Trendwatching for Fabric Lovers

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Luana

Here at eQuilter we are always on the lookout for longterm big-picture trends.
We love to spot a trend early on, jump on the early renditions of the trend,
predict when the trend will peak and taper off…and then wonder why some
designers or manufacturers continue to offer something that is "old
news".

The answer is – even though a trend may be done among those who
follow such trends closely – it may just be starting up in another country. One
example is the success of Downton Abbey. It was wildly successful for a year in
the UK, before it started to air in the US. So we got Downton Abbey fever a year
later than the British. We are just now starting to see the affect on textile
trends here in the US… and we're looking forward to MORE
William Morris inspired collections in the near future, as a result!
*smile*

Over the last couple years, OWLS have
been a big trend that eventually got oversaturated in the market. However,
even though the trend has peaked here in the US, the owl trend is just starting
in some other countries.

One of the long term trends I love to watch is
how textile and motif influences bounce back and forth between Japan and the US.
There are some trends I
saw first in Japan 5 years ago, but they are just now showing up in the
collections of young designers here. When I go
to the Tokyo Quilt Festival each January, it is fun to see what US trends
have landed in Japan. (I'll be in Tokyo Jan 26-31)

As I prepare my trend presentation for Quilt Con in
February, I am thinking about all of these global trends that bounce back
and forth across the oceans… thanks to the internet mostly!

Fashion,
Home Dec and Graphic Design are 3 areas that often are a flashpoint for new
trends, and then we will see several designers pick up on these trends in the
quilting industry. I often post links to trend influences on my Facebook Color and
Design page, for those who like to spot those trends early.

Is there
a trend you've watched jump from one global region, to another?

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those communities in Australia who
have been affected by the fires recently. I am not seeing much information in
the media here, but I am aware of it because my friend Pam Holland got caught in
a wildfire in Tasmania. (She is ok, but is heartbroken by the losses she
witnessed.)

We are still requesting quilts for
Hurricane Sandy victims – they need quilts to stay warm this winter –
thanks!

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Creative Nudge – Melting Butter

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Luana

SacreCoeurStars

What is it about Paris that makes one want to run out and buy red lipstick? ….
and a hat with a big silk rose pinned to the side? Once you are there you forget about the cliches and become immersed in the stylish soup of Parisian street life.
The city lights glowing in the low-hanging clouds, and the neon signs
reflecting off the dark wet cobblestone streets just put you in a
francophile daze and…
zap! You find yourself wearing a beret!

Well anyway that's what happened to me last week.

On my last night there it was sprinkling just enough to wet the streets,
so that all the illuminated buildings and holiday lights made a
watercolor wash of color shining on the damp stones.
Ah, Paris! I walked the steep winding alleys of the old city, and ended up on Montmartre…
listening to the chest-thumping pipe organ of Sacr?-C?ur,
craning my neck to look at her glimmering gold Byzantine-style mosaics
inside the dome, then bursting out in to the cold damp evening to take
in the view of the misty city and rooftops below.

In the Place du Tertre (the central plaza at the top of the mountain), the artists still set up their easels to create portraits
of the visiting tourists.
The tinkling of piano keys and the smooth voice of a chanson singer come
floating out of a restaurant on the plaza.
An accordion player occupies one entrance, and a scruffy band of singing
young men have set up with their guitars across the plaza.
Shops full of art and souvenirs crowd the alleys that quickly twist and
fall away on steep cobbled walkways.
It is no longer the rough artist's district described in the song La Boh?me – but it still has plenty of atmosphere.

In the last year I have traveled to Japan, Thailand, Australia, Ireland, England, Italy, Russia, and Guatemala.
Each country seduces with its colors, its food and textiles, its fragrances and music, and the warm smiles of its people.
It was good to finish the year in France.
I was the hot bread, and Paris was the melting butter.
If you watched the movie about Julia Child – "Julie & Julia" – you know what I mean.

I had a scare on this trip.
I dropped my Nikon! However my camera was checked out at the camera
hospital, tweaked a bit, and pronounced fit for the next trip.
(Tokyo Quilt Festival in 3 weeks) Whew!

*****

QUILT RELIEF UPDATE:

YES! We are still distributing quilts to victims of Hurricane Sandy!
Tens of thousands of people lost homes and possessions, and your
donated quilts mean SO much to these folks.
We had about 300 quilts distributed last week, and another 300 are being
distributed later this week.
As fast as you can send them to the Timeless Treasures warehouse in New
Jersey, we are getting them out to the communities who have lost so
much.

As you may know, the mayor of Newtown Connecticut asked that no more gifts be sent to their town.
They were inundated with tons of toys, pillowcases, books, etc.
but as I've said before, this is not what this community needs.
We have a longterm project for *group* memorial quilts for the community.
I am working with my contacts there on this *longterm* project.
I am putting out a call to groups – for individuals to make blocks that
will then go into group memorial quilts for the Sandy Hook Elementary
School families.

If you are itching to sew for someone in need, please stay focused on the Hurricane Sandy relief effort, while we organize the longterm Sandy Hook memorial quilt project.
It gets a little confusing because both of these have "Sandy" in the name.

Watch for my latest France photos on my Flickr photo page and my Instagram account.

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Inspirations from France!

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Luana

As you read this I am flying home from my week in France, and a wonderful excursion among some of the textile wonders of the world!

One thing I really love about Paris is that you always find costume exhibits alongside the art exhibits.

Currently at the Museum of Decorative Arts, you will find the Fashioning Fashion exhibit, showing the history of fashion from 1700 – 1915. (This is a museum in the Louvre complex)

At the D'Orsay Museum there is currently an exhibit of costumes seen in Impressionist paintings.

I also saw opera and ballet costumes on display at the Garnier Opera House – although apparently I just missed an exhibit of Christian Lacroix costumes there.

Last weekend I had a wonderful time at the Lyon textile museum, viewing several centuries of silk weaving and textile history.

One thing's for certain – the love of fabric and embellishment has been going on for a long time! It doesn't take a fabric-lover to gasp in amazement at the most exquisitely-rendered textile masterpieces of the last few centuries.

I got several comments about the midweek Creative Nudge, regarding plagiarizing vs. inspiration. When I came into the quilt industry from the fashion industry, and from a background in fine arts, I was surprised at how proprietary quilters are about their work. In the art world, and the fashion world, it is a given that everything has been done before, but what's new is how things are recombined and recreated. I was shocked when I heard a story about someone copyrighting a historic quilt block, and suing others who then tried to work with this historic block.

The more you study art, the more you see how artists inspire each other through the ages. You can be inspired by a neighbor's work from last week, or you can be inspired by a French artist 200 years ago. There is nothing wrong with being inspired by another's work. In fact most of us are unconsciously inspired by generations of viewing art and quilts and fashion and design… and after washing around in the brain for awhile we spit it out in a new combination that looks new to us…and everyone else.

Study art history, and you'll read about the lineage of artistic inspiration. Every artist had a mentor who influenced the student's work, and even when the great genius artists created a new style, they were inspired by other artists or art forms. We keep inventing new ways of seeing, new ways of expressing, and new ways of naming our art. In this age where we are bombarded by more images and more information than ever before in the history of mankind, we set ourselves apart by creating a new way of combining colors and rendering motifs. In a time when recycled art is a huge trend, those of us clinging to rigid ideas about copyright should consider the magnitude of all-that-is in the mega-reality of digital images stored in the giant database of the internet. Creative people don't copy – they re-imagine an inspiration and make it their own.

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Creative Nudge – Vincent’s Footsteps

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Luana

ArlesNightCafe_550

 

I've been on a pilgrimage of sorts –
visiting Arles, France where Vincent Van Gogh spent some of his last years, and
where he created many of his most popular works, including his
Sunflowers.

Here I am where he painted the Cafe Terrace
at Night, and I also visited the hospital where he stayed seeking a cure,
and where he painted in the courtyard. I stood on the river embankment where he
painted Starry Night over the Rhone, and I visited where The Yellow House used
to stand. (where he lived in Arles)

Many consider Van
Gogh's time in Arles to be the most creative of his career. Many of Van
Gogh's best known works were produced during his time in this town in Provence.

Here you see the dark swirling cypress trees, the the misty twirls of
translucent low-hanging clouds, and the golden light and pink atmospheric skies
that must have inspired Vincent to paint the that special quality of Light in
Arles.

Many of his paintings have not been seen in the west, because they
hang in Moscow at the Hermitage or the Pushkin
Museum. I noticed several unfamiliar Van Gogh paintings on the postcard
racks in Arles, and discovered that they hang in Russia!

Tomorrow I'll go
to see more of his work at the
D'Orsay Museum in Paris, and when I return home to Denver I'll see the Van
Gogh exhibit at the Denver Art Museum.

I didn't realise til this week,
that Van Gogh was influenced by Japanese Ukiyo-e woodcut prints. He mentions
Japan more than a hundred times in dozens of his letters to friends and family.

Japonaiserie was the term Van Gogh used to express the influence of
Japanese art. Impressionist artists such as Manet, Degas and Monet, followed
by Van Gogh, began to collect the colored wood-block prints called ukiyo-e.
There are more than 400 wood block prints in the collection of Vincent and Theo.
(now with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam) Once you realise the Japanese
influence, you find it obvious in his work.

Trends and influences all
seem to move in spirals: they go through a cycle, and make a big circle before
arriving in the same, but somehow a new and different place. Artists are
inspired by the work of others, and then their reinterpretation will serve as an
inspiration for someone else in the future. And so it goes….

I wish you
a Happy New Year brimming with inspiration and creativity. Don't be afraid to
take the inspiration from another artist, because some day your work may light
the way for another creative seeker. We are all following on this path together.
The separation of time and space are only an illusion. The passion we feel for
color and design is Universal, and we feel it just as strongly today, as Vincent
did 125 years ago.

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Creative Nudge – Magic of the Holidays

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Luana

Snow

Here in Boulder, we actually had a true Christmas Morning "White Christmas"!

It snowed overnight, and the sun came up on a pristine and sparkling landscape.
When Mason and his friend
came to our house bearing packages in the morning light, their
footsteps were first to break the sheet of white that enveloped our
neighborhood.

There is something about waking up on a holiday to a fresh blanket of snow and a blue sky, that is so magical and peaceful.

During the holiday season, I always try to find a time to contemplate my
goals for the coming year.
As we clean our kitchens after the big holiday meals, and perhaps have a
moment to sit with a cup of tea and a calendar, those of us who love to
sew are starting to think about our goals for 2013.

Is this the year you will go on a creative retreat? Is this the year you
will enter a quilt in a show or a contest? Is this the year you will
sew a very special bed quilt for someone getting married, or a wall
hanging to celebrate an anniversary?

Perhaps this is the year that you start to design your own quilts.

Maybe this year you'll take your creativity in a new direction – making wearable art perhaps?

Could this be the year that you send in photos of your quilts to a magazine, with the hopes of seeing your work published?

Perhaps you will start to teach in a local quilt shop, or start a sewing group at a nearby school?

Many of you are thinking about contributing to our Sandy Hook Memorial Quilt Project, and you can read our recent developments on my blog, and network with others on our Piecing for Peace page on Facebook.

So many of you are making and sending quilts for our huge Hurricane Sandy quilt relief effort – to get warm quilts to 5000 people who lost their homes and possessions.

I am still thinking about my trip to Guatemala, and the quilts we gave to the elders and the children who had nothing.

We are so blessed to be able to think about our sewing projects for the
coming year.
The joy of working with color, design and fabric is a simple pleasure
that brings us inner peace, healing, and an opportunity to share our
passion with others.

I feel so lucky to have found this art and craft – don't you?

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Piecing for Peace – Sandy Hook Memorial Quilt Project

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Luana

GraduationGroup1W

Many thanks to everyone who wrote in to give us their ideas about a Sandy Hook Elementary Memorial Quilt project.

There are as many different ideas as there are people interested in helping!

Recognizing that we can't be all things to all people, we have set up a Facebook page so we can network, with a suggested set of guidelines for this project.
We already have a longarm quilter looking for a quilt group who can make a quilt top, for her to finish.

I am posting links on this Facebook page for fundraisers to help the victims, if you wish to donate money to the families. You don't have to be a member of Facebook to view this page!

I do not want to set up another comfort quilt drive sending masses of bed quilts to Newtown.
These people did not lose their possessions like the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Our quilt relief effort for hurricane victims on the east coast must continue because these are tens of thousands of people who have lost their homes and possessions and need to keep warm for the winter.
Many sincere thanks to all of you who are donating to this disaster relief effort.

The families of Sandy Hook Elementary now are inundated with media,
memorials of candles and stuffed animals, curious onlookers and traffic
gridlock, donated packages and pillowcases.

As someone who has experienced losing a child, I can tell you that none of this is what those families need.
They need time, and a quiet space to grieve.
We can't just rush in and fix it for them, no matter how sincerely we wish to help.

You've written in that the quilts *should* include photos of the
children, and also that the should *not* have photos of the children.
I think each quilt group should decide this for themselves.

A few have written that they don't think the names should be on the
memorial quilt, lest it remind the family of what happened.
Seeing the names is actually a comfort for those viewing a memorial.
Think of the AIDS quilt, the 9/11 quilt, the Vietnam Memorial Wall…
have you ever seen someone tracing the name of their lost loved one on a
memorial? Remembering the name, the life, of those lost is a comfort
to the families.
This list of Sandy Hook names is already posted on our Facebook project page – "Piecing for Peace".

You've suggested handprints, hearts, doves and butterflies as themes and motifs.
Yes!

You've suggested including things that have meaning to the person who was lost.
A favorite color, hobby, etc.
This information is easily found searching online.
We have seen many articles with bios on each of the 26 lost at Sandy Hook Elementary.

We are going to pursue our connections in the Newtown area, and we are
also receiving messages from customers and friends in the community who
wish to connect us to school and community leaders.
As time unfolds, and you all move towards completing these group
memorial quilts, we will have a plan to present the quilts in Newtown.
We are open to anyone in the community there who wishes to work with us
long term.

Remember, we are looking for quality, not quantity.
Take your time and make every stitch a prayer, a hug, full of love and healing.
Each group quilt represents a community that has come together to unconditionally support the Sandy Hook Elementary community.

Possible dates for memorial quilt presentations are the end of this
school year (May 2013), the start of the next school year (Sept 2013)
and the one year anniversary.
(Dec 14, 2013) We may well give quilts on all 3 of these dates.

I'd like to suggest that you come together as groups, have one person do
one very special block for each of the Sandy Hook Elementary victims,
and then they will be joined together in a memorial quilt that can be
presented to teachers, families at Sandy Hook, community centers such as
the churches in Newtown, and also for the first responders.

As you organize into groups or round robins, and you all choose a name
from Sandy Hook Elementary to do a block, lets all take a deep breath
and know that there is NO rush on this, because this community, and
these families, will need tons of love and support for YEARS to come.
Take your time and make each block a MASTERPIECE of love, honoring the
life lost.

Art quilters are welcome to create blocks and contribute to this effort.
Use any and all creative techniques: piecing, applique, embroidery,
painting, photo transfer…it is a great opportunity to express your
greatest fiber art talents! As your group chooses a size for each block,
think about 26 blocks, plus one large panel (the size of 4 blocks) that
could have the school name, the event date, and a message of hope and
healing.
This adds up to a quilt of 30 block size ( 26 blocks plus 4xblock
panel).
You'll see what I mean when I post a few layout ideas.
This means the quilt could be 5 rows across by 6 rows down, for
instance.

I will work on a couple quilt design layout ideas for you this weekend.
I've been a little tied up with Mason graduating from college, Sam down
with a 103 degree fever, holidays and a trip next week, not to mention
kitties taking turns at the vet.
I posted photos from graduation on my photo page and Facebook.
We are very proud of Mason and his accomplishments!

Whether you are finishing Hanukkah, or preparing for Christmas or
Kwanzaa…we wish you a blessed holiday season with your loved ones.
Here in Boulder we are expecting a White Christmas!

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Sandy Hook Names & Piecing for Peace

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Luana

SandyHookMemorial2

http://www.facebook.com/PiecingForPeace

Dear Friends,
Here is the list of Sandy Hook Elementary names, as
requested.

Charlotte Bacon, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Olivia Engel,
6
Josephine Gay, 7
Dylan Hockley, 6
Madeleine F. Hsu, 6
Catherine V.
Hubbard, 6
Chase Kowalski, 7
Jesse Lewis, 6
Ana Marquez-Greene,
6
James Mattioli, 6
Grace Audrey McDonnell, 7
Emilie Parker, 6
Jack
Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle
Richman, 6
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison Wyatt, 6
Rachel Marie D'Avino,
29
Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47
Anne Marie Murphy, 52
Lauren Rousseau,
30
Mary Sherlach, 56
Victoria (Vicki Leigh) Soto, 27

The following
two pages, from the Wall Street Journal and CNN, had nice
write ups about
everyone (there is a little overlap).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324481204578181244231543014.html

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/15/us/connecticut-shooting-victims/index.html

We
have also compared spelling between the two and they are the same except
for
Ms. Soto who is referred to as Victoria on one site and Vicki Leigh on
the
other.

Many thanks to Hallie who put together this list today.

 

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Newtown Memorial Quilts

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Luana

Mayan

Two weeks ago I was in a mountain village in Guatemala,
visiting the indigenous Mayans in their simple homes, and admiring the
beautiful textiles and embroideries they create on their front porches
with simple handlooms.

The village shaman – a beautiful woman around my age – was our guide as we visited the Mayan ruins of Iximche.

Iximche was the capital of the Kaqchikel Maya kingdom from 1470 until
its abandonment in 1524, and this archaeological site includes several
pyramid-temples, palaces and two Mesoamerican ballcourts.

(The photo above shows a huge tree growing on top of one of the pyramid ruins.)

As you may have suspected, the world is not coming to an end this Friday.
It is just the end of one huge cycle on the Mayan calendar, and the beginning of a new huge calendar.
Besides, it can't be the end of the world: our eldest son Mason is graduating from college on Friday!

I've spent the week thinking about how each day is a gift, and how life
really does whiz by too fast.
I distinctly remember complaining about how fast Mason was growing when
he was a preschooler, and then joking – "The next thing you know, he'll
be graduating from college! Haha!" – and now this day has come.

Saturday is also the 17th anniversary of the loss of our daughter Hanna, who inspired our charity program which has raised over $1 million for those in need.
On the day we lost her, even in the depths of my grief, I swore that somehow, something good would come of that loss.

So now we are all struggling with the great loss in Newtown, even as our quilt relief efforts for Hurricane Sandy are reaching a great volume.

As so many of you are making comfort quilts and bed quilts for those who lost everything in Hurricane Sandy, I also know many of you are yearning to honor the loss of the 26 in Newtown.

Here's my challenge.

Lets make beautiful memorial wall-hanging quilts for the families in Sandy Hook Elementary.

Here at eQuilter we are talking about making a group quilt for Newtown.

I propose that quilt guilds, church quilt groups, school art projects
and art quilt groups start to organize to make works of art that can
hang in the school, the classrooms, and the homes of those families…
to honor and remember the children and adults who were lost.
If we have enough, we'd like to get them out to the first responders
too, and the churches where the community has gathered to try to make
sense of this great loss.

One idea is a handprint and an embroidered name for each child or teacher, on each of the 26 blocks.

Each quilt will have 26 blocks – each with the name of one person – and also one central block with:
Sandy Hook Elementary School
December 14, 2012
* We Will Never Forget *

I will post a couple quilt design ideas for you.
I will use my
connections to have the finished quilts delivered directly to families
and staff at the school, and others directly affected by the event.

We have had many emails offering to send comfort quilts which I presume
are more like lap quilts or bed quilts, but I want to remind you that
that folks on the east coast, who are facing the winter after losing their homes and possessions to Hurricane Sandy, are still in dire need of quilts to keep them warm.

For Newtown I'd like to invite you to get together as groups, make very
special pieced – embellished – embroidered – memorial quilts with a
message of peace and hope that can hang on a wall to inspire and comfort on an emotional and spiritual level for years to come.

Give that some thought.
Write to us with your ideas.
We'll polish the details and post a page for this new project on the weekend in our next newsletter.

Thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt comments, as we all contemplate what we can do to help support and heal the broken hearts in Newtown.

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Grief, Loss, Love and Healing

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Luana

We can't pretend like this week's events in Newtown didn't happen, so I will just say that in addition to the
large volume of quilts we are trying to get to thousands of Hurricane Sandy victims
on the east coast, if you really want to make a super special healing
quilt for the families affected in Newtown, I will make sure that your
special comfort quilts get to one of those families in that school.

In the meantime, my connections on the East Coast write to me that
they are afraid that people are going to forget about the hurricane victims
there.
They write to me that in the worst affected areas, it is like living in a
war zone, and they can't imagine how long it will take for these tens
of thousands of people to have their lives back to "normal".

I am already hearing from quilters who've donated to our Hurricane Sandy effort, that they've heard back from the recipients.
Thomas
in Kansas wrote: "Sent mine to New Jersey, and even heard back from a tearful recipient who called me.
We were both crying over the phone.
She is elderly with sick husband.
They lost everything, even pots and pans.
I've made a friend for life."

In this season of giving, if your heart is yearning to help someone who
has suffered great loss in the last few months, we will help to get your
donated comfort quilt to someone who is suffering.

We can't guarantee that you'll hear from the recipient, but if you
put your name and contact info on a label on the back, and especially if you include a message of comfort and healing, it is more likely you'll hear from someone if they have the means to communicate.
We are grateful for all the quilters and guilds who have given unconditionally to this relief project.

One friend told me that since the power was out for so long after the
hurricane, and since so many pay their phone bill over the internet,
many were unable to pay their bill and then their phone service was cut
off! So not everyone has the means to communicate in those areas.

I am grateful that we can
stay in touch with so many of our friends and customers around the world.

If you wish to contribute to our
massive quilt relief project on the east coast,
please read our guidelines here carefully.

If you feel you want to make or donate a very special comfort and
healing quilt for Newtown, just email your name and contact info to
customer service this week and we'll let you know our plans in the near
future.
We are looking for quality, not quantity, for Newtown.

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Creative Nudge – Planting Seeds of Love

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Luana

GuatemalaBaby550

Giving and receiving are two
halves of the same circle.
There are times when we are able to give to those in need, and there are
times when should open up and receive the help that is offered.
That is the spiral of life – the the breath going in and out – like each
heartbeat – and like the turning of the seasons.

There were times in my life that I was very much in need of help, and
fortunately I was able to open up and receive when others recognized my
loss and offered to give.
There are other times in life when I can respond and give when I see
others in need.
Some day I will need help again.

One thing I have learned is that it is equally important to know how to give, AND to be able to receive.
When someone offers a gift, or a helping hand, we are completing a circle of healing by saying "yes".

When we are moved to give, and we follow our heart, sometimes we receive the greatest gift by giving selflessly.

I have seen this last week in Guatemala when a team of 13 people donated
the gift of their time, and their caring, with no thought of
compensation.
The gift we received was that we felt more alive, more blessed, more
appreciative of what we have in our lives.

The joy in the faces of the children and the elderly who received donated quilts, was the kind of priceless gift that is beyond words.
I will never ever forget the tears of joy in the eyes of those who treasured the gift from a stranger.

As the quilts come pouring in for Hurricane Sandy victims, I know those who give benefit as much as those who receive.
There is nothing like giving a beautiful quilt, and knowing how much comfort and joy it will bring to its new owner.

As you make your handmade gifts for the holidays, and as you put a
little piece of your heart and soul in every stitch, it is like planting
seeds of love that will grow into a garden of peace and healing.

Like Johnny Appleseed, we travel through life planting these seeds of
love, and we can only dream of the orchards that will bear fruit for
future generations ….
as we give away our beautiful quilts to loved ones, and strangers, in
the holiday season.

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