eQuilter Blog

Beauty is all around us, and although our eye is drawn to Beauty, often we are distracted by gimmicky blaring Beauty, instead of quiet pure Beauty.

During the holidays we search for Beauty, for Peace, and for small moments of pure Joy. We are not always consciously aware that we are yearning for these things, as it is easy to get sucked into the bright lights and the loud holiday soundtrack…. but deep inside all of us is the child that recognizes a moment of magic…like when a perfect snowflake lands on our nose and the moment is frozen in time.

This holiday season I have done most of my gift shopping online. When I have had to go into town, I've been just blown away by the intensity of the busy shoppers in the parking lots, cashier lines, and on the road. Then I go back home and breathe a sigh of relief. Wow, holiday shopping options have become so intensely polarized in the last 10 years!

Today was our Winter Solstice (longest night of the year), and the Summer Solstice for our friends Down Under. With the Lunar Eclipse, it seems like a very magical and auspicious time. Every year the commercial frenzy seems to become more intense, and every year the world seems to need a little moment of Magic, a place of quiet and peaceful reflection, and the sharing of Joy… more than ever before.

For those of you celebrating Christmas in a few days, I hope that this week you can slow down and enjoy the season. Perhaps you will catch your breathe as you see the magic in a child's eyes, or maybe you will have a moment of clarity and healing at a midnight service on Christmas Eve.

Do you remember those bumper stickers from many years back, that said "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty"? I think that is what quilters do – we make these incredible gifts of love and beauty – and give them to those in need of comfort. In the end, I think those of us who make and give quilts, benefit more than the recipients.

Every quilt we give away shares a piece of our heart and soul with the world – and makes us more present in our loved one's life. That piece of our heart transcends time, and can continue to give comfort and healing into the distant future.

All of us at eQuilter wish you a beautiful holiday with your loved ones, and we are honored to have shared in the gifts you make and give.

I bet you feel the same way that I do this time of year – I love to give to others – and this time of year is a great opportunity to show love, respect, appreciation and admiration to all the people who add color and Light to my life.

Sam and Sophie have a holiday music recital tomorrow – Sam playing ukulele and Sophie playing violin – and I know we'll really get in the spirit of the season after hearing all those kids play their Christmas songs!

Today we had brunch up at Chautauqua and I took photos for our holiday photo card with the snow-dusted Flatirons in the background. (Yeah I know, I am running a little late, but I was tied up last week…) We picked up a tree from our local farmer on the way home, and there were packages on the front porch this evening. I suppose the logical next step is to bake some gingerbread cookies tonight…and oh I almost forgot we are invited to a Cookie Decorating Party tomorrow morning!

Tonight we'll decorate the tree, and unpack all those ornaments collected over the years. We'll tell the story attached to each ornament as we unpack them and hang them high enough so the cats can't knock them down…then we'll turn on the lights and admire our work… gotta have a mug of hot cocoa in hand when we flip the switch!

We hope that you are having a wonderful week of holiday traditions, leading up to Christmas and New Years, or perhaps you are celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or the Winter Solstice. Watch for our Winter Solstice newsletter midweek, and hope you find lots of good stuff in our big sale this week!

The Holiday Season is upon us, and many of us are happily crashing in exhaustion after some power-shopping and partying! Through it all, we search for the true meaning of the holidays, and look for ways to give to others with an open heart and open arms.

Quilters are one of the most giving groups of people we have ever met, and we know that you are probably putting the final touches on a one-of-a-kind gift for someone special in your life. We are happy to have contributed to that process, and there's a little bit of eQuilter *Love* that is tucked in when you make a quilt or fabric gift, and send it off to your own loved ones.

By the end of the year eQuilter will have raised $850,000 for charity, and that is a BIG hunk of love that is sent all over the world to those in need.

http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/Charity.html

We thank you for contributing to our charity efforts, and now we are giving a big THANK YOU back to you for your business and friendship this year – our eQuilter Yearend Giant Closeout SALE!

http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?catid=40

Last night I got home from my trip to Vienna, Prague and Budapest. I have just finished posting photos from the Matthias Church in Budapest, which is an absolute *jewel* of art and patterned design … not only on every interior surface of the building, but also the colored tiles on the roof are in a pattern!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Church

I just couldn't help but think of all you quilters when I walked inside this gorgeous building. There was SO much design inspiration and truly unique color combinations that I was just snapping away like crazy with my new camera. My present to myself for my birthday was a camera with a high quality lowlight sensor, and a combination wide angle and telephoto lens, so I could quickly switch back and forth from taking in a big wide angle scene, to zooming in on a distant detail. (like the patterned artwork on the ceiling of this cathedral!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luanarubin/sets/72157625476989025/

Take a look on my photo page or my Facebook page and you'll see what I mean. You can't help but see quilt blocks and applique designs when you look at these images!

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

http://www.facebook.com/luana.rubin

One of the colors that really stood out for me on this trip was a deep rich yellow-gold. I was traveling with my friend Beth Hayes (Editor-in-Chief of McCalls Quilting Magazine) and she pointed out that there were so many houses painted this intense shade of yellow, as we traveled through the countryside! We also saw this color all over Sch?nbrunn Palace in Vienna. The color 'Sch?nbrunn Yellow' was a favorite of the Emperor Franz II/I, and so the whole place was repainted this color around 1818. I wonder what the neighbors thought….?

http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/wissenswertes/tour-of-the-palace.html

http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/wissenswertes/palace/baugeschichte-iii.html

I will be posting photos all week, so be sure to check my photo/Facebook pages in a few days. Also, if you missed my enewsletter Weds night, check out the photos posted from the Czech Republic.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luanarubin/sets/72157625545354406/

Sunday, my last day in Vienna, I saw the Lipizzaner horses, Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss", and a Verdi opera at the big historic Vienna Opera House. I'll be adding more Vienna photos later this week!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luanarubin/sets/72157625419734961/

We're all crazy-busy getting ready for the holiday season, but I know you are all secretly sneaking down to your stash and planning projects for the winter months…so I hope these images will give you some design and color ideas. I have had an absolute blast taking these photos and sharing them with you all!

Wow, what an amazing week this has been. Visiting Europe during one of the biggest snows and longest cold snaps….at the same time as the holiday season…. has been a unique experience to say the least! This weekend it is snowing and windy (i.e. bitterly cold) again in Vienna, but we have tickets to indoor events such as Mozart/Strauss concerts, the Spanish Riding School, and I am meeting someone from the local quilt magazine today at the Museum of Applied Arts!

http://www.viennaconcerts.com/

http://www.srs.at/index.php?id=265

http://www.quiltjournal.com/

http://www.mak.at/e/jetzt/f_jetzt.htm

It has been very interesting to learn about the local versions of Art Nouveau – i.e. Jugendstil and the Secession movement. But perhaps what was most interesting was to travel through former communist countries, and hear what life was like before the Berlin Wall was taken down in 1989 …before the Velvet Revolution in these countries. After traveling through the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, I have a much better sense of history in Eastern Europe. As a kid we really were not taught much about this part of the world, that was under the Iron Curtain at the time.

Vienna is full of music, which is absolutely delightful for me. Yesterday we took a "city tour" riding around the Ringstrasse on a bus, then out to see Sch?nbrunn which is the most popular sightseeing in Vienna. It is here that the Vienna Philharmonic gives summer performances in the vast gardens (similar to Versailles' gardens), and it was here that Marie Antoinette grew up, one of 16 children birthed (of which 13 survived infancy) by Empress Marie Theresa, who were then married off to various royals all over Europe. It is also here that the last Habsburg emperor abdicated in 1918.

http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardens_of_Versailles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habsburg_Monarchy

If you've seen the movie "Young Victoria", you saw the scene where young Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg is at his family palace in Austria – and you can see that palace in oldtown Vienna.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_of_Saxe-Coburg

Although the monarchy is long gone in Vienna, you can see and hear the still-vital products of their prodigious patronage of the arts here, from the monumental embellished architecture, to the decorative arts that are literally everywhere, and the music that seems to pour out of every building. One can't help but think of the many movies that have been made about the flourishing of the arts here, " Amadeus" being one of the most obvious! The director of this movie was Milos Forman, who grew up in Prague after becoming an orphan when his parents died in Auschwitz.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086879/

My 2 favorite activities in Prague were visiting the Alphonse Mucha museum, and cruising the Danube at night with snowflakes falling and Strauss waltzes on the sound system while admiring the illuminated architecture.

Prague was rather difficult to tour, because of the heavy snow that occurred while we were there. Budapest on the other hand was one of the most stunningly beautiful cities I have ever seen, with its illuminated Buda palace up on the cliff overlooking the river, and the incredibly decorated interior of the Matthias Church. I am sure it is going to take a long time for me to process everything I have seen, but in the meantime I am posting photos of this trip on my photo page, to share the incredible art, color and design inspirations that I gathered in this so-called "Golden Triangle" of Vienna, Prague and Budapest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Buda_Castle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Church

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

So that is my holiday gift to you – to share all of my best images from this trip – and to share my thoughts about the incredible history of the creative force that flows through these cities – a vast unending source like the Danube River that has inspired centuries of beauty and art – and is entering a new era of contemporary creativity in which we can all participate.

If you've been checking my photo page, you know I am deep into snowy Bohemia this week. I am on a one-week tour through Vienna-Prague-Budapest and it happens to coincide with one of the biggest snowfalls this part of Europe has ever seen. It is very magical and appropriate for a trip to see the Christmas Markets of Eastern Europe, but not so convenient for travel and city sightseeing!

But you know, creative people find inspiration in the unexpected, so I've been enjoying the opportunity to photograph the countryside and the city with a delightfully picturesque blanket of thick snow.

Today was very special, because I got to visit a museum for an artist whom I have admired for decades: Alphonse Mucha. ("MOO-ka") To be able to see the original paintings for his famous posters up close and in person – to see his brushwork and even the faint trace of a pencil in the underdrawing – and to see his layout sketches next to his final paintings – was a thrill beyond words.

http://mucha.tyden.cz/index.phtml?S=home&Lang=EN

Mucha used photography in his work, like a director sets a scene. He would dress his models in costumes, set them up in poses and direct their facial expressions, and sometimes Mucha himself would model for his photo studies. It is easy to see how he drew and painted the heavy sculptural folds of the models' gowns, from these theatrically-inspired photo vignettes.

His "Slav Epic" is housed in another museum, and he used these photography techniques extensively for this huge project.

http://www.pricejb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/slav-epic/Gallery.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10929889

Quilters can use photos to inspire their own work too, whether it is a design motif drawn from architecture, a color story drawn from a famous painting, or an applique idea drawn from a garden photo. I hope that you will enjoy the photos I am posting this week (and next!), because they are the images that have most inspired me too!

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

If you look through our eQuilter Art Nouveau category, you will see many designs that are inspired by Mucha's highly stylized illustrations of figures and flowers. Amy Butler's new group has some obvious Art Nouveau inspiration, and even my Joie de Vivre collection was inspired by this genre of art. Wanting more visual references of this romantic style, I bought a locally produced coffee-table (heavy!) book of his work, and dragged it around Prague for the rest of the afternoon. Ah, what we do for love.

This morning we visited the St. Vitus Cathedral up at Prague Castle complex, and saw Mucha's gorgeous stained glass window…a segment of which is featured in this week's Creative Nudge. You can see the photo of the larger stained glass window on my photo page, along with other creative inspiration photos.

Tomorrow we drive from Prague/Czech Republic, to Bratislava in Slovakia, then on to Budapest in Hungary. The stories of these former Soviet/Communist countries is heartbreaking, but it is wonderful to see the heart and soul of these nations exploding forth, 21 years after the Velvet Revolution.

This week I am preparing for a very special journey, and I'd like to pack you all along in my suitcase and bring you along.

Since I was a little girl, I've had a dream to visit Vienna, and the reasons just kept piling up til I couldn't resist any longer. Strauss (in the movie 2001 Space Odyssey), Mozart, the Spanish Riding School (Lipizzaner Horses), Viennese Coffee, Whipped Cream, Marzipan, and the Empress Elisabeth…they've been calling me for 40 years and next week I will go see what it is that's been calling out my name.

If you've gone on a trip with me before (on my blog, my photo page, or on a guided tour with me) you know that I love to capture evocative images and share them with you. I always have an eye out for art, design and color…and am endlessly fascinated with the lush visual ideas that present themselves while traveling.

My roommate in Hong Kong was Oscar de la Renta's patternmaker for his frothy silk dress collection, and she was trained as a couturier in Austria, so I know there were a few Viennese seeds planted there. Then I have to add in Prague because of my love for Alphonse Mucha's artwork, and Anton?n Dvorak's music.

Budapest too, because of Franz Liszt and B?la Bart?k's music, and I want to see the Hungarian textile arts. Heck…I've always wanted to go to the *REAL* Bohemia on the Blue Danube. People use the word "bohemian" all the time and don't even know what it means! Well I am gonna go find out!

So if Life is a bowl of Truffles, I'm about to take a bite, and pass the bowl around. Curiosity is what drives my creative passions, and sharing my delighted discoveries is half the fun. I'll post what I can next week on the road, and even more the week after. When I find Wifi in the cafes, I'll be posting photos on Facebook too. (I hope!)

Oh yes, in case you are wondering about the photo above, that is from a chocolate shop in Switzerland, while on a trip to visit Bernina headquarters in December 2006. That trip was my first experience of traveling to Europe in December for the Christmas Markets…charmingly addictive!

Won't you take a bite with me? *smile*

photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/luanarubin/
Bali trip: http://sewmanyplaces.com/tours/bali_0411.html

Quick! – What do you think of when you look at this image?

Why is it that our minds want so desperately to assign a name to an abstract image? Why do we insist on knowing the story behind an evocative photo?

The part of us that wants to label and tell stories about mysterious images…can also be the unconscious part of us that always wants to be in control and therefore squashes the purest of creative urges.

If you turn this photo upside down, it could be a halo falling into the fires of Hades.

But rightside up, it is simply a hula hoop that was tossed into the sky by a child, with a sunset cloud in the background.

Can you invent a story from this image, and then
let it inspire a color palette and a theme for your next quilt?

What emotions does this image evoke for you?
Playfulness? Loneliness? …or perhaps peaceful contemplation?

Inspirational images from Nature are all around us, and if we keep our camera with us at all times to record colors, textures and patterns, over time we develop a tremendous library of digital inspiration. Toss your portable camera in your purse or backpack and start looking for abstract images.

Play with closeups and lighting, so that the original subject matter is not readily recognizable. Throw it in a folder on your hard drive (and back it up!), and in a few months or years you will rediscover a treasure!

Ahhhh. the Holiday Season is Upon Us
*
You know, every Fall there is one day when it really hits you.

The holidays are coming.

Today was the day it REALLY hit me. It happened in the parking lot of our local Safeway grocery store. You can tell by the way people drive on the supermarket asphalt that they have also just realized… the holidays are coming.

One thing I love about this business is that we don't get swamped by hysterical shoppers the week before Christmas. We get swamped by excited fabriholics when they realize it is time to really get to work on those holiday projects!

Some quilters and crafters start in the summer. Some wait til the kids go back to school. But many (myself included) wait until that day when it suddenly occurs to them…. the holidays are coming.

Myself, I don't subscribe to the madness. I love to give, and I love to make people happy, (as I know you do too) but the spiritual aspect of the holidays is somehow separate and very personal. Whether one is celebrating Christmas, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or holding on for New Years Day…we can only hope that our fellow Earthlings can focus on the true meaning of our respective holidays…and the basic universal truths that permeate every religious holiday.

Today in the Safeway parking lot, I encountered 3 types of people. Those with the "It's me against you" attitude (scary behind the wheel), the "Life is wonderful and I am happy" sort (bewildering the Me Against You types), and the innocent distracted bystanders who get caught up in the middle.

I decided to make a conscious decision to be the "Life is Wonderful" type – not to be so busy that I couldn't smile and say hello to my fellow shoppers. That can be hard when you have a shopping list, a To Do List, and a couple hours to get it all done. But hey, it's the holiday season! Peace, Love, Joy and Quilts!

For those of you in the San Jose California area, next weekend Sophie and I will be attending the opening at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles on Sunday afternoon Nov 21 from 2-4 pm.

http://www.sjquiltmuseum.org/

eQuilter is a corporate sponsor of this show, and I've never been to this museum, so I thought we should check it out. They are featuring the Marbaum Collection, and the work of my friend Yvonne Porcella. Hope to see you there!…?

http://yvonne.porcella.ws/

Our deepest condolences go out to Hoffman Fabrics and the family of Philip Hoffman, who died this week on November 10th. We will miss his feisty sense of humor and his amazing surfer stories.

http://hoffmanfabrics.com/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=161

One last thing for Harry Potter fans – if you just can't stand the wait til next week – I put together a category of magical themed fabrics for the HP fan in your life. Now we just need JK Rowling to start writing the next generation of HP books…!

http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?catid=244

As I write this Creative Nudge newsletter, I have just finished my stay at the Color Marketing Group Fall conference in Portland, OR.

People always ask me after this conference – What is the "hot color" right now?

I always have to smile at this question, because there are always so many trendy colors, so many important color combinations, and also so many beloved colors that are "trending down" in the industry, despite the fact that some people are just now starting to see these trends.

Depending on where you live and shop, you may see a hot color before it officially becomes a trend, or you may have to wait 2-3 years before it appears in your local stores. Remember when Brown and Pink came out in combination, as a trendy duo? Then came Brown and Aqua? Many of us had a negative reaction at first, but they grew on us, and those combinations are still strong sellers in some areas.

So the real color trend story these days is about combinations of colors, not an individual color. Some markets want safe, familiar color combinations. Other more contemporary markets jump on unusual color combinations that appear jolting at first, but are actually very exciting and provocative (in a good way!) if you look at them a few times.

An example of this would be the color trend of combining soft dusty colors, with highly saturated brights. Unexpected color combinations are driving sales of new contemporary fabrics. Those of us who always crave something new, have our color antennae out for new ways to mix and match (and shock!) through the use of color.

After spending the whole weekend looking at colors, I decided to make some art from some floral photos I took here in Portland. There is nothing like hanging out with a bunch of creative color freaks, to bring out the curious and experimental artist within…