It’s a Small, Small World

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Luana

You've heard of the term " Six Degrees of
Separation"?

The more I travel, the smaller the world becomes, and
lately I am thinking that Earth is just a series of connected villages on an
orbiting spaceship.

While on this last trip, I had some stunning
coincidental experiences. One of them had to do with the US Embassy in Rome.
While visiting
the embassy to give my quilt presentations, I made a new friend. She has
been there for 30 years. When I returned home, I went to Sam's school teacher
conferences, and started chatting with his history teacher. She mentioned that
she had lived in Rome as a child, then she said that her father had worked at
the embassy there. I thought, wouldn't it be funny if my new friend in Rome knew
this teacher's dad?

I emailed Rome and sure enough, Sam's teacher's dad
had worked with my friend at the Rome embassy years ago. Then on top of it all,
Sam's teacher turns out to have an adopted
Chinese daughter. We have mutual friends in the adoption community, but
somehow we hadn't crossed paths yet.

There was a similar experience on
the flights to Italy. On the Denver>Wash DC flight, I sat behind 2 ladies
happily anticipating their trip to
Italy. As we all got off at Dulles Airport, I said "Hi, I am on your flight
to Rome too!" and then we all got off for our short layover.

When I got
on the 2nd flight Wash DC>Rome, I made my way back through the aisles to my
seat, and who was sitting next to my empty seat? These 2 ladies! We started
talking and found we all live in Boulder, then discovered that we both have
connections to Engineers Without Borders,
and then it turned out it was the wife of the founder of EWB. I've been hoping
to meet him for years in Boulder, and somehow I ended up sitting next to his
wife?! We just hit it off and chatted the whole flight. I just had lunch with
her now that we are all back in Boulder. What are the odds?

Of course
this kind of thing happens ALL the time in the quilting world. We meet a
friend-of-a-friend and sit down to chat over
coffee. We start talking about quilt exhibits and classes we've attended. We
find some mutual ground and then start asking if the other knows this friend or
that quilt shop. Pretty soon we've identified a whole circle of mutual friends,
and shared experiences, and we feel like old friends who need to catch up! I
just love that feeling, don't you?

In a week I'll be off
to Houston, to see old and new friends at Quilt Market and Quilt Festival.
We all speak the same language of quilting, and we all delight in the mutual
experiences that give us such joy. Sophie and I will be at the Tuesday night
award ceremony, and I hope to see many of our eQuilter friends and customers
there! She'll be climbing onto the podium with me, to help announce the World of
Beauty cash prize winner. (Gosh I am so excited – can't wait to meet this year's
big winner!)

If you'd like an idea of what goes on at the Houston award
ceremony, check out our video page and
scroll down to "Houston Quilt Festival, Top Cash Prize Winners".

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Creative Nudge – Shadow and Light

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Luana

RussianTree_550

This is another quilt from the Moscow
Quilt Exhibition. This is a closeup of the center of the wallhanging, with
embellishment details that are absolutely charming.

Everyone who looked
at this quilt smiled. The 3-dimensional wedding
couple and the lacy crocheted tree
branches made this quilt really jump out. I really like the bride's
looooong braid too!

When I showed my power point presentation to the
quilters there, they were interested in a quilt from the Houston Quilt
Festival that depicted a Chinese political activist. Some of them came up
afterward to ask about quilts that make a social or political
statement. Here in the US, it is allowed, although unusual.

Quilts
can express a wide range of emotions and ideas. Through
color, value, and motif, they can express anything from anguish and grief,
to joy and healing. Exploring the darker side of one's emotions through art can
be an illuminating journey on the path of self-discovery. Sometimes you have to
stand
in the shadow to see the
light.

One quilt exhibit which encourages this inner journey of
self-exploration, is Sacred
Threads. The call for entries is Jan 9 – Mar 9, 2013. Perhaps you are
working on a quilt that could be in this show?

We've had a glorious
Fall season here in Boulder, with a long stretch of foliage color, and
brilliant blue skies. Perhaps we have another week, or two, before the trees are
bare.

Many thanks, again, to FRCQ who invited me to speak to the group
last Monday – I had a great time with all of you!

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Day 7 – Weds Sept 26 Afternoon – Textile Academy Museum

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Luana

In the afternoon of Weds Sept 26,  my new friends Victoria, Maria and  Olesya picked me up at the hotel (after my morning with a tour guide) and we made our way through the Moscow traffic to the Textile Academy.

They picked up up TWO HOURS before our appointment, because the traffic and the parking is so horrible in Moscow. It took us over an hour to get there, and quite awhile to find a parking place. Did I mention that double parking and even triple parking is the norm in Moscow?!? The two way street in front of the college building had so many cars double parked that it was reduced to a one way street. We ended up parking on the main street a block away – there was one line of cars parked on the side of the street, and TWO lines of cars parked on the wide sidewalk! We parked in the second line of cars on the sidewalk, blocking any pedestrian passage. What a crazy system!

As we entered the several story building that was the Textile Academy, I asked about this school. It is a college for textile design and production, and attracts students not only from all over Russia and former USSR member countries, but from around Asia, including China and South Korea.

We were greeted by a professor Tatyana who had agreed to give me a private tour of the school's textile museum. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. We went up several floors and waited in a classroom. Tatyana got a key and opened a door that led into a long hallway that was filled with textile display cases and wall hangings. Then we turned right into a large room – and I quickly realized that I was in not just a museum, but a library filled with the history of the Russian textile industry.

Along the front wall were shelves filled with thick books. It was explained that these were swatch books from Russian textile manufacturers. Each heavy book was filled with samples and swatches of fabrics and designs, and each book represented ONE year of designs and production from one factory.

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I was told that I could take all the pictures that I wanted, but I could not share them publicly. They said the only photos I could share were of this wall full of shelves and swatch books.

Here I am with Victoria, who owns a patchwork shop (and who arranged for the tour), and Tatyana the professor. This is only part of the wall!

DSC_6309

Behind the photographer in this room, were display cases, textiles hanging on the walls, ethnic embroidered costumes on mannequins, and larger precious swatchbooks dating back over 200 years. Some of the textiles were from the 18th century.

As we progressed from one display room to the next, Tatyana turned off the lights in one room, and turned on the lights in the next room. The only room in which she wouldn't allow me to take photos, was the room where I  wanted *most* to take photos – the history of Russian Art Nouveau.The historic textile samples locked in wall cases, were some of the most beautiful versions of Art Nouveau that I have ever seen.

In Russia this was known as Stil Modern, or "Modern Style".  It's counterparts were Jugendstil (German for "youth style") and Secession in Vienna. 

In Italy it was known as Stile Liberty from the department store in London, Liberty & Co., which popularised the style. The style was influenced strongly by Czech artist Alphonse Mucha. In Spain, the style was based mainly in Barcelona and was an essential element of the Catalan Modernisme. Architect Antoni Gaud?,
used Art Nouveau's floral and organic forms.

As I moved through the rooms and main hallway of the museum, I tried to take thoughtful photos of the intrinsically Russian textile designs, especially focusing on those that displayed technical expertise and the most sophisticated designs. So many of the historic textile designs are still being reproduced today, in the babushka wool challis scarves that are so often sold to the tourists. The big bold florals in jeweltones and black, are seen on tourists and Russian grandmas alike.

The other room which could not be photographed was the Asian collection room, which was full of vintage Japanese and Chinese textiles. There were several exquisitely intricate embroidered murals and room screens, and a formal embroidered wedding kimono stood on a mannequin in the center of the huge room. I didn't feel quite so bad about not being able to take photos there, because I've had so much exposure to Asian textiles since I lived in Hong Kong, and also from my annual trips to the Tokyo Quilt Festival.

When we got to the end of the tour, I told Tatyana that my website could be of great inspiration to her students, since we have over 1000 new textile designs every month. I also pointed her towards my video page, with dozens of artist reviews and quilt show reviews. She was also interested in my photo page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/luanarubin/) where I post hundreds of photos from my travels around the world.

It was truly an amazing afternoon, and I feel so lucky to have experienced this private museum tour. Many thanks to Tatyana who opened up the museum for my visit, and Victoria who arranged for the private tour!

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Creative Nudge – An Authentic Voice

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Luana

RussianSpinner_550

 

We do our
best work when we express what is close to
our heart. For writers, it is "write what you know". For
composers, it is "stay true to your musical
voice". For
artists, it is "paint what you see".

For quilt artists, we do our
best work when we are ourselves. When we put too much energy into trying to be
like someone else, then… our work just looks like somebody else.

When
expressing our true selves… when we
choose colors that feel right…when we sew in the style (traditional or
contemporary) that we are drawn to, we tap into a deep vein of Creative Truth
that has a power beyond words or conscious thought.

Yes, it is great to
challenge ourselves beyond what is safe and familiar, but if we try to be
someone other than ourselves, it is not our best work.

As I have traveled
around the world during this amazing year, visiting quilt festivals from
Japan and Australia,
to Ireland
and England, and now Italy
and Russia…this is what really strikes me about the quilters'
work:

Those who express themselves authentically, create something that
draws an audience. The Japanese quilters are really masters at this – which is
why we can spot a Japanese quilt a mile away at a big international show like
Houston. The Japanese quilts really stood out among the equally distinctive Australian
quilts at the Melbourne
show.

This month I was absolutely delighted to compare the quilts in
Rome (expressing the art aesthetics of Italy) with the irresistibly charming and
very Russian quilts in
Moscow.

Vive la diff?rence!

Next Monday I will give a power
point presentation at the Front
Range Contemporary Quilters meeting in Westminster Colorado. I hope to see
many of you there!

Also, I have uploaded the last 3 videos
from the Birmingham Festival of Quilts: SAQA Masters 2, Sophie Furbeyre, and C.
June Barnes.

I am working on all the photos from Rome and Russia, but
first I have to pop out for a couple days to a textile show in Las Vegas.

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Day 7 – Weds Sept 26 – Leo Tolstoy House

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Luana

Late morning on Weds I visited Leo Tolstoy's city house.

( author of War and Peace, Anna Karenina,
etc.)

 
This was particularly interesting to me, after seeing the 2010 movie The
Last Station, with Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren and James McAvoy:
The house is preserved by his ancestors and a historic society. When you go in, you have to wear sock booties over your shoes so you won't scratch the floors.
They have tried to keep all the furniture, fixtures and even place settings the way it was when he and his family lived there.
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In one of the rooms, the embroidery on the chair's slipcover was by Tolstoy's wife Solphia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Tolstaya
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In daughter Tatyana's room (she was a portrait artist) there is this delightful black tablecloth with 70 embroidered autographs – first written in chalk by visiting friends – then embroidered by Tatyana.
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There was not just one, but TWO grand pianos in the house: a baby grand on the ground floor in a private family room, and a large grand in this upstairs entertaining room that had a huge long dining table, lots of chairs, and Limoges china tea service. Here the Tolstoys received guests and held musical and literary evenings, with visitors such as Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Chekhov and Gorky.  Here Tolstoy read his manuscripts to family and close friends, and also played chess.
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In the adjoining family salon, there are a lot of textile treasures:
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The family employed a dressmaker, and several of Countess Tolstoy's and her daughter's dresses are displayed:
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In the back you can look into Tolstoy's study, and see the desk where he wrote his stories.
DSC_6158
In the back there is a lovely garden area which is really a small forest! The red brick walls that are the boundaries of the property, are really the walls of textile mills that were there at the time the family lived in the house.
DSC_6165
They say that the cats that wander the property are the descendents of the cats that lived with the family. Here are the stables, with the walls of the textile mill behind.
DSC_6081

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Day 7 – Weds Sept 26 – Fallen Monument Park

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Luana
My first stop Weds was the Fallen Monument Park, which is a Sculpture
Garden near Krymsky Most Bridge and Peter the Great Ship Sculpture
The park has an area for contemporary artists to show and sell their new work.
In the back is a huge area filled with many different types of sculptures – stone and metal.
It is sort of the graveyard for the obsolete Soviet 3-D art.
In the middle of it all was an outdoor exhibit of Vintage Soviet garment designs.
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Here's a closeup of one with red embroidery designs on a solid background:
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Here is one of the stone sculptures:
DSC_5990
a charming bronze of a Russian poet:
DSC_5945

this wood figure of Pinnochio
DSC_6002

and a closeup of the Peter the Great sculpture:
DSC_5994

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Day 7 – Weds Sept 26 – Russian Eye Candy

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Luana
DSC_5951
My first stop today was the Fallen Monument Park, which is a Sculpture
Garden near Krymsky Most Bridge and Peter the Great Ship Sculpture
 
This is next to the Tretyakov Gallery which I didn't have time to see, but
it is on my Must Do list for next time!
 
…along with the Historical Museum in Red Square:
 
 
Next we crossed the Krymsky Most bridge (with a fabulous view of the Peter
the Great gigantic sculpture!)
 
 
to visit Leo Tolstoy's house ( author of War and Peace, Anna Karenina,
etc.)
 
This was particularly interesting to me, after seeing the 2010 movie The
Last Station, with Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren and James McAvoy:
 
Next my friends too me for an appointment with a professor at the
Moscow State Textile Academy for a private tour of their Textile Museum:
 
In the evening they also took me to the opening night of a Moscow Flea Market/Antique Show – Opening Night Sept 26
Address: 1/1, Tishinskaya Square, Tishinka Commercial
Center, the exhibition hall T-Modul.
Stumbled across this interesting list while researching!
 
Wish I could see this:
Myths of 1917 to be
Debunked
  
I will post some more blog entries with photos, to give more details about
these 4 places I went today!
 
(First, must pack for train trip to St Petersburg Thursday)
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Day 6 – Tues Sept 25 – Ukrainian Hospitality

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Luana

StBasil_550

Today I am halfway through my trip
to Rome and
Russia, after spending 3 days in
Italy, and 3 days in
Moscow.

Both the
Italian quilters and the
Russian quilters have gone out of their way to make me feel very welcome.

Sunday I gave a power point presentation at a quilt exhibition in
Moscow, to a full house with standing room only. The
Russian quilters were rapt with attention as I showed images of quilts from
Colorado, Houston, Tokyo,
Melbourne,
Ireland
and England. Then I photographed their quilts and their fashion show, and
promised to add some of those images to my presentation for next time, along
with the
Italian quilts I saw a couple days earlier.

I've been treated to
Georgian and Ukrainian
cuisine while visiting Moscow, and yesterday my hosts drove me out to an ancient monastery complex
outside of Moscow, where I was able to visit one of the most sacred sites in
Russia.

Today was a day I will never forget. I photographed the lake is
said to have inspired Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, and paid my
respects at cellist
Rostropovich's grave. I visited the churches and museums of The Kremlin –
was totally blown away by the costume and textile exhibit there – and then
viewed the gorgeous interior medieval frescoes and multiple rooftop golden
cupolas of the Kremlin's Cathedral
Square. Truly, I have never seen anything like this. The riches boggle the
brain.

Then this evening I was driven out of town again to a dinner in a
private home. I was given a private
concert of Russian classical pieces, by an 86 year old UNESCO Gold Medal
Laureate pianist. (and holocaust survivor) They handed me a bunch of fragrant
white flowers, sat me in a chair next to his white baby grand, and he played
several pieces for me. Wow!

Then we had an amazing spread of homemade Ukrainian specialty foods,
served on a lace tablecloth, with an autumn centerpiece. Then my hostess (who
owns a quilt shop) brought out her collection of 18th century chatelaines.

This was a day that I will never forget.

And… it all came from
a mutual love of quilting.

If I am lucky I'll get 4 hours of sleep
tonight – then I'll have another day and evening of sightseeing and quilting
camaraderie. I am being taken to a textile museum which is closed for
renovation, but we have an appointment for a private showing of the collections
tomorrow afternoon.

Thursday I take a train to St Petersburg, where I'll
fulfill my dream of seeing the Hermitage in person.

Be sure to check my blog for daily updates
(please be patient if I fall behind for a couple days!) and of course there will
be plenty of photos to follow.

Many thanks to my hosts in
Moscow, and all my new quilting friends in Russia!

* This is a closeup of the
multicolored and faceted cupolas of St Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow.
Doesn't look like it was inspired by a quilt design?

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Day 5 – Mon Sept 24 – Russian Countryside

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Luana
SergiyevPosadAssumption1_W
Today my hosts hired a car and again provided a translator (a young lady named Olga who also translated my power point lecture yesterday) so I could go for a day out into the countryside.  We went up to one of the towns in the "Golden Circle"  -  Sergiyev Posad – and our destination was the Trinity Lavra (Monastery) of St. Sergius which is the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church.
 
As soon as we entered the compound, Alexander appeared and offered to be my English language tour guide for "donations". So we agreed to use his services, and got a tour of the several structures, in English and Russian. 
 
I was able to take photos everywhere but in the most sacred room, where the silver casket of St Sergius is up in an alter-like setting. There were a few ladies singing beautiful acapella chants in harmony, which gave a mystical ambiance right away. The room was only lit by candles in colored glass chandeliers. The worshipers lined up to mount the steps and kiss the silver casket, their faces lit by candlelight. The time-darkened 15th century icon paintings added to the mystical quality of the chapel. Alexander encouraged me to join the queue to kiss the casket, which I did, but I just touched my forehead to the relic. Yes his remains are inside beneath a glass cover, but the relic is tastefully covered in a bright green brocade. I have to say that when I got close to the casket I felt a powerful energy, which seemed to be the focused energy of all the worshipers who were kneeling, praying, and chanting towards the saint's remains. Definitely a sacred spot.
 
Then we waited at a side door to go down into a golden antechamber with the interred remains of St Nikon.  Appropriately, since photos were allowed in this room, I took a photo of St Nikon's icon painting with my Nikon camera. Several beautiful icon paintings were set in rich gilt-covered decorative panels, in this opulent room.
 
After hearing lots of stories about the history of Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Boris Godunov and Empress Elizabeth here, we filled up bottles with sacred water from the sacred spring (said to have healed a visiting Japanese emperor's ulcer) and went for lunch.
 
We ended up down the road a bit, after trying a hotel restaurant that was closed because the cook was ill. So we ended up at the Refectory Chamber Restaurant which recreated several frescoes from the monastery, on the walls of the dining room.
 
After a long drive back to Moscow in the rain – an hour in the countryside and another hour driving in traffic in Moscow – we met up with our host at a Ukrainian restaurant and had one more special meal together.
 
I returned to the hotel in the rain, and am preparing to start the tour part of this trip. Tomorrow morning – The Kremlin!
 
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Day 4 – Sun Sept 23 – Moscow Quilt Exhibition

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Luana

 MoscFashion1

Today was my big power point presentation to the Russian quilters at the
Moscow quilt exhibition. They extended the exhibit by one day and also scheduled
a fashion show after my presentation, so it was a full day of quilts, photos and
fashion for the ladies who came from all over Russia.
 
Several of our eQuilter customers came to meet me, which was very special.
One of them was Alexandra Nikulina who I interviewed in a video at the
Birmingham Festival of Quilts in August. She brought me a good luck charm
necklace which was a tiny stuffed doll figure on a cord, which she put over my
head and insisted that I wear for the day. Several other customers brought me
gifts as well – a Christmas ornament made from eQuilter fabrics – a porcelain
"Moscow" collector thimble – a crazy quilt eyeglass case – and several ATC
cards.
 
I thought I was totally prepared when I had the power point file not only
on my laptop, but backed up on a flash drive. Wrong! I didn't realize that the
power cord was not drawing any energy from the plug, so 30 minutes into my
presentation my laptop battery died! We got two other laptops and tried to run
the power point from the flash drive, but they only had Power Point 2003, which
was not compatible with a PP 2007 file. Rats! Finally after about 15 minutes we
got it all sorted out and found a way to resume the presentation. I showed
images of over 200 quilts from 7 different quilt exhibitions around the world.
The quilters in the audience were absolutely fascinated, and it was so great to
introduce them to so many new ideas in contemporary quilting. I look forward to
seeing what the Russian quilters will do with these ideas, in the next year or
two!
 
After signing many autographs and taking many photos with quilters and
their quilts, we settled down to watch a fashion show with lots of great
wearable art. Several of the designer-models were familiar to me …. having
seen them at the Birmingham fashion show last year. Fashion sewing is evidently
quite popular here!
 
Then my gracious hosts had to close down the show and take down the quilts.
Finally we went out to dinner with a quilter from St Petersburg who translated
for us over a Georgian meal. It is customary to order juice for the whole table
in a cute little glass pitcher. One of these pitchers was filled with a bright
emerald green liquid, but with a sprig of herbs in the concoction. They said it
was a very special medicinal drink with no chemicals – all natural and herbal. 
(except for the green food coloring?)
 
I had some delicious Georgian bread (similar to Indian naan bread) and
several interesting vegetarian dishes.  Some of the tables had couches instead
of chairs, and some patrons were smoking from hookah pipes! Smoking is legal in
Russian restaurants and the men smoke like crazy, so by the end of the evening
my eyes were burning from the smoke. My hotel lobby is full of cigarette smoke
too, so you really can't escape it here. Apparently there is some talk of
passing laws to limit smoking in restaurants here, which would be helpful.
 

After dinner we went back to my hotel via the famous Metro which is deep
underground and decorated with gold and marble and glass mosaics murals. That
was on my list of things to see, so I was glad to check that one off on the
first day out in Moscow!

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