Klingons and Wizards

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Luana

Today Sophie and I went to MileHiCon for the first time. It is a SciFi/Fantasy Fan conference, and from the moment we walked in Sophie had a giant grin on her face as we mingled with Vulcans and Klingons, Steampunk characters, pirates and Harry Potter characters, and some scary drippy zombie/vampire characters.

There were lots of ladies in corsets who clearly wanted to wear their Renaissance Faire costumes one more time…and there were too many guys dressed in Captain Kirk's signature jersey.

Sophie came dressed as Phantom of the Opera, although she had to leave her long black velvet cape at home because it drags on the ground. (Great for onstage, not so great walking through a crowd)

When the Klingon Batliff Bop started, she signed up enthusiastically. She was eliminated in the first round, but she played against a kid several years older. (and several inches taller) After Sophie watched how the big kids played, she went up to the judge and asked for a rematch against a kid more her size. After the tournament, she was matched up with a boy a couple inches taller than her who had taken 3rd place, and she trounced him soundly. (These are foam rubber batliffs wrapped with duct tape) Everyone was so surprised! Several people asked if she's been taking martial arts (yes), then she put on her Phantom costume and strode out of the ring.

I get a real kick out of the Steampunk Victorian-era costumes, and other costumes like the Pirate Queen that are obviously sewn by their wearers and worn with great dash and pride. Sophie and I started plotting our costumes for the MileHiCon next year.

We are a family of SciFi nerds, but we also love historic fiction. Paul and I found common ground on our first blind date, because of our mutual love of Star Trek and Monty Python. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, but also costume historic dramas like Merlin and Downton Abbey, are favorites at the Rubin household. (We love BBC miniseries!)

Are you an avid costume-maker, SciFi fan, re-enacter or do you just like to dress up and pretend you live in a fantasy or future reality?

A week from now I'll be writing to you from Quilt Market in Houston, then I'll be staying on for the following week for Quilt Festival. Tuesday night I'll be presenting the big World of Beauty prize at the IQA Award Ceremony, and Sophie and I are planning to attend the Quiltapalooza on Thurs Nov 3. Hope to see you there!

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Hey all you Hoffman Challenge Fanatics!
We've got a pile of the new challenge fabric ready to ship – be one of the *first* to get your rotary cutters on this romantic large scale floral!

It's Double Dipping time this week, with so many new batiks and new hand-dyes/tie-dyes that we had to split them into 2 categories!

We're also Double-Dipping Asian collections –
with Kona Bay's newest collectible "Tranquility" group, and several new Japanese and Chinese themed coordinates.

McKenna Ryan's new set of patterns are in stock now – and they are Bellissima!

Are you anxious to head out for Houston's big Quilt Festival week after next? We have Pokey Bolton's International Quilt Festival Magazine in stock and ready to ship out! If you're not making it to Houston this year, you'll definitely want a copy of this annual publication.

If you contributed a quilt to eQuilter's relief effort to the Japan tsunami survivors, there's a lovely article about the project in the new issue of Quilt Magazine.

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Creative Nudge – Warm and Fuzzy

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Luana

WagonTeam1A_W

Now that we've had our first real frost here, and the trees are dropping flurries of golden and red leaves, it is time to bring up a very serious topic… FLANNEL!

Do you live in Flannel Country? Do you measure your winter snowfall in feet, not inches? Do you measure the value of a quilt, by how warm it keeps you on brutally frigid nights? Do you scoff at pretty little floral lap quilts? Have you made a quilt with such thick batting that it had to be tied, not quilted?

There are some parts of the country that consume prodigious amounts of flannel. Utah is one of those states that I hear has an insatiable appetite for fuzzy fabrics. Brushed cotton is nice, but if you are a serious flannel connoisseur, you can't wait to breathlessly stroke a new shipment of high quality flannels that feel like butter.

We know how you feel.

I also know that once you've skimmed off the cream in your local quilt shop's flannel department, there might be a few more things you need to make the next great flannel quilt.

Type in "Flannel" in the eQuilter search box and currently we have over 700 flannel products. Can you imagine how much space this takes up in our warehouse? A new full bolt of flannel takes up as much room as 3 bolts of cotton poplin. You can just imagine our staff carrying these big fat fuzzy bolts of flannel to the cutting tables!

This time of year we are in Flannel Heaven.

Baby flannels, solid flannels in pastels and earthtones, plaid yarn-dyed flannels, Christmas flannels, blender flannels, dot and stripe flannels…the list goes on.

There are, of course, many different qualities of flannel. The less expensive flannels will usually be thinner. The more expensive flannels are mostly thicker and softer, with higher quality printing and more saturated colors.

Pre-washing flannel is a real hassle, because it is a looser weave, and the edges can fray in big annoying thready knots. Some people stitch along the edges before pre-washing to stop the fraying. Flannel can shrink but if you make a quilt with unwashed flannel, it will shrink some and create nice texture after its first washing.

You don't have to make a quilt with flannel only. My favorite quilt (which I just pulled out and put on our bed) is a mixture of blender (tonal) flannels, hand-dyed cottons from Bali, and cotton sateen. The mix of of textures both visual and sensual makes for an interesting quilt. I started with a packet of hand-dye and batik strips, and added the flannel and sateen. Scrumptious!

A lot of quilters have been mixing flannel with Minkee and Plush. This way you get a super-luxe dreamy soft quilt top. You can also use plush for the backing of a pieced flannel quilt top. Really the possibilities are endless! Don't ask if it is ok to mix these fabrics – just go ahead and play around with some sample scraps and figure out what kind of machine settings you need to sew together these playful cuddly fabrics! For a country look, you can mix lightweight denim or chambray, with plaid flannels and floral prints. Think John Denver's "Country Road".

This weekend Sophie and I went to Sunflower Farm, and went on the horse-drawn hayride with the mountain peaks as a backdrop. I remember as a girl, going on an evening hayride gripping mugs of hot cider, snuggling under quilts and looking up at the big starry sky.

What's your favorite Autumn quilt memory?

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Dreams Can Come True

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Luana

One of the things I love about being in this industry is watching a newcomer experience the vast abundance of visual stimulation, eye candy, and creative genius that flows constantly through textile and quilt design. There are so many great ideas and colorful expressions that are being pumped through the pipeline every month, that it can be difficult to choose a part of it for oneself!

There is a real "changing of the guard" occurring in the quilt industry now, as the founding mothers and fathers, and industry icons are reaching 30+ years in this business, and are now empowering their kids, their staff and their fans to pick up the banner, restitch the details, and carry it forward into a brave new social media world.

30 years goes by pretty quick, and I am seeing young adults come into the industry with the same starry eyes and big dreams that I had when I took my first design job at the age of 20. I hear them say some of the exact same things that I said in my twenties, and I want to encourage them to follow their dreams and think BIG.

I have been in the quilt industry for 13 years now, although I've worked in textile and fashion design for over 30 years. I've been quilting for 21 years, but I've been sewing since I was a little girl. In the fashion industry it is a given that you have to be tough to get ahead…but I really love that in this industry people actually support each other, share ideas, and see their competitors' health as part of the strength of the overall industry. I feel very lucky to have found my way into this end of the textile business.

FactoryGrandOpening

 

(Photo: Luana 22 yrs old, at a garment factory opening in Hong Kong, 1982)


I wanted to share this great TED talk about following your dreams. Josh articulates pretty much my own philosophy about creating success… or creating art for that matter. Sometimes it helps to hear someone talk about a pure concept, then take the philosophy and the symbolism, and apply it to your own life.

Every week as our new shipments come in, I feel the same excitement that I had the first time I went to Quilt Market, and then a month later opened the first boxes full of beautiful new fabrics. We now have a wonderful staff at eQuilter who share the same enthusiasm, from Customer Service up front, to those in the warehouse Cutting Department who "ooh" and "ahhh" as hundreds of bolts every day are pulled, orders cut, fabric folded and shipped out to our wonderful customers – You!

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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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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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