Creative Nudge – Lets Play Dress Up!

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Luana

FringeTroupe1_W

Over the last several years, I have been amazed at how the popularity of the holiday Halloween has grown. It used to be just kids putting together clever costumes and trick-or-treating, young adults assembling witty costumes and going to parties, and the rest of us doling out goodies to cute little munchkins at our door.

The day has mushroomed into something much larger. At the same time there is such a trend towards entertainment that explores The Dark Side: Harry Potter, The Addams Family, Twilight Trilogy & Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the hugely popular Broadway play Wicked. (based on the Wizard of Oz) …and the list goes on…I won't list them all!

That is not even including the popularity of Day of the Dead, and the trend of skull motifs on all kinds of fashion.

We used to joke about fabric companies that would ship new Halloween fabrics starting November 1st. (We'd rather they start shipping in the summertime.) The truth is, Halloween fans want Halloween themed fabrics year round. Go figure.

Now that people are starting to sew fashion again, I can only hope that they will start to sew creative and fun costumes again too. Personally I dread going into those seasonal Halloween stores full of slimy slinky poly knit cheap costumes that fall apart after one night on the neighborhood beat. I'd rather see the kind of costumes you see at the Renaissance Faire or the Celtic Festivals!

Our first year of business we got an order for 27 yards of black crocodile-embossed pleather. What on earth was this woman making? I had to ask. She responded that she was making a Baroness gown for the Renaissance Faire. Well of course – what *else* could it be used for?! *snort*

We've sold velvet and tulle and fake fur to movie studios and costume departments over the years, and we've had our share of Halloween and local theater costume makers as well. Folkwear patterns are often used for high-quality costumes, and Medieval capes are fashioned from great swaths of solid black cotton. Minkee plush makes great onesie bunny suits and lion costumes for babies, by the way!

The other side of Halloween is just good old fashioned dressup fun… I mean….who does't like to dress up and go to a party?

Give a seamstress or tailor several yards of sparkling tulle just before Halloween, and I guarantee they'll be itching to whip up a magical costume!

Even humble blue gingham can make one of the most beloved costumes – Dorothy's jumper from Wizard of Oz.

Are you making a costume for yourself or someone else this month?

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Snow on the High Peaks

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Luana

Sunstorm 

Yesterday we woke up to our first fall view of snow on the high Rocky Mountain peaks. This morning we had snow on the top of the Boulder foothills, and slushy rain most of the day. I just got a Freeze Warning in my Inbox, so I am dashing out to pick my herbs and green tomatoes in a few minutes. My bad boy kitty is asking to come in and sleep in my studio at night, which is a sure sign that the weather is changing.

More and more of our customers are not just making quilts with colorful cotton fabric, but also sewing clothes for babies and children, making clothing for themselves, crafty gifts and practical handbags, aprons and table-toppers, even pillows and splashy bright curtains… oh my!

Groups like the Modern Quilt Guild are rediscovering quilt techniques that us patchwork old timers learned on our grandma's knee. Young mothers are buying entry level sewing machines, but also falling in love with the pleasures of hand-stitching.

There really is a revolution going on in our industry, and slowly these new sewing fans are finding their way to quilt shops – and eQuilter! – to find the wonderful variety of fresh young textile designers that have been streaming into the quilt industry for the last several years.

It is an exciting time to be a fabriholic! – because our sewing friendships are extending beyond age, race and gender, and attracting an audience that simply loves to sew… loves to make things from beautiful fabrics.

When I travel to quilt shows overseas, I am so excited by what quilters in other countries are doing. I've been especially impressed with the exhibits and competitions for children's art quilts, which you've undoubtedly seen on my blog and my photo page if you read the eQuilter midweek Creative Nudge. I've been most impressed with the children's exhibitions in Tokyo and in Birmingham over the last year.

I am hoping to see more quilt shows for and by kids in the coming years, because they can tap into the pure joy of creation just as well (or better!?) than the adults.

Right now I am planning to go to Bangkok in February, to speak on color trends at the Color Marketing Group Asian conference, and I am just starting to make plans to go to Melbourne's Australian Quilt Convention in April. (my plans for the Sydney show in June fell through because it conflicted with Sophie's birthday) If any of our Aussie quilter friends would like to connect with me in Melbourne, or have me speak to a group while there, please do get in touch with us!

Sophie and I will be at Quilt Festival Weds night through Friday night, and if you see us please do come and say hello. Sophie is planning to run the company some day, so she likes to meet our customers and friends too!

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Check out our new eQuilter Facebook page!
(Sneak peaks of new collections throughout the week)

Visit  my photo page for the latest travel photos.
Follow me on Twitter or Luana's Facebook for creative ideas and trends…
clips of my Quilting Arts TV segments on my video page.

The Emerald Isle Tour – June 5 – 15, 2012
Travel with Luana Rubin on this 11-day tour of Ireland visiting Galway, Dublin, Cobh, Killarney, the Dingle Peninsula, Adare, and we will be spending 3-days in the Galway area for the festivities that surround the very first International Quilt Festival of Ireland!

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Posted on October 5, 2011 by Luana

Here is a link to my latest golden Aspen photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luanarubin/

6213736418_60a30cc39c_o

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Creative Nudge – What a Great Idea!

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Luana

SunDoor_W 

How often do you see something truly unique, stop in your tracks, and appreciate the effort someone has put into making the world a more beautiful and interesting place?

Last week I took Mom up to the mountains on a drive to see the turning golden aspen trees in the high country here. We counted license plates from 12 other states in one small parking lot (next to a little roadside lake), and that was on a weekday! When we stopped to get out and admire one particularly sweeping vista on Peak to Peak Road, we were joined by leaf peepers who stood all along the road, gazing across the golden valley silently, but with radiant smiles. It felt like a combination of being at a big quilt show gathering, and being in a vast sacred cathedral.

Silent Wonder.

I am posting several of my fall foliage photos on my blog now, but this is the image I wanted to share with you today. I like to take photos of doorways, that invite one to walk through and start a new adventure.

I love this photo because the high peaks of the Continental Divide are reflected in the window, but also because you have the feeling that a hobbit grandma could open the door any minute.

Sometimes the best ideas are ones you weren't looking for – i.e. I spent this day looking for fall foliage photo opportunities but allowed myself to capture an image that was totally unexpected. Sometimes our best quilts and our best artwork happen like that too.

We start rummaging around in our stash, in our color and photo references, auditioning fabrics and thinking about an idea, when suddenly we are struck with an irresistible color combination that is pleasantly shocking, and we are off and running in a new direction on our next project.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on my blog.

This image was taken at Sundance Lodge above Nederland, then edited in Photoshop.

sharing your passion for fabric…
Luana

"Emerald Isle" – Tour of Ireland
June 5 – 15, 2012
11 Magical Days with Luana
including the Intl Quilt Festival of Ireland

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Creative Nudge – Stitches of Love

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Luana

Embroidery2B550 

Wherever I go, I always have an eye out for collectible textiles. I don't mean fabrics for my stash, but beautiful handmade pieces that are made by local artisans, that illustrate a mastery of the craft by someone who doesn't necessarily consider themselves an artist.

Here is an example – an embroidered piece from Mexico that I photographed in San Antonio last week. It is such exquisite handwork, and the design is so beautiful. The stitches are nearly perfect, and they are so dense that we can only wonder how long it took to embroidery this piece.

However it is not totally perfect, which gives it charm and its handmade value. In a realistic painting, you want to see the brushstrokes so you know it was painted by hand. Similarly, in a quilt you might want to see the imperfections so you know it is a one-of-a-kind made by a real person.

It is seldom that we see embroidery of this density in quilt shows, and to think it is just sewn into the front yoke panel of a dress in a tourist shop kind of blows my mind. As I run my fingers over the texture of the compact stitches, I think of the maker, probably a woman, and wonder how many days it took, and what those days were like for her.

I believe that in a hand-stitched, hand-quilted or hand-embroidered piece, our thoughts and intentions are sewn into the piece, and the energy or blessing of those intentions are passed on to the user. This is something that all quilters understand, when they make a quilt with love and pass it on to someone dear. Every stitch is LOVE, and the healing power of love is immeasurable.

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Creative Nudge – When You Least Expect…

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Luana

I've just arrived home from colorful San Antonio (Texas) tonight, after spending the last few days at the Color Marketing Group annual North American conference. It was a working conference, and we all worked hard to come up with our Color Palette and trend forecast, which will be shared with other members of CMG.

San Antonio was charming and relaxed, and the Riverwalk area was very special. My time there was definitely too short, and I wish I could go back for the Intl Accordion Festival there Oct 7-9. I got to ride up the river on a water taxi, and dine overlooking the river. The next night I had dinner with a friend from Hong Kong, in the big Mexican marketplace El Mercado, at the famous Mi Tierra restaurant, Mariachi bands and all!

I spent the evening wandering around town with my camera, and came across a large glass sculpture in a gallery window. This image is a closeup of that gallery window, and the color was very powerful. It wasn't what I expected to photograph last night, but it turned out to be one of the most provocative images that I captured. I really liked the layer of smaller clear glass flowers on top of the larger and more dramatic colored blossoms.

CMG has conferences also in Europe, Asia and South America. It was very interesting to see all of the color palettes from all the international conferences, put together on one huge World Color Palette. What was so interesting was the predominance of Purples. In fact they named a deep rich purple the CMG Color of the Year – a fun color called Boyz-N-Berry! (tee shirt motto: Real Men Wear Purple!) There were more purples on the World Palette than any other color family, which I find very inter sting because purple is a color of balance and creativity.

If you mix Red (hot) and Blue (cool) together, you get purple…. a color that was reserved for royalty for many centuries. Now purple can be worn by anyone, in fact it is one of the most popular hues chosen by customers when they buy the hot trend of colored jeans. Red jeans are pretty fantastic too – if you can wear that sort of thing. Purple is a color that has often been a favorite of people doing creative work. It is a color that says "I am an independent thinker, and I am an artistic person".

There are so many ways to express yourself with Purple these days:
Soft Heather and Rosy Mauve, Electric Purple and the jeweltone Amethyst, darkened Eggplant and Violet hues, and the Berry Jam colors that are so popular this Fall. Delicious!

When you mix Purple with those gorgeous Southwest colors like Enchilada Red, Sunrise Orange, Jalapeno Green and Cactus Flower Pink – WOW!

sharing your passion for fabric…
Luana

"Emerald Isle" – Tour of Ireland
June 5 – 15, 2012
11 Magical Days with Luana
including the Intl Quilt Festival of Ireland

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GlassFloral1_W 

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Remembering 9/11

Posted on September 10, 2011 by Luana

I know that as you read this, many of you will be joining me in remembering those who lost their lives on 9/11, ten years ago.

We are going up to the Scottish Festival in Estes Park tomorrow, where they will have a special remembrance for 9/11.

I normally don't watch TV in the morning, but for some reason that day I got up early and switched on the news in time to hear Guiliani announcing that a 2nd plane had just hit the 2nd tower. We all remember where we were when we heard the news. I held 4 year old Sam very tightly as I watched the news, and wondered how many of my friends in New York were in harm's way.

There were many people in our industry who were affected by the day's events. I can think of 3 friends' stories off the top of my head. One friend who I knew from my days living in the East Village, is an artist now designing fabric. Her daughter was trapped in a train under the towers as they burned. The firemen came in and rescued them after an hour, got them up to the surface and told them to run for their lives, then the firemen went back in and the tower collapsed on top of them.

Another designer friend of mine, knew that her husband was in the tower at the time of the plane crash, and she had no way of knowing if he had survived until he walked in the door of their home in New Jersey – at 10:30 pm that night. (He had walked all the way home over the bridge)

Another friend whose company is in lower Manhattan, had a loss when her daughter's father-in-law (a firefighter) died in the tower collapse.

eQuilter customers donated over 3000 quilts which were distributed to survivors and family members who had lost someone on 9/11. With the help of Mission of Love and a pastor friend in NYC, we made sure each quilt was personally placed into the hands of a grieving relative, or a survivor.

This week at Photoshop World, we were lucky to have Joe McNally as a speaker. You may have seen his work in Time Magazine or the Washington Post recently, featuring his giant life-size Polaroid photo portraits of 9/11 survivors. It was very moving to see his images and hear him speak about the project. The images are meant to eventually reside at the memorial museum at Ground Zero.

Our business was only 2 years old at the time, and the generosity just blew me away. Since then we've coordinated comfort quilt projects with Mission of Love in Haiti, post-Katrina, and recently in Japan. (Yes we are STILL waiting for photos from the July 13 ceremony – you can read the details on our Quilts for Japan page.)

This weekend Tom will have arrived at the Somalian refugee camp on the border of Kenya, and will be distributing the donated scissors, needles and thread. On Sunday Mission of Love is donating a group of sewing machines in Pine Ridge, SD, along with the sewing notions and fabric we shipped up there last week.

Sunday I will be praying for peace, and thinking about the tremendous outpouring of quilts we received from our customers, post 9/11. I hope to be quietly hand-stitching Sunday night, reflecting on what has passed in the last 10 years.

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Creative Nudge – Seize the Moment

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Luana

PolarBear_550 
Sunday I took Sophie to the zoo, and we both brought our cameras. I am teaching her how to capture vivid photos and the zoo is a great place to practice looking through the lens.

Every time I go to the zoo, I have a similar feeling to the safari hunters of old… but I am hunting with a camera and not a gun. ("What animal will I capture today?")

Each zoo visit yields a completely unexpected result: I never know what will be the Animal of the Day. On each visit I always have one animal who poses and lets me capture his or her personality. Sunday… it was the Polar Bear!

I like the idea of going somewhere for inspiration, without expectation. I sure didn't expect the Polar Bear to be the star of my expedition this time! How many times have I gone to the zoo, hoping to photograph the Polar Bears, and they are not even visible in their large enclosure? So what a pleasant surprise as we strolled up to their big area, and this handsome fellow was perched up on the rocks in the middle, gazing out at us!

So I am sending this as a sort of digital postcard to all our quilter friends down in Texas who are being affected by the drought and terrible fires. We are having a nice cool drizzly overcast day here in Boulder, and I am hoping you'll get our cool moist weather soon!

I hope you saw the "Tentmakers of Cairo" video that I posted this week, from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham England. I have also posted photos on my Facebook page and my photo page. We have 4 videos up from Birmingham now, and 2-3 more on the way. Thanks to Bonnie McCaffery for filming and editing these videos!

I'll have arrived in Las Vegas by the time you read this – to attend Photoshop World through Friday.

Today Tom is picking up our box full of scissors, needles and sewing supplies for Somalian refugees, and today we also sent out a box of sewing supplies and fabric to the reservation in Pine Ridge SD. Thanks to all of you who contributed to this effort! We'll have similar projects in the near future.

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Creative Nudge – Sewing Kits for Africa

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Luana

As friends and family have checked in to let us know they are ok, albeit without power after the passage of Irene, I am feeling relieved that the hurricane was not as destructive as forecast. We know of 2 suppliers whose warehouses full of fabric were destroyed, and we are just happy that nobody was hurt there. Next month they will have new container shipments full of fabric.

Later this week we'll be posting a 3rd video from the Birmingham show, this time featuring the Tentmakers of Cairo. I am sharing a closeup of one of these incredibly complex applique quilts – which take months to make just one quilt. As I stood looking at this exhibition, I got a little teary-eyed, thinking about the Arab Spring and Egypt's uprising. Through it all, the quiltmakers in Cairo just kept stitching.

I'd like to try to help bring this exhibit from Cairo to the US, and I'll be looking for sponsors and help with customs paperwork, so if any of you are interested in contributing funds or expertise to this project please let us know. ( Watch for the video here in the next few days!)

We're going to stay on the topic of Africa for a moment, and move from Egypt to Kenya and Somalia. Our friend Tom is an administrator for a refugee camp on the border of Kenya, working with refugees from the famine in Somalia. As I mentioned last week, Tom (whom we originally met through Doctors Without Borders) is in Boulder for another week, and has offered to hand carry 20-25 lbs of sewing kits and sewing supplies to these Somalian refugees who must endure the crushing boredom in the camp for months, or even years.

I've had many requests from customers and friends who want to contribute to this care package of sewing supplies. If you are local, you can drop off any donations (such as scissors, needles and thread) to the eQuilter office by Weds Sept 7 at 5 pm latest. Tom will pick up the package Sept 8 before flying back to Kenya.

For those of you who are out of state, and have expressed a desire to donate to this package, we have a limited-time option on our checkout Charity Options page, to choose "Sewing Supplies for Africa" and we will add another kit of scissors, needle packet and thread spool, to Tom's hand-carried package. Tom says there is plenty of fabric there, but no sewing supplies. Eventually we will get some photos from Tom from the distribution of the supplies.

We are working with Mission of Love to develop an ongoing program to donate sewing supplies to communities such as Pine Ridge, Guatemala and Honduras. We'll keep you posted on how you can participate, if you are interested.

We'll be sending a portion of our charity funds for hurricane relief this month, as things settle and we see what communities have been hardest hit.

CairoTent1_W 

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Hurricanes, Birmingham, Somalia and One Needle

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Luana

from Saturday night newsletter:

We've uploaded the first 2 video interviews from my visit to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham England. 9 year old Lily tells us about making her fun quilt, and Anna Maria shows us her "Wisteria" applique quilt.

As Hurricane Irene pounds its way up the Eastern coast here in the US, we are keeping you coastal residents in our thoughts and prayers. As I write this, my old New York City neighborhood of the East Village and Tomkins Square Park is under evacuation, which is very surreal. I've been in touch with some of my friends in the quilt industry in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and they are all affected by evacuations or other concerns.

In 1983 when I was living in Hong Kong, I experienced Category 4 Typhoon Ellen, with winds that gusted up to 150 mph. Tanker ships were tossed onto shore, shanty towns were washed away, cars on the street were smashed and windows were blown out. I spent the night on the 9th floor with my roommate and a neighbor, and we took turns hanging onto the air conditioner so it wouldn't be sucked out of the wall and onto the street below. The next day I crossed the street to check on a friend's flat on the 23rd floor, and all her windows were blown out, with water and broken glass through the flat. I was living up in the Mid-Levels so we didn't have to worry about flooding, but the wind was scary.

Even as Irene is hitting the East Coast, folks in the Gulf Coast are still recovering from Katrina 6 years ago, and Japanese coastal residents are still sleeping on the floors of school gymnasiums 5 months after the tsunami there. We are grateful to support Mission of Love, which is still sending aid to places like this around the world. (On July 13, through a partnership with generous quilters, Mission of Love and UPS, 2155 quilts were distributed to residents of Kesennuma, in Miyagi Prefecture of Japan)

Earlier this week I had lunch with our friend Tom from Doctors Without Borders, who is actually currently working with a parallel organization (ACF International – Action Against Hunger) in Kenya, just across the border from Somalia. He is an administrator at a refugee camp where Somalian refugees are streaming across the border. He is visiting his daughter in Boulder now, but will travel back to Africa Sept 8.

Tom described the "crushing boredom" of spending weeks, months, even years in these vast refugee camps. As he spoke I had an idea – would he take a package of sewing kits back to the refugee camps to distribute to the women there? He said yes, he could take up to 25 lbs, and so I am working on putting together an aid package to be hand-carried to these people who have nothing.

If you are one of my Facebook Friends, you know that when I posted this idea, and invited local friends to drop off donations for this effort, I got an outpouring of support from quilters out-of-state. As a result we are now putting together a program here at eQuilter where – if you wish – you can donate scissors or a needle package to the current project. We have a supplier who is donating thread, and we'll share more details soon. If you are near our warehouse, you can donate scissors, needles and high quality thread for Tom's hand-carried aid packet.

After this project for Somalian refugees, we will also work with Mission of Love to deliver sewing kits to Pine Ridge and Guatemala. Kathy at MOL says she has seen 7 women sharing ONE NEEDLE in a village. Can you imagine?

Thanks to those of you on Facebook who put forth this idea, and encouraged us to make it happen! More information in my midweek Creative Nudge newsletter.

I hope you all stay safe and dry on the East Coast. If you evacuate be sure to take your sewing machine!

Tonight I am going to Denver to hear Buddhist Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh speak, and I'll be sending prayers to those of you in the storm's path.

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