eQuilter Blog

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…

What a crazy week this has been!
After a week in Houston at Quilt Market and Quilt Festival, I flew home for a day, and now I am in Portland OR for the Color Marketing Group conference. I should buy stock in Hilton – ha!

While in Houston, Bonnie McCaffery and I shot several videos which will be coming to you in the next 2-3 weeks. Watch for the announcement in this newsletter! (…and check out previous show videos on our video page.)

I also took lots of photos of my favorite quilts, and I will post some of those later this week once I finish the color conference.

It is a typical wet gray day here in Portland, but as you may know, the moisture makes the colors of the foliage just gleam. Our fall color is done in Boulder, but there is still lots of red and yellow and emerald green in the hills of Portland.

Hey – if you are in the US – don't forget that Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend so you can sleep an extra hour on Sunday morning. Yeah!

For those of you in the San Jose area, I wanted to let you know I'll be attending an opening at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles on Sunday afternoon Nov 21. eQuilter is a corporate sponsor of this show, and I might bring Sophie along too. They are featuring the Marbaum Collection, and the work of my friend Yvonne Porcella.

Also, some of you have been asking me – when is my next big trip? I am going to see the Christmas Markets of Prague, Budapest and Vienna the 2nd week of December, and will spend the weekend of Dec 10-12 in Vienna. I am hoping to attend a special holiday concert in one of the historic music halls, and I'd like to visit a museum, (a textile museum?) so if any of you have information about concerts/events on that weekend, or suggestions for museums, please send me an email at eQuilter, or let me know on Facebook.

Yes we still have just a few spots left in the Bali trip and it IS the trip of a lifetime – with a focus on Art Design and Color. There is still time to sign up! I can't wait to see Princess Mirah's palace, and the batik factory.

I also want to say a big thank you to the NASA Johnson Space Center chapter of Engineers Without Borders – who gave me a VIP tour of the center, took me out to dinner, where I even got to visit with a REAL astronout who is returning to the International Space Station in March. They send their thanks to everyone who has contributed to their work at the orphanage in Rwanda through our eQuilter Charity program. Quilters, Rocket Scientists, and Africa…could you ever imagine how those 3 things would all end up in one sentence?!

When I travel, I always make time to visit a museum or art gallery. I enjoy not only looking at the art, but also watching the people who come to look at the art. We can learn a lot by watching the public's reaction to art.

One of my favorite people-watching museums is the Louvre in Paris. It has so many famous works of art, and the mob scenes in front of works like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo are an event in themselves.

Ever wonder – what does it take to produce a timeless and iconic work of art that will inspire others for hundreds of years? Do you suppose that Leonardo pondered the possibility of the Mona Lisa being the most famous work of art on the planet, 500 years in the future? (the photo above captures part of the crowd, behind the velvet rope, viewing the Mona Lisa on the right.)

Great works of art are not just an expression of creativity. They are a joining of talent, passion, hard work, experience and the quality of the medium that is available to the artist. Great works of art are not just about being the first to conceive of a new artistic perspective, but they are the culmination of a long process of curiosity, failure, courage, obsession, despair and bliss.

Today creativity is available to the masses more than ever – not because the human race has become so much more talented – but because we are exposed to the idea of being creative and using it as a process of self discovery and self expression.

Sometimes we see the old argument on quilt lists – what is art? – and are quilts art? There is no magic dividing line between craft and art. The greatest works of art were created by master craftspeople like Michelangelo, who had a powerful combination of craft, skill, artistic talent and other-worldly vision. They didn't worry about whether or not to call it art. They just went into the studio or workroom and got to work.

When we go to a museum or gallery, and find ourselves staring with fascination at a particular work, why is it that we will break our gaze and move on to the next work so quickly? I believe that when we are drawn to a particular work – when it speaks to us – that there is something there for us on a very deep and personal level. Is it possible that somehow the artist can speak to us across the ages, and make a soul connection? Are we drawn to something about the moment in time that this work was created? Is there a subconscious message that whispers to us from the artwork's origins?

Next time a work of art captures your heart, don't break your gaze. Spend time with the piece and listen to its message. You might just bring a little piece of the artist back to your studio.

See my photo page for other images from the Louvre and France.

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

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luanarubin/sets/72157621525828557/

There is an old quilting urban legend told by sales reps –
it is the tale of the golden thread.

One day a sales rep for a thread company came into a quilt shop and told the owner that she should buy his wonderful thread because it was a great seller and would make her customers happy. He offered to sell her the whole display case with a several dozen colors, but she asked "What are the most popular colors?". He told her which ones sold the most, but then said "You have to carry the whole line in order to sell the best sellers!"

"Nonsense!" she retorted, and proceeded to order the 3 best-selling colors. The threads arrived, and she put them on a basket on her counter top. Months went by and nobody bought the "best sellers". Perplexed, she called the sales rep to complain. "You told me these were the best sellers!" she accused him.

After much cajoling and negotiating, she agreed to let him leave the whole line in the store for a month to see if the threads would sell. The display case with all the gorgeous colors of the rainbow was installed in the shop, and Voila! The threads began to sell like crazy! Yes, he was right about the best sellers, and she sold several other colors too, but she realized that she did indeed have to show a large variety to entice her customers to try the threads.

That is our goal at eQuilter – to share with you such a wonderful variety of fabrics and products that you can't help but find something that tickles your fancy! – and to help you make a choice by giving you a huge range of options, and any customer service support you might need.

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

With over 1200 new products per month, and 22,000 in stock and ready to ship, no wonder so many quilters say "If you can't find it at eQuilter, you can't find it anywhere!"

It is our nature as humans to want to look over a variety in order to pick out the exact things we want. We want to have a choice when we go shopping… or is it hunting and gathering? This is the same reason a painter will squeeze out all the colors onto the palette, even if only some of the colors will be used in the painting. We have to look at it all, to know what we want or need.

We know that on Sunday morning sometimes it is just fun to look at and play with the 250-300 new fabrics that have arrived in the last week. And sometimes you might just find that irresistible golden spool of thread…

( Don't forget to play with our eQuilter Design Board while you are sampling our weekly delights!)

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

I guess I am lucky that one of my 3 children has developed an avid interest in quilting and fabrics. They say that quilting and sewing tends to skip a generation in families. Although I learned about sewing from my grandmothers, the love of making things with fabric is being passed on directly to our youngest child.

In my grandmothers' time, it was a necessity to learn how to sew. At that time many people sewed their own clothes and then later made quilts from the scraps, because fabric was scarce and buying these ready-made items was expensive. During the Depression and the war, there was even more reason to sew for one's self and children.

Being able to express one's own creativity through sewing was somewhat of a luxury during those times, but today we have such an incredible variety of colors and designs to choose from, and we are encouraged to make choices that fit our personalities.

When I first started this business in the basement of our home, I bought bright colors that I knew would show well over the internet. However I will never forget the day my friend Barb came over to look through our 300 bolts in the basement, and then she asked where I kept the neutrals. Duh! That's when I knew that we needed to grow and accommodate all kinds of tastes and needs – and as time went on we just kept adding more and more categories of products until we got to 22,000 products online and in stock. As most of you know, if you see it on our website, that means it is on the shelf in our warehouse and ready to ship to you.

Today we anticipate your fabric needs by researching trends and ordering cutting edge design so we have it in stock before you even know that you wanted those fabrics! Two weeks from now I'll be in Houston at Quilt Market and then at Quilt Festival, and the weekend afterwards I'll be in Portland, OR at the Color Marketing Group conference, working on color forecasting for the design industries with the CMG members.

In the meantime, every once in awhile I have Sophie come in when the fabric sales reps visit, and I have her watch while I preview lines and decide what to order. She has a definite eye for color and design, so perhaps some day you'll see her designing fabrics and quilts, or even writing this weekly newsletter…? She loves digging through my stash, just like I bet your kids or grandkids love looking at your fabric collection.

The best part is when she pulls out an especially beautiful piece of fabric and says – "Mom! We should make a quilt out of this!"

If you are planning to come to Festival in Houston, I'll be at the award ceremony Tuesday Nov 2 to present the World of Beauty cash award. Hope to see you there!

Here in Boulder, we are having our first Frost of the season tonight. Over the weekend we had snow up in the mountains, and this morning when I dropped off the kids at school, there were parents pulling into the parking lot with a thick layer of snow on their car. (Mountain residents)

Saturday we turned on the heater for the first time this year, and I baked bread tonight. The kids got out their winter PJ's and I am wearing socks to bed. That pretty much says it all.

All of us have our rituals that we perform during the changing of the seasons, and just like our traditions over the holidays, these rituals are comforting and help us to mark the passing of time.

Quilters have rituals when the weather gets colder…we have already drawn up our holiday list of quilts to be made, but now as the days get shorter in the Northern Hemisphere, we tend to hibernate in our sewing rooms, with mounds of UFO's and scraps. We usually have a cup of something hot to drink close by, and we are drawn to cooler and deeper colors as the nights grow longer.

Friday when our typical Colorado weather bounces back up to 80 degrees (yes!) I'll be a little peeved about my lovely fall sweater that must be shed. I am ready to wear shades of wine, berry, cocoa and charcoal…and I've already switched to my winter shades of lipstick. (love that new trend of RED lipstick!)

So just in case you're having a tough time thinking about those shivery dark quilting months ahead, I thought I'd share one of my favorite winter photos from Chautauqua Park in the foothills of Boulder, with the Flatirons in the background. That's Sam marching up the snow-covered trail, and he still talks about that frosty hike with a big grin. (this photo taken last December)

What's your favorite thing about the coming season? Baking bread and sipping hot tea? Collecting seasonal and holiday fabrics? Sewing snuggly flannel quilts? Staying up late making gifts on wintry nights?

Beauty for the Sake of … Beauty

One day last year, on one of my overseas trips, I came across this amazing ornamented building. I had just spent the day at a national art museum, and as I strolled down the street in the late day golden sun, I came across this astonishing sight.

Can you guess in which city I took this photo?
Try to imagine what purpose this building might have.

Cultures and communities that value art are a wonder, and even if the arts have flourished in that city centuries before, the creativity continues to affect its citizens, its economy, even its politics.

In the case of this Blushing Pink stucco building, with raised Ivory floral and faux architectural embellishments…it is a school in the heart of the city. Can you imagine being a child and attending a school in a building such as this?

Designers, artists and architects over the centuries have dreamed of finding patrons who could share their vision of Beauty. Sometimes, when the stars align and the brilliant creative geniuses live in the same time and place as visionary patrons, great works are created that continue to inspire us long after the players are gone.

Home-grown creative geniuses must be raised to believe that they are truly creative, and that they deserve to share their vision with the world. Prodigies don't spring forth fully-formed, but rather they are nurtured and supported…and often pushed by those who see their potential.

What always amazes me, is the raw emotional power I feel when I see a mammoth work of art that is so exquisite in its details, so vast in its scope, and so heartbreakingly beautiful that it takes your breath away…and brings tears to your eyes.

I have had many of those experiences, sometimes in the expected places (Michelangelo's David, and Sistine Chapel), sometimes when I didn't know what to expect (like the Baptistery Doors in Florence), and sometimes in the most modest and mundane circumstances. (a color plate in a 100 year old book, depicting the costumes and art of a culture that no longer exists)

Whether you go to your local art gallery, or travel halfway around the world to see a famous work of art, be sure to take the time to really "be" with the work. Over the years, there are works in museums that I have returned to again and again, because when I truly take the time to be present with the work, I have a profound experience of connecting with the artist.

These days we are often in such a hurry, being hustled through the "famous works" of a museum, or rushing through rooms of historic artwork, that we totally miss the heart and soul of the work.

Next time you encounter a work of art that moves you, I invite you to consider spending a lengthy period of time with the work, as one would spend time getting to know a new friend. Whether you are looking at an art quilt, an antique patchwork quilt, a painting or a sculpture…the Inner Truth of the work does not reveal itself immediately.

If you are fortunate, you can visit or even live in a community that is experiencing a flourishing of the arts in your lifetime. Even if that is not the case, you can visit communities that have a history of supporting artists (such as our host city in the photo – Barcelona, Spain) and then proceed to build your own creative community and support system in your own hometown.

Bring home the Creative Fire from a museum, an art gallery, or your quilt guild's Show and Tell… and then plant that Passion in your own work.

..sharing your passion for fabric…
Luana