
the customer…. and a few other market variables. A trend that is hot in New
York or Los Angeles now, can take 2 to 3 years to reach saturation in the
Heartland… sometimes longer!

To illustrate my point, on the evolvement
of trends over time and distance, I am going to tell you a story.

About
10 years ago when all the eyeglass designs were of small rectangle lenses, those
of us who actually want to SEE out of our glasses, became very frustrated. (I've
worn glasses since I was 10, and can't function without them.) Every eyeglass
shop I went to had the same teeny frames. For the last 10 years I've bought
stylish funky frames from France, because I didn't
want to have glasses that looked like everyone else. In the meantime I
hunkered down and waited for this small eyeglass trend to pass. Unfortunately it
lasted for a very long time, and as I graduated to progressive lenses, I had
even less space to see through because my lenses were divided into 3 zones of 3
different prescriptions. Ack!

Then while I was in New York last week, I
saw the eyeglass frames of my dreams! I saw them worn by a young woman in a
restaurant. She probably wondered why I kept staring at her. (I was committing
the design to memory, but was too shy to go ask her where she got them.) I came
back home and spent a week hassling my local hipster
eyeglass stores, trying to figure out who makes these frames!

The
closest thing I could find was on a blog in Europe. I went to my local eyeglass
shop that carries this brand, and was told that style had not even been released
in France yet, and it wasn't possible that I had actually seen them online, and
they wouldn't be sold to the US market anyway. Sigh…

Meanwhile the
market is saturated with tons of tiny rectangle frame glasses. Personally I like
larger lenses – preferably in a Cats Eye or Retro style. I know this style is
coming, and it may take 3 more years for it to filter down to the hippest
eyeglass shop in Boulder. In the meantime versions of this design are in New
York and Paris, probably Rome and Milan too, and I am determined to get my hands
on a pair.

This is one way of spotting a trend.

So when you are
wondering – what is the next big trend? – take this advice I got from my first
boss as a young fashion designer:

"I'll know it when I see
it!"

Speaking of which, if you are a Modern Quilter, be sure to snap up a
copy of the new
Modern Patchwork Magazine. After I saw the preview copy last week, we
doubled our autoship!

May you finish your tax forms early this weekend,
so you can have fun looking at all the new
fabric trends on our website. *wink*

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Creative Nudge – Creative Pet Crafts

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Luana

EasterDog_550

We love to hear about all the crazy
and creative things that you make with our fabrics. One of those categories is
Pet Crafts. With all the novelty prints that we stock ( especially
the dog and cat
themed fabrics!), it makes sense that animal-loving quilters and crafters
would shop here to find the perfect themed fabric designs!

Dog owners
make warm doggie jackets, colorful collars, plush beds and waterproof booties
for their canine buddies. Here is a photo of a little dog who was dressed up for
the Easter Parade, a couple weeks ago in NYC. Do you think the owner had fun
putting this outfit together? *wink*

Dog jackets are very common in
cities, where plenty of short-haired dogs are bounding around trying to keep
warm on their early morning walks! Have you made a quilted jacket to keep your
pup toasty?

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Stay Curious

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Luana

One of the foundations of my creative life, is to stay curious. I feel sorry for
people who think they know everything, and are always trying to impress their
"knowledge" on those around them.

One of my mentors told me when I was
22 – "The more you learn about the world, the more you realize you know
nothing." This was long before the limitless and exhausting supply of facts and
images available on the internet. Yet despite all the endless knowledge that is
available in seconds online, why is it there are still people who seem to know
it all?

One of the great mysteries of the Universe! *wink*

No
matter how many books you've read, how many museums you've visited, how many
different places one has checked off the bucket list… there is always
something more to see, to learn, to absorb and process. Just about the time we
think we know something, another layer of information is revealed. Technology
allows us to pull ever-more details out of the invisible world around us.
Accumulated statistics reveal patterns that boggle the mind.

Another
thing I learned from my mentor was to be generous with one's knowledge. We learn
the most when we teach others. Our world gets very small when we huddle over our
skill set and knowledge base. "Aha!" moments often come when our ideas are
reflected back to us by others, especially students who ask a lot of
questions!

In Fine Art and Fashion, ideas and influences spread like
wildfire. A true Creative will always have more ideas and more inspirational
firestorms than those who put all their energy into controlling the use of their
work. What would have happened if Van Gogh had worried about copyright and
copycats? A true visionary is always looking ahead, not backward.

In the
creative fields of art and design, if we want to be a leader, we are constantly
spinning off the progression of ideas around us, and weaving or stitching
(literally or figuratively) those ideas into something that looks new but is
really a unique way of combining and expressing what has come before. Our work
is inspired and influenced by others, whether we admit it or not, consciously or
unconsciously, and hopefully our work then inspires others. It is a grand spiral
of creative Lifeforce that has elliptical cycles but has reinvented itself on
every loop.

All of my adult life I have been a Continuing Ed student, and
I've tried to take classes that really challenge my brain. When I travel I try
to sign up for a guided tour with an academic-oriented guide. When I return
home, I bring along history books that will help me with a deeper understanding
of my travel experience.

…and in the end I discover…I still know
nothing!

How do you stay curious?

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Creative Nudge – Story of a Mentor

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Luana

PokeyLuanaSophie550

For all of our friends who have followed Sophie's adoption story from China,
I thought you'd like to know that today was the 10 year anniversary of
her Gotcha Day! In case you are not familiar with the term Gotcha Day –
it is the day the adopted baby is first placed into the arms of the
adopting family.
How is it possible that it's been 10 years?!?

Last week Sophie and I were in Ohio filming 4 segments for Quilting Arts TV.
This will be Sophie's 4th and 5th appearances…airing later this year.
You can see clips of her first three appearances on our video page.
My favorite is her first – she was 7 years old and sewed on her Bernina on camera with Pokey Bolton the host of QA TV.

For our local quilter friends, I wanted to let you know that the
(mostly) tax-deductible tickets to my Longmont fundraiser event May 5,
are available online now.

This is to help raise money for the Longmont Historical Society to maintain the Victorian estate of the Hover Home.
Costumed docents will serve tea and cookies on the patio at the reception afterwards.
A lovely time will be had by all! *smile*

Today my mom and I had lunch with an old friend of the family who is
celebrating her 97th birthday.
In fact we met Eleanor over 40 years ago when we moved to Longmont from
Hermosa Beach, and my mom got involved with the Historical Society.
Eleanor is an amazing woman who has been a mentor to both my mom and I,
since I was a girl.
She was a CU Boulder graduate in the 30's, and was involved with the
education board for decades.

Eleanor is now an avid bridge player, and she is now working on reaching her Silver Life Master level.
(She reached Life Master at 90, and is currently a Bronze Life Master!) That seems quite exceptional for a 97 year old.

Today we talked about sewing and needlework, and she confessed to me
that she was terrible at handwork.
However, she did sew all her own clothes as a young woman, and then
sewed all her kids' clothes! I said it sounded like she was a whiz at
handwork! Who cares about imperfect buttonholes from 60 years ago?

It is great to have a mentor who still has passion and lofty goals when she is tipping towards being a centenarian.
Her competitive spirit and devotion to education and justice, is an inspiration for my own future.

Do you have an amazing mentor who continues to inspire?
Are you "Paying it Forward" as a mentor, because you were once inspired by your own mentor?

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Creative Nudge – Go To Your Happy Place

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Luana

GrandCentralStnChryslerBldg550


Mother Nature apparently didn't get Punxsutawney Phil's message that Spring has arrived.
The day before my trip we had 9" of snow in Boulder, and the two days I spent in Ohio with Sophie (filming 4 segments for Quilting Arts TV with Pokey Bolton) were also filled with lots of snowflakes.

Sunday night I had dinner with Kathy and Bob Price, and I got an update
on what our eQuilter donations are doing to fund further relief efforts
in the US and Guatemala.
Mission of Love continues to ship medical supplies for the Guatemala City hospital, and building supplies for the children's hospice in TecPan.

Today my friend Mark Lipinski finally got his kidney transplant, donated by his friend and neighbor Mary Eichler.
They both seem to have come through the surgery with flying colors, and are resting and recovering at the hospital tonight.
What a miracle…and what a relief!

I have a stepbrother whose life was saved with a kidney transplant (good
thing since he is the father of twin boys!) and another friend who is a
long-time heart transplant recipient.
Another friend's wife received a liver transplant and miraculously has
her life back.
So tonight I am just remembering and thanking those who have donated
(including Mary!) so that others might live.

We had some sad news in the quilting world today: Pat Campbell (known
for her Jacobean Applique) has left this world for the big quilting
hoop, after being cared for by her husband John for many years.
Pat was a well-loved quilt artist, teacher, fabric designer, and author;
and she will be missed.

Sophie and I decided to stay on the East Coast the rest of this Spring Break week, after leaving our Quilting Arts and Mission of Love friends in Ohio.
I lived in NYC for 6 years, and it has a special place in my heart.
It is much more pleasant to be here now, compared to the 80's when I lived in the East Village.

There are still many business closed and many residents displaced because of Hurricane Sandy – even more so outside of the city. If you have a quilt you'd like to donate to someone in need,
we'll make sure it is put into the hands of a hurricane victim very
quickly.
The quilt donations have slowed down but we are receiving more and more
urgent requests from groups for comfort quilts.
Many sincere thanks to all of you who have already sent in beautiful
quilts for this hurricane relief effort, and many thanks to Timeless Treasures for their distribution work.

As Sophie and I walked the Avenues of New York today, the skyscrapers lit up from the Golden Hour at the end of the day.
I saw many people on the street stop to admire the light on the skyline,
and many who took a photo of the dramatic colors reflecting off glass
and stone.
It could have been a sunset on Maui, the way the people on the street
responded.
It was a reminder that we all find Beauty, no matter where we are,
because Beauty feeds the Soul, and is stored in an inner archive of
creative inspiration.

To recharge my creativity batteries, I "go to my happy place", one of which happens to be Manhattan!

** This photo was taken in front of Grand Central Station, with the Chrysler Building in the background.

* SAQA & Andover Fabrics Call for Entries *

* Hurricane Sandy Quilt Relief Info *

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A Full Plate of Blossoms!

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Luana

 

Do you ever have weeks where
everything just seems to hit all at once? That's the kind of week I
had…starting with euthanising our beloved doggie Sunday, flying to a
trade show Monday, helping Sam to catch up after being home sick for 3
weeks, getting ready for Quilting Arts TV,
and now 9" of snow! There were 600 flights cancelled in Denver today,
but I'll be driving to the airport at 6 am Sunday morning.

In the meantime we are trying to get used to a household without a doggie.

Sophie and I are on the road all next week – starting with filming at Quilting Arts TV studios in the Cleveland area.
(You can see clips of our previous appearances on the show, on our eQuilter video page.) We'll have dinner with Kathy Price from Mission of Love, and hear about the ongoing relief work in Guatemala, and elsewhere.

If any of you Canadian quilters are planning to come to the Penticton show in May, I will be at the award ceremony the evening of Weds May 15.
I signed up for a tour that day, and if any of you would like to join me, you can sign up online.
I'd love to hang out with some local quilters on the vineyard tour May 15! Also, I have to figure out how to get from Penticton, to a 3 pm flight in Kelowna on the 16th.
Suggestions are welcome!

A week from now Sophie and I will be at the Kite Festival on the Mall in Washington DC, and hopefully the cherry blossoms will be in abundant bloom.
I've got my camera charged up, loaded with an empty memory card, and I
am anxious to take some Springtime photos! By this time next week I hope
to be in a shower of cherry blossom petals, instead of a shower of white snowflakes.

The Tokyo Quilt Festival always has plenty of Sakura (cherry blossom) themed quilts, so I was inspired to search for more photos to remind me of these lovely quilts.
I am also just crazy about cherry blossom fabrics, so when you see those designs on the eQuilter site, you'll know I had a special hand in picking out those lovely Asian fabrics.
Yummy!

Are you taking a Spring Break this week?
Will you be taking photos of spring flowers, to inspire a future quilt project?

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