eQuilter Blog

One of the challenges when we go to a quilt show or art exhibit, is to slow down and really see what is in front of us. We tend to unconsciously go with the flow, look for a few moments, and then move on to the next piece.

I've seen both ends of the scale. I've seen people grow bored after looking at the Sistine Chapel ceiling after 5 or 10 minutes. (HOW is that possible??!!) I've also seen someone stand and look at a painting for an hour, and then come back and look some more.

One of the things that really struck me at the Tokyo Quilt Festival is how many of the attendees really and truly LOOKED at the quilts on display. They didn't stand at a distance and look. They got up very close and looked at tiny details and miniscule stitching. They took out their cell phones and took Macro closeup photos of the piecework and embellishments. They would stand and look for a very long time – longer than people tend to look at shows here in the US.

There is a Zen to Looking. Even though the Japanese quilters at this show tend to be unfailingly polite, in the US, standing right in front of a quilt for so long might be seen as a little impolite.

I had fun watching those who were looking. I found it fascinating, to wait and see what it was that would catch their attention and admiration for such a long time. I finally decided that it was simply a very deep and genuine delight and respect for the work of the artist. As it should be.

My friend Akemi had told me once that at 4 pm the show empties out, because the housewives have to get on the train to go home before their husbands get home. I spoke to several ladies and found that this was often true. Many had taken the train for an hour or more into the city to see the quilt show. They would pour out of the train station by the Tokyo Dome by the thousands in the morning…and then they would all pour back to the train station late afternoon.

So as the show began to empty out, I took that time not just to capture photos, but to slow down and really look at the quilts. I looked at the tiny hand-piecing of vintage silk kimono pieces. I looked at the thousands of tiny quilt stitches on huge intricate quilts. I looked at the vintage indigo ikats and stencil prints that had clearly been lovingly collected, carefully cut and pieced into quilts awash in shades of faded blues…

Here is a closeup photo of a piece that really won my heart, when I slowed down and took a close look. This image shows about a 6" wide section of a small handbag that was part of the handbag exhibition. These pieces are wonders of miniature piecing and stitching – sewn into clever portable pieces of art that can be carried in public.

I couldn't find the romaji of the artist's name (the romanization of the Japanese characters) so I have added an image of her name in Japanese characters so she will get proper credit here.

The more you look at this image, the more you will see. Start with the tiny seed beads, then consider the astonishing miniature applique, 3-D roses, and embroidery. Last week I talked about the play of a rich gold against a subtle mauve. Can you see a similar dance of color here?

I am posting more photos from Japan on my Flickr page:

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

Here is Noriko Endo in front of her beautiful Sakura theme Confetti Landscape quilt. See her new book in our Asian book department!

http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?catid=205

Gung Hei Fat Choi!

That's from the Cantonese version of "Happy New Year!"

Thursday Feb 3 is Chinese New Year, so that makes today New Years Eve. This is the Year of the Rabbit, which is supposed to be a calmer year than the preceding Year of the Tiger.

The Rabbit symbolizes graciousness, good manners, good judgment, kindness and sensitivity to beauty.

Those of us who collect colorful fabrics have an appreciation and sensitivity to beauty. We have an eye for that one special piece that speaks to us from the crowded shelves or the flea market stalls.

Which brings me to my Creative Nudge Photo of the Week. It was just a few days ago that I got up at 6 am to catch a train with friends, and travel to a once-a-month flea market in Kawagoe, about an hour out of Tokyo. I went with some avid bargain hunters, and we all had a different sort of treasure in mind when we arrived early at the flea market in front of the temple.

I spent about 2 hours at the flea market, but I was more interested in taking photos, than buying things. I photographed bins full of indigo and ikat fabrics, vintage kimonos & obi sashes, blue and white antique porcelain, pre-war stamp collections, trays of glass beads and wooden dolls, matriarchs in winter kimonos and fur collars, young people dressed in vintage pre-war costume, handwoven baskets, iron teapots, and jumbled kitschy toys from the 50's with the barest cutesy glimmer of what would become Anime.

How fascinating to see all of this! – so different from what I would find in a local US flea market. I mean, yes obviously it is going to be different, but to have the experience and take my time to gaze at all of it without rushing…that was a real luxury. It made me think about how immersing ourselves in another culture's aesthetic waters – without rushing – is perhaps not a luxury but a necessity for those of us who like to look for something special in the midst of the hodgepodge.

..and it doesn't necessarily have to be in another country. I've had the same experience traveling to New Orleans, Seattle, Florida, etc.

So here is my treasure that I brought home – out of all the flea market photos I took – this one is my favorite. I didn't even think for a minute about buying the vase and trying to bring it home, because all I really needed was the inspiration of these gorgeous glazed colors. Maybe someone reading this will post on my blog and tell me about this piece, but the color speaks to me so directly that I can feel the smile of the artist when it was removed from the kiln and the glowing hues were seen for the first time. What I really love is the play between the strong golden yellow, and the subtle mauve accents. I am going to have to go play with this color combination now.

I'm wrapping up my quick trip to Tokyo,
and as usual I am blown away by the craftsmanship and the Japanese aesthetics that are on display here at the Tokyo Quilt Festival.

I always have my eye out for different embodiments of visual trends, and one thing that really struck me after walking the show, is how ubiquitous the visual language of dots and stripes has become. The night after I walked the show, I was dreaming about the philosophical meaning of stripes and dots all night!

The dots were often appliqued circles, some as small as buttons, some pieced with curved seams, but they contrast enough (by color, value or dimension) to really stand out as a DOT.

The stripes were present in so many ways –
printed stripes that were pieced into the quilts, parallel lines of straight stitching that created a stripe-like pattern, and string-pieced strips of fabric that created an overall ombre effect.

It is the 10th anniversary of the Tokyo Quilt Festival, and I saw a theme of little houses over and over again. There were tiny embroidered fairy-houses in group quilts, there were three-dimensional houses that multiplied into a fabric village, and there were graphic images of fanciful gingerbread houses.

Ladies were taking closeup pictures of fine stitching, with their cell phones. Groups of quilters clustered around intricate quilts, seriously discussing the techniques used. There were more people getting close to the quilts and inspecting the fine handiwork, than there were people standing at a distance to take in the big picture!

That says it all perhaps. Here in Japan most of the quilts are all handmade, and it is truly mind-boggling to look at some of these large pieces that are hand-pieced, hand-quilted, and hand-embellished. A different lifestyle for most of these quilters, that makes for a different culture of hand-stitched quilts. If you've seen the Japanese quilts at Houston, you know what I mean!

Somehow I managed to fit in a half-day trip to the temple flea market at Kawagoe with Mary Koval, and Carol Veillon of Quiltmania(French Quilts), then Noriko Endo's gallery exhibit. Today I took the subway to the Costume Museum and the National Opera House. Tomorrow I'll catch a contemporary quilt exhibit in Ginza with my friend Akemi.

I am still sorting through my photos (and recovering from something that I ate that didn't agree with my vegetarian tummy!) so by Tuesday in my Creative Nudge I'll have a bunch of images posted on my photo page and my Facebook page, with comments on my blog. I am flying home Monday.

To my American, French and Japanese friends here who made my trip so memorable – Arigato!

Just reposting this, for those of you who might have missed my midweek Creative Nudge newsletter:

A few days ago I was blessed by the presence of a beautiful raptor in front of our house. I went out to get in my car in the driveway, and I noticed a neighbor out in the street waving his arms, pointing, and whispering loudly " Look in the tree!" In my adjacent neighbors' front yard was this huge raptor just sitting on a low branch looking at me. On the ground was its mate, eating its prey.

I *always* have at least a small camera tucked in my purse, so I breathlessly pulled out my little camera and snapped several photos. After posting on Facebook the consensus seems to be that it is a Coopers Hawk.

There is a Native American belief that everyone has an animal totem that represents their true nature, or an animal will appear to you to give you a message. I have a short list of wild animals that appear to me regularly (foxes and blue herons), and then there are the ones that appear like messengers. I am still contemplating what a Coopers Hawk might mean for me, but it was definitely one of those special moments where I was able to capture the essence of the bird in this image.

If you read the last issue of Fabric Trends magazine, you know that I like to take photos and then turn them into color palettes. It took me a few days to realize that I could turn this image into a color palette. (duh!) I happened to do this one in Photoshop – all of the swatches on the right were pulled directly from the photo with the eyedropper tool.

The point I am trying to make here is that inspiration is all around us, and sometimes we have to be hit over the head with a creative or color inspiration before we get it. I've been looking at this photo for 4 days – because I knew there was something there for me – but that's how long it took until the inspiration arrived like a bolt of lightning.

Nature is an incredible source of color and design inspiration. I take photos of all sorts of crazy things like rocks on the side of a highway, rotting leaves, and the surface of water. It is my library of textural ideas. Of course it is great fun to capture things like snowy peaks, fiery sunsets, and wildlife…but sometimes the biggest "aha!" is in the smallest closeup detail.

I am teaching my kids to see not only the beauty in Nature, but all the variety of colors in the world around us. Sometimes driving home at sunset, we'll park by the airport, look at the sky, and identify all the colors we see in the sky. Learning to really see Color takes time. You have to sit and look at the tree or the sky or the mountain, and erase all of your preconceived notions about the sky being blue, the tree being green, etc. Then you can begin to open your eyes to see like Monet or the other Impressionist painters…to see the purple in the shadows, the yellow in the highlights, the sparkle of red when the sun falls on dark hair, and fifty shades of pink on the petal of a rose. It's pure visual poetry, and it's all right there in front of us.

In the image above, the first 2 colors come from the plumage, the blue is from the thin crust of snow on the top of the branch, the gold is from the bird's legs, and the charcoal is from the tree branch. It was all there….it just took me awhile to really *see* what was there.

Today I am posting some information from one of the organizations we work with overseas. I received a letter and photos, through the Houston NASA chapter of Engineers Without Borders, with information about this orphanage we help support in Rwanda.

You can go to my Flickr photo page to see photos of the babies with individual notes on each child. These are just some of the children living in this orphanage in Kigali Rwanda.

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

Below is a letter and contact info if you'd like to help these children and this orphanage.

L?Esperance Children?s Aid Rwanda
Children?s Village Kigarama
December 2010
THE BABY PROJECT

The second raining season already started and it is raining a lot. This is not an
easy time for our baby house mothers and our ten babies. There is not much dry
place left to play or to fold the cloths of the babies. Nevertheless, this cannot stop
our babies from laughing: Even in the strongest storm we can hear their joy and
we always enjoy watching them growing and becoming stronger. We all are so
happy to see our babies strong and healthy.
During this year 2010 we admitted three new babies: Mariya, Paul and Jean Paul
Mugisha. As you can imagine, ten babies need a lot of attention and love. In
order to make the work of Mother Christine and Mother Grace easier we have
employed another housemother her name is Marie and she is mainly cooking for
the babies..

If you want to help our babies, please contact us. The entire team of the
Children?s Village Kigarama as well as Matthew, Noah, Malik, Mariya, Gasigwa,
Jasmin, Joy, Dativa, Paul and Jean Paul greets you and wish you a fantastic
New Year 2011. Your help and support are precious to us.
Your friend,
Victor Monroy, Director
L?Esperance Children?s Aid Rwanda.
Children?s Village Kigarama
P.O.Box 5026 Kigali, Rwanda
Tel. +250/ (0)788545731
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.lesperancerwanda.org

www.victormonroytrust.com

I posted this on Facebook a few days ago, but thought I'd share it with my other non-FB friends. *smile* This raptor was perched next to my car in my neighbor's tree, and since I always carry a small camera in my purse, I was able to snap this great shot. Its mate was on the ground eating its prey. I tried to get closer but they snatched up the prey and flew off together. I am told this is a Cooper's Hawk. Isn't he a beauty?

Gosh it has been quite a week full of startling news stories. While we have had a big story in Tucson that has dominated the media in the US…and caused everyone to take a step back in thoughtful silence…we've been watching the difficult situation in Australia and Brasil with your floods. Our thoughts and prayers go out to our customers there who may be affected by these vast floods.

We also have a staff member who left us in August to teach English in Tunisia, and now we are anxiously watching the news there as the government imploded. We also marked the one year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, and follow the reports coming from Doctors Without Borders on the situation there.

I used to feel helpless when I read the news, but since we started our eQuilter charity program over 11 years ago, and invited our customers to join us in our efforts, I feel like together we have truly made a difference for many who are affected by these kinds of natural disasters.

In 2010, together we raised over $100,000 for various charitable organizations, bringing the total donated to over $860,000. (When I say "we" – I mean all of us together!)

In addition to the 2% that goes to the 7 charities on our charity page, eQuilter also donated to these charities in 2010:
Children International, Children's Hunger Fund, Smile Train, SOS Children's Villages, Childrens Diabetes Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Grameen Foundation, Heifer International, Wild Animal Sanctuary, and Wikipedia.

We also sponsor IQA World of Beauty award, Quilt Visions, Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, and San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, and in 2011 will also help sponsor Sacred Threads in Washington DC, and the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, UK.

I also love to hear from other small business owners who are inspired by our business model, and have started their own charity programs, donating a percentage of sales (not profits) to those in need.

This week I will be posting more information on my blog about our partners and recipients – Mission of Love, Altrusa, Engineers Without Borders – so you can look into the eyes of some of the children who we've helped together. It truly does make a difference, and we continue to be grateful for the opportunity to help others, with your support.

This is the time of year when many of us clean, organize, and purge in our homes and our workspaces.

If you are a quilter, that may also mean that you take out your stash, reorganize your fabrics and color stories, and find more efficient ways to store and display your threads, cutting tools, and notions. It is very satisfying after a few hours or even a few days to look across your table or your studio space, and see neatly stacked clear plastic boxes with color coded labels, or your 200 color thread collection symetrically organized into a visual color wheel, or all of your quilt marking pencils lined up in a neat row like little lead soldiers.

Don't get too attached.

Creating is a messy business, and no matter how much you stop and clean up as you are designing, cutting and stitching, let's face it…that magazine-perfect creative space is not going to stay clean and neat for long.

Then there is the question of HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH FABRIC?

My own personal fabric collection was really getting out of hand when we decided to open eQuilter, and then it became not an addiction but a business. *smile*

I still have a textile collection that is spread out in 4 locations between home and work, although I do a yearly purge and try to get rid of things that are no longer tantalizing. But most of it is still impossible to part with, so I focus on organizing and compartmentalizing all my notions, embellishments and other creative doo-dads.

So when does collecting become hoarding?

When you have a tiny little path through the room between stacks of fabric that go from floor to ceiling. (and you never share or give away anything)

When does cleaning and editing become obsessive purging and subsequent obsessive regret?

When you wake up in a cold sweat at 3 am and realize you gave away or threw away something that was PERFECT for a new project… that you just thought of at 2:59 am.

A lot of quilters make jokes about how they hide their stash from their spouses, but I really do know people who keep their fabric in the trunk of their car and then sneak it into the house late at night.

Well if collecting fabric is a guilty pleasure, I say it is much better than doing drugs or becoming an alcoholic.

Even though we have a warehouse full of 20,000 fabrics, I still collect textiles when I travel. I can't display them all, so I store them in an antique chest and bring them out to "play" when I need a picker-upper. Exquisite embroidery, hand-loomed ikats, hand-tied tiny shibori dots, embellishment with metallic threads and glass beads, and 3-dimensional applique… I don't cut these up, but I use them as design inspiration. It is my personal textile petting zoo.

Our Hand-Painted Batik Panels, collectible Kona Bay panels, and Japanese Noren Panels are a great way to start your own textile petting zoo…but these can be cut and stitched into wallhangings and wearable art if you want to do more than just pet them!

Today Sophie started a new season of gymnastics at our city Parks & Rec program. It is an 8 week class and she takes it a couple times a year. My boys took this same class, and the highlight of the hour is always the same – running and jumping in the Foam Pit. (A swimming-pool sized hole in the gym that is filled with large squares of foam) Sometimes they swing on the rings like Tarzan (or Jane?) and drop into the pit. Sometimes they run and jump off a spring board into the pit…but the result is always the same. The biggest smiles and giggles you've ever seen or heard. Pure Joy. Even I look forward to the foam pit. Vicariously.

As I watched the kids, I thought – "That's the way it should be when we start a new project. We should be willing to bounce off the spring board (the inspiration), fly through the air (leap with no expectations), smile and giggle like crazy when we land in the squishy swimming pool of foam. (try something new and enjoy the process, no matter what the outcome)

Why don't we do this more often? TIME.

We are all so busy that we think every creative effort has to be productive. We curse the time wasted when we experiment with something new and it doesn't turn out perfect. We plan everything out with obsessive efficiency and sew blocks like we are a factory worker making 500 shirts a day. Why do we do this? Quilting is supposed to be FUN!

Well ok, I know some of you are saying…'I don't do that!' … so I am speaking to those of you who are productivity oriented, and you know who you are. *smile*

There was a great article in the NY Times this last week, about the importance of play.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/garden/06play.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=children%20play&st=cse

It was about children, but I think it really applies to all of us. My creative time is my playtime, and if I don't get it regularly, I really go nuts. Repetitive quilting is my meditation time. When I am working out a design problem, I seem to be working on other subconscious problems at the same time. I come out of my studio after a few hours, feeling like I have accomplished and solved so much more than just a quilt. Do you know what I mean?