Newsletter message from June 9

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Luana

This was originally sent out in the eQuilter newsletter on June 9:

Greetings from Ireland!
*
My week has gone by very quickly, after an unscheduled overnight stop in Boston, and a whirlwind start to our group tour and the Irish Quilt Festival.

Have you ever heard of Aran Island sweaters? Well, I was there on the island all day yesterday! It was windy and cloudy, which is typical weather I imagine, but despite the weather it was a fascinating journey to a lifestyle of another time. The whole island is partitioned off by rock walls that are stacked by hand and fit together like a puzzle. They don't use concrete because the wind must be able to blow through the rocks….otherwise it would just blow the walls over!

Each of the walled-in segments of land has a different purpose. One farmer explained that he had 3 plots in different places on the island: one for his cows, one to grow potatoes, and the third was used as an alternate because they can only grow potatoes in one place for 2 years in a row. All of the soil on the island is manmade, because the island is basically one big rock. They haul up seaweed and sand, mix it together and make their own soil within the walled plots. Quite fascinating to see the soil built up over years of this practice. I'll be posting photos of the walls and the island later this week.'

I am aware that the economy is bad here, so hopefully the festival will be a welcome input of funds to the local economies where we visit. Today is the 2nd day of the quilt festival but my first day there, so I'll take photos and post those later this week as well. Most of the photos I'll post when I get back, since I can do higher quality photo editing on my big desktop computer back home. (I have my laptop on this trip – can't get the colors exactly right on a laptop.)

You may remember that in April I spent a week with teacher/author/artist Pam Holland in Australia. She is here too, and last night we went to the Wicked Thimble Pub and heard an Irish folk band perform. Tonight we are going to a medieval castle for more music and local food. I am staying in a hotel on Galway Bay, and every morning and evening I see people out in the cold water swimming along the shore… and I mean really SWIMMING… like they are training for a triathlon! Off in the distance on the other side of the bay is the Burren which we'll visit on another day of our tour next week.

Sunday afternoon my tour group (40 people) and I will be off on the rest of our journey around the island. I haven't been in my room much since I got here – so I'm planning to share more with you in a few days: watch for my midweek Creative Nudge newsletter!

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Creative Nudge from June 6 – Lucky Shamrocks

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Luana

This was originally sent out as the midweek Creative Nudge on June 6:

ShamrocksB3_550

 

Ah well, the best laid plans….

Instead of arriving in Dublin Tuesday morning and having a day to scope out
the city on my own, my Denver to Boston flight was delayed and I missed my
Aer Lingus connection to Dublin Monday night. I'll be on another Dublin
flight Tuesday night, now arriving the exact same time as my group Weds
morning. I am writing this from an Irish pub at the Boston airport… pretending that I am already in Ireland!

So having said that, you can guess that Monday night was a bit of an
adventure. After running from Terminal C to Terminal E to hopefully catch
the flight (and seeing the plane pull away from the gate when I was almost
there – *sniff*), I had to track down my luggage, get a hotel voucher, and
then since the bad weather had filled up all the local hotels, took a cab 45
minutes to Danvers to the only hotel the airline could offer.

Now, you are going to ask what the heck does this have to do with
creativity? You may well ask.

My story begins as I arrived in front of the hotel, and the "resort" name
was laminated on a sign that was taped up beside the revolving door. As I
entered the lobby I saw something scoot off to the side of the registration
desk, saw 2 young men frantically looking around the floor (but in the other
direction), and then the deer-in-the-headlights look as I asked – "Mouse?"

"Yes, where did it go?"

So you see this is another few pages in my book of travel essays. Ha! I won't bore you with the details of my room. Lets just say it had peeling yellow-beige tiny houndstooth wallpaper throughout the entire room…and leave it at that.

So what have I done with an extra day inserted into my itinerary?

* Stayed up late answering emails and simultaneously downloading photo filters
for my new creative obsession – Instagram.

* Researched how to combine Pinterest and Instagram so I can view them together on the web. (Instagram is a photo-sharing program for smart phones)

* Wrote another chapter in my novel. (haha)

* Decided to draw something every day on this trip…once I get to Ireland! Did a little still life sketch to warm up.

* Since it is rainy and chilly – put on my raincoat and pretended like I am in
Galway already.

* Went for a walk in a nearby park and spotted this cluster of shamrocks.

I think my luck is changing!

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Creative Nudge – Africa, Quilters and Rocket Scientists

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Luana

On Memorial Day I had a wonderful opportunity to learn more about how our eQuilter charity dollars are being used to help orphans in Rwanda, Africa. Through the Houston NASA (astronauts and rocket scientists!) and CU Boulder chapters of Engineers Without Borders, we are supporting development at the L'Esperance orphanage near Lake Kivu in Rwanda, and on Monday I was able to meet the director Victor Montroy who was visiting our local chapter.

How many times can we use "Rocket Scientists", "Quilters" and "Africa" in the same sentence? I sure get a kick out of that!

There are many opportunities to help orphans and children affected by disaster, through online organizations, and the several charities supported by eQuilter. Mission of Love, Altrusa, Doctors Without Borders and Engineers Without Borders all are helping kids in need, around the world, and here in the US.

In Rwanda, even the lions need help. Actually the lions are extinct in Rwanda, and they are going to try to reintroduce lions from South Africa. Sophie and I talked about animals that are going extinct, while we visited the Denver Zoo this last weekend. They have a new big section that just opened, and the focus is on multiple large enclosures for the endangered Asian Elephants. Over and over again at the zoo we were confronted with the information that this species and that species is endangered in the wild. This is why we also give to environmental and conservation organizations – because we believe that our children deserve to inherit an Earth full of Nature's fullest expression.

So, back to the L?Esperance story:
Victor invited me to come and visit their orphanage and school in Kigali Rwanda. They have a tailoring class, so we talked about how I could possibly bring sewing supplies, and teach some classes while visiting there. I have a couple other big trips that I have to get through before I can even think about this, but I'd love to take over some quilts for the kids, and maybe we can raise some funds to help with their education costs as well.

Take a look at these kids and you'll see why it is an interesting invitation! Victor says that volunteers and direct donations are always very welcome.

This meeting just reminded us again of how lucky we are to have this lifestyle, to have our health (knock on wood!), and to have a family to share our love and our life. Victor has 126 kids and 36 staff, and he is trying to give them a safe home, medical care, an education, and a loving family life. There are amazing people like this around the world who are trying to make a difference. I feel humbled and honored that we have a business model that can generate funds to help organizations such as this…with your support…Thanks!

 LionPair1_550
( The photo above was taken by Luana at the Denver Zoo)

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Irish and Celtic Music

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Luana

I've been picking out some Irish folk music for my trip to Ireland in a week.

Here's what I loaded on my iPhone.

Do you have any favorites to share? I am looking for Irish fiddle, flute, pennywhistle, accordian, harp and vocals.

1. Mick, Louise and Michelle Mulcahy – Notes from the Heart.

2. Catherine McEvoy – Flute – several albums!

3. Matt Molloy & John Carty – Pathway to the Well

4. James Carty – Upon My Soul

5. Telyn y Celt – Trad Harps compilation

6. Cathal Hayden – The Donegal Tinker

7. Paddy Keenan & Tommy Sullivan – The Long Grazing Acre

Every summer we have a music festival here in Boulder, up at Chautauqua, and we've had many fantastic Celtic and Irish Folk groups, some including local Irish stepdancers in costume!

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Posted on May 26, 2012 by Luana

It's a great time to be a quilter, sewist and fabric lover!

There is truly something for everyone, and with over 1000 new products per month, over 20,000 products in stock and ready to ship, not to mention our AWESOME sales (see below!) – eQuilter is making sure this is your one-stop-shopping destination.

As we race towards our goal of raising
ONE MILLION DOLLARS FOR CHARITY –
we're giving you a giant THANK YOU SALE over this holiday weekend, and into the coming week.

Our specialty is COLOR, and this week you'll find luscious batiks, collectible holiday designs, and delightful florals…in a range of hues that is sure to please anyone who loves to sew.

Have you tried out the eQuilter FREE Pattern-Maker?

It's been a runway SMASH HIT –
play around with this fun (addictive?!) design tool over the long weekend and put your own unique stamp on your next project…

Our famous eQuilter Memorial Sale starts NOW!

10 Categories, 2200 Products on Sale!

PLEASE NOTE:
1 yard minimum. Stock changes quickly – order now!
No rainchecks – discontinued items only as available.
All sales of clearance items are FINAL. No exceptions.
Orders placed on different days will NOT be combined.
We reserve the right to move products in or out of sale categories
____________________________________________

Missouri, New York…. and Australia
*
I got home from my recent trip around 1 am Thursday morning, after a statistically predictable delay at LaGuardia Airport. (gosh, how many times have I had delays going into or out of that @#$% airport?!)

However I had such an exciting trip to Quilt Market and New York City that I had plenty to dream about during my hours sitting on the runway. *smile* Good thing I packed my own peanuts in my purse.

Last fall at Quilt Market in Houston, the big buzz was the Modern Quilt Guild – but this time we found those modern quilters and sewists being integrated into the industry, with their books, patterns and fabric collections being offered by many of our suppliers. Did we buy them? You betcha! As a corporate sponsor of the MQG's Feb 2013 conference – QuiltCon – and a speaker at this gathering – I am very excited to see the development of this fresh take on sewing and quilting.

After 3 jam-packed days at Quilt Market in Kansas City, I flew into Newark at midnight Sunday night, and was moved to tears when I saw the Freedom Tower illuminated on the site of the World Trade Center. It was lit up like a torch – pretty hard to miss – as construction continued into the night.

Monday I went to the Javits Center for 3 big trade shows that run concurrently. If you follow me on Facebook you know that I ran into my fellow Color Marketing Group members in the lobby of the convention center, which was very serendipitous if you ask me. I also visited several of our featured licensed designers in their booths, and attended the color trend presentation by my CMG friend Lee Eiseman (exec director of the Pantone Color Insitute) who is the author of a fabulous new book "Pantone: the 20th Century in Color". We were supposed to have lunch but she had to cancel because she had leave to be interviewed by a reporter from a famous TV show which I can't mention just yet. *wink*

Tuesday I met an old friend at the Metropolitan Art Museum to see the "Impossible Conversations" Schiaparelli and Prada exhibit from the Met's Costume Insitute. It was very interesting – couldn't possibly top the Alexander McQueen show last spring – and IMHO was not as fabulous as the current YSL show at the Denver Art Museum – but still definitely worth seeing. We also took a guided tour in the Met's new Islam wing, and I snapped lots of photos of textiles and ceramics. The colors in this new wing are so lush, and the intricate allover designs were very inspiring.

Now that I am home and trying to catch up on my gigantic scary To Do List (not to mention all the emails in my gigantic scary Inbox) – I have finally posted the last 3 videos from the show in Melbourne Australia.

We now have 7 videos from this show – Have a look and see what those creative Australian quilters are up to!

Many thanks again for my camerawoman Pam Holland, and also for Bonnie McCaffery's editing and production.

I am leaving for the Irish Quilt Festival in 10 days! Stay tuned!

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Creative Nudge – An Open Eye

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Luana

TimesSquare

Hey fellow Sci-Fi Nerds!
Star Wars is back in stock!
______________________________

As I write this, I am finishing up another week on the road: Quilt Market in Kansas City, and a few days in New York at a design show, and visiting the Metropolitan Art Museum.

I've had enough visual input to last me for quite awhile, and I am sorting through the list of images in my head: Modern Quilts from Kansas City, artwork trends from the design show, Prada and Schiaparelli from the Met's Costume Institute, and the new Islamic wing at the Met.

Sometimes it is the most simple things that are the most inspiring. I come back to New York once a year (I used to live here), and every few years, if I am lucky, it rains while I am visiting. Then I grab my camera and run over to Times Square, so I can photograph the lights reflecting off the wet pavement. I come to New York without expectation, but with a plan for my time here. Then I wait to see what will happen.

So today an old friend (who is a sculptor) met me at the Met so we could see the costume exhibit and take a tour of the new Islamic wing. After lunch, she said she had to go visit some pieces she had found on an archaeological dig in the south of France, 35 years ago. She said whenever she visits the Met she has to go visit these pieces that she dug up. They are old Viking artifacts from burial sites, and after listening to her wax rhapsodic on the topic of bronze buckles and glass beads, I got excited about something there that I never knew existed.

Expectations can be a Creativity Killer. Setting goals is great, but being attached to expectations can put blinders on your creative vision. I try to start every day with an open mind – releasing unconscious expectations – so I can truly be present to fully experience what the day brings. When I am traveling, and especially when I go to a trade show or an art museum, the day is full of endless delightful possibilities, as a result.

When I snapped this photo on a rainy night in Times Square, I had no expectation of the outcome. I just captured the reflected colors, and then opened myself to the possibilities. After playing around with filters in Photoshop, I exceeded my goals with this photo. All I needed was a little rain, and an open eye.

(The photo above was taken by Luana in Times Square, New York City, and edited in Photoshop.)

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Happy Mothers Day!

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Luana

The measure of a mother's love for her children is often far beyond what can be perceived or measured by her offspring.

Often that intense love is channeled into a project – like making a quilt!

We watch our parents grow old – our children watch us grow middle-aged ….and we wonder what the future holds.

As I grow older and my children grow taller…
as another school year comes to an end…
I can almost hear the audible *swish* as my kids finish another year of their education.

This weekend we are celebrating a 2-for-1 holiday on Sunday:
Mothers Day, and our wedding anniversary.

Paul and I are so appreciative of all that we have, and its value comes from that fact that we created all of this together – our business, our kids, our partnership. We often speak about how blessed we are – and we never take it for granted.

Much of who we are came from our mothers, and we are grateful to have the matriarchs of the family available to our children. My love of art and sewing comes from my 2 grandmothers, and my great-grandmother. Paul was introduced to fabric shopping when he was trundled into the backseat when his mom and sister went out to hunt and gather textile treasures. My photographer's eye came from my grandpa, who was a shutterbug from the 1920's. I see how all of this flows through me and into my children.

My love of sewing and fabric came into sharp focus when I decided to get a degree in fashion design. In the seventies, I discovered Yves Saint Laurent in the pages of Vogue magazine in the library of my small town. He was the first designer to use ethnic models in his runway shows, and the first to reference other non-European cultures in his work. (Japan, China, India, etc.)

Ten years after I picked up my first copy of Vogue from the smalltown library shelves, I was jetting from Hong Kong to New York as an import design specialist, but the seed was planted when I first looked at those photographs of YSL's couture garments.

When Yves Saint Laurent died, I was just finishing my garment for the last Bernina Fashion Show. I realized that the colors and design were inspired by my youthful fascination with YSL, and so I dedicated my entry to his memory.

Now the retrospective of his work has opened at the Denver Art Museum. This last week Donna Wilder and I went to see the exhibit. We spent 2 1/2 hours just in this one exhibit, and could have easily stayed longer. We both expect to go back at least once. We agreed at the end, that it was as good as the Alexander McQueen exhibit in NYC last year! So if you are coming to Denver before July 8, plan to visit the Denver Art Museum to see this absolutely stunning tribute to YSL's creative brilliance.

We now have 4 video interviews up from the Australia show, with 2 more being posted in the next day or two.

Happy Mothers Day!

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Creative Nudge – Goodbye Maurice

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Luana

Sam5A_550

Yesterday I heard that author/illustrator Maurice Sendak was gone, and it sent me into a wave of nostalgia for when my boys were little, and loved to read "Where the Wild Things Are."

Our oldest son, who is now 22 and a senior in college, was the original owner of this classic tale of wild monsters and little boy fantasies. He got so excited reading the book that he drew all over the pages and even ripped out a few. Later when he was older, he said "Yeah, I remember that. I thought that's what you were supposed to do when you read that book: roar, gnash your teeth and wildly consume the book."

Well duh, how did I miss that? Of course he was right. I taped the pages back together and read the book to Sam 7 years later. As far as Sam knew, that's the way the book was supposed to look…. wild and deconstructed and reconstructed. At the time it was mauled I was not happy – thinking of the cost of replacing the book – but then I realised that it was now a piece of family history.

So this is a picture of Sam, our middle child, at age 5 which was about the time we were reading the taped-up version of Where the Wild Things Are. This was his response to the book. Make a costume and pretend to fight Wild Things.

At what point do we stop making costumes, stop pretending to fight (or dance) with monsters, and when do we stop imagining ourselves as the hero of our own story? I think there is a hero in every child, and a child in every adult, just waiting to dress up and act out the fantasy. How many adults dress up as Klingons, wear kilts to weddings, join Civil War re-enactments, dress up for Renaissance Faires, wear special outfits for special athletic activities, put on old clothes for a "vintage" style photo, and the list goes on…

Just like Max, we want to put on our wolf costume and sail across the ocean where we can be the wildest one of all. Maurice was a genius, because he tapped into not just a child's fantasy, but that place we all want to go when the world is just a little too oppressive and dark. Whether it is a long session in our studio, a cabin in the woods, a long hike to a mountaintop, a marathon run, a wild scrap quilt, or twirling crazily under a starry sky…we want to have a space of time to be wild and free and out of control.

Good-bye Maurice. We'll miss you.

Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

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Creative Nudge – Smitten

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Luana

BlueWingedKookaburra1_550
As an animal lover and photographer, I've always been thrilled to capture images of wildlife, especially when I am traveling. I am still working my way through all of my photos from Australia, but today I wanted to share this image of the Blue-Winged Kookaburra.

Although I snapped this fellow at a Wildlife Sanctuary, it was still exciting to see one of these large terrestrial kingfishers up close. The sparkle of turquoise on his wing with the contrasting yellow breast feathers, and the graphic black and white stripes on his head, were only topped by the twinkle in his eye.

My first day in Australia, I was asked if I had heard the Kookaburra laugh yet. Aha! That old song from gradeschool echoed back in my deepest of memories, and then the tune was stuck in my head for the rest of the trip. ("Laugh Kookaburra…")

To be honest, I've become a bit of a bird nut since this trip! I've visited with a flock of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos and had one land on my shoulder…I've seen a flock of pink and grey Galahs hanging out on a golf course…got eye to eye with an emu….had a warbling conversation with the handsome and charming magpies (not the same as the magpies in the US) in front of our beachside cottage. I'm smitten.

After I saw "The Big Year" in a movie theater (the sweeping vistas needed to be seen on a really big screen!) I started thinking about photographing birds for my color and design inspiration.

I know that many of you are hardcore Bird Nuts…or I should say passionate Birders?…because you snap up every bird design we offer! With the huge trend of bird designs over the last year, we've had a lot of fun seeing the evolution of Bird Artwork in our industry!

More inspirational images from Australia will be posted throughout this week on my photo page!

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Sweet Anticipation – QuiltCon Sponsor

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Luana

BrendaGaelSmith_LisaWalton_W

For those of you who are my age or older, do you remember when you were a kid and would cut out a coupon or ad in the back of a magazine, put a few dollars in an envelope, mail it off and then wait expectantly for the package to come back?

That's how I feel today. I have sent all the video footage and photos of the Melbourne quilt show to Bonnie McCaffery (who has produced almost all of our other videos) and she is going to be the Video Fairy and send back our Australian videos. No pressure Bonnie! *grin* Today as I went through all my quilt photos from the show, I was just so tickled with anticipation. I had a blast sharing images of American quilts with the Aussie quilters, and soon you'll hear my interviews with some Down Under quilters who will open your eyes to the talent in the Southern Hemisphere.

I must admit the trip back was rather brutal. Due to United's recent merger I wasn't able to use my miles to upgrade (*grrr!*) so I had 3 flights in coach…29 hours door to door. So I have been kind of wasted this week…still trying to catch up on emails and phone calls! However the experience was so stellar that I can't possibly complain. Be sure to check out my photo page for new images from Australia.

We are very excited about the Modern Quilt Guild and the Modern Quilt movement. I had many conversations about this during my trip, and I expect that you'll be seeing more MQG guilds popping up very soon in Australia and New Zealand.

eQuilter is proud to be a sponsor of the QuiltCon show next Feb 2013 in Austin, and I will be giving a color/trend presentation there as well. We are committed to stocking the fabrics, books and patterns by and for Modern Quilters, so stay tuned to this fast growing phenomenon!

 

Photo above is me with Brenda Gael Smith (curator of Beneath Southern Sky exhibit) and SAQA artist Lisa Walton.

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