Luana Rubin

Libby has had a couple of days without much noticeable progress. Please continue your prayers, cards, and well-wishes.

In case you missed it, please sign Libby's guestbook on CaringBridge, the link is below. If you have signed it, take a moment to write again. Your comments are very encouraging to the family.

Also, please "share" this post on your FB and elsewhere so that others will get the message about the CaringBridge page.

visit

www.caringbridge.org/visit/libbylehman

Send only cards and quilted cards to:
Libby Lehman
617 Caroline
Houston, TX 77002.

The News from Lake Okanagan

Paul and I just celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary yesterday, before I hopped on a plane to Penticton, BC in Canada. You never heard of Penticton? Neither did the United rep at the Vancouver airport. That made me just a little bit nervous, as I anticipated flying on a tiny prop plane over the sharp snowy peaks.

It turned out to be a gorgeous one hour flight, over lush green pine forests, huge blue lakes in deep gorges, and wide rivers running through fields dotted with livestock. As we flew over yet another lake to land in Penticton, I checked out my "beach" hotel from my little round window, and plotted my sunset walk along the water's edge.

Anyway, we are SO excited that the arrival of our Star Trek fabric is actually corresponding with the premier of the new Star Trek movie! I mean, this NEVER happens! Usually the fabric arrives 6 months before, or 6 months after the movie comes out. So for us Trekkie fans it is rather thrilling that we can buy the fabric, whip up a quick lap quilt, and wrap ourselves in it by the 3rd time we see it in the theater.

Sadly, I will not be able to participate in opening night fervor at the new movie. Usually I am there at the midnight show with all the other diehard nutcases, and then I go see it again a day or two later, and then again a week later, etc. I've been begging our suppliers to get the license for Star Trek for YEARS, and I assume there are a good number of Sci-Fi / Trekkie groupies out there in our customer base, to keep us busy cutting yards of Kirk and Spock (Original Series, of course!) for months.

Our 2nd year of business was partially funded by Harry Potter fabric. The trucks would roll up to our back door, and disgorge dozens of cartons of HP fabric. (when we were still in the 4300 sq ft warehouse that was previously occupied by Celestial Seasonings....and everything smelled like mint tea) As fast as it came in, we shipped it out. It was like a miracle. No, it was like MAGIC! Yeah, that's it! I believe in magic!

The view as we flew into Vancouver today was spectacular, especially when we turned and I could see the Northern Passage between the islands and the coast, where the cruise ships sail up to Alaska. Maybe some day I'll make that trip, to see the whales and other wildlife in this wild coastal region. For those of you who live here, I can see why you would never want to leave.

For those of you in this area of BC who are coming to the show, I will be at the award ceremony on Wednesday night, and I hope to meet some of you there! Please do come and say hello if you see me there. I will be walking the show Thursday morning, and then I have to figure out how to get to Kelowna for my flight to Portland. Quilt Market starts Friday morning in Portland
Oregon.

Live Long and Prosper.

Teaching from the other side of the table...

Mothers Day is very special to quilters, because often it is our mothers or grandmothers who taught us to sew and quilt. As we become mothers and grandmothers ourselves, we get to experience the teaching process from the other side of the table.

Often time shared together at a sewing lesson, is special simply because it is precious one-on-one time spent with someone you love. Whether we are baking cookies, planting flower seeds, drawing a picture or stitching by hand... those hours spent together are the stuff of long-lived memories.

The last few weeks I spent with Sophie's 5th grade class, coming twice a week and slowly working through the process of designing, cutting, and sewing quilt blocks. On the last class this week, at the end of our time together, the kids proudly stacked up their finished blocks in a substantial pile of red, cream and blue. They've been studying the Civil War, so we talked about community quilting, fabric scraps, and precious needles, as we slowly pieced together our group quilt.

As with any kind of teaching, I found that I learned as much as the students. The things I take for granted as an experienced quilter, suddenly revealed a deeper joy in simple tasks like threading a needle. As with any creative endeavor, you have to let go of the past and the future, and just be in the moment, to be immersed in the creative process.

It was the kids who made mistakes and had to rip out seams, who had the biggest smiles as they turned in their finished blocks.

It was the kids who finished first, who discovered the joy of teaching what they had learned, to the kids who had fallen behind.

One kid was nearly in tears last week, unable to thread a needle. This week after his buddies finished their own blocks, they all pitched in to help him finish his stitching in record time.

The little girl who asked more questions than all the other kids combined, was the first to finish, and then went on to answer the other kids' questions.

We find some of our greatest joys in sharing what we know with others, and that is a gift we learned from our moms and grandmas.

Here's to all the moms who take the time to pass on their knowledge and creative passion to their kids. It's the gift that keeps giving down through the generations and across the years.

Hey, did you hear about Meg Cox' article in Friday's Wall Street Journal, about the Modern Quilt Guild and QuiltCon? I was just tickled to be interviewed for the piece, and I also contributed photos from QuiltCon. Woo hoo! Photo credits in the WSJ! Thanks Meg!

For our friends in Europe, I hope to see you at the Birmingham UK Festival of Quilts in August. I'll be there with Bonnie McCaffery shooting videos, and perhaps I'll see you at the fashion show, or on the Shakespeare evening outing?

This Tuesday I'll be flying up to Penticton BC for the Canada Quilt Festival, and I'll send my Creative Nudge once I get there. I won't get to spend time with Libby there as I had hoped, but we'll continue to send her prayers for healing.

from Ricky Tims:

"Libby Update for Saturday -
During Lester's visit this morning Libby was awake and a bit more responsive than yesterday. She is unable to speak right now, but she communicated by blinking her eyes in order to answer questions. She also smiled at Lester a few times. She is moving her head left to right a bit and she squeezed Lester's hand several times - once was a strong squeeze. She remains in critical condition, but we can celebrate another baby step in the right direction this morning."

 

Upcoming Travel and Shows:

May 15 - Canada Quilt Fest in Penticton BC
May 17-19 - Quilt Market in Portland OR
May 20 - CostumeCon in Denver CO
May 24 - Quilt National in Athens OH
May 30 - Deadline SAQA Andover Design Contest
July 20 - Not Fade Away - Quilt Alliance
- in conjunction with Sacred Threads
Aug 8-10 - Birmingham UK Festival of Quilts

The Boston Modern Quilt Guild is asking for help making blocks in blue, yellow, gray and white. They are collecting the blocks and will make quilts for the victims of the Marathon bombing. If you'd like to contribute, please read all the details here. The deadline is May 24th and quickly approaching! Please mail to Amy Friend PO Box 774 West Newbury, MA 01985

http://bostonmqg.blogspot.com/2013/04/quilts-for-boston.html

Creative Nudge - Lucky Me!

This week is my "week off" before I fly out to the quilt festival in Canada, and Quilt Market in Portland. Sophie is graduating from 5th grade and elementary school a couple days after that trip, so I am trying to get everything done before then. One of those projects is the quilt that her class is making, in conjunction with their study of the Civil War.

After all my talk about supporting young people who want to sew, I thought I better put my money where my mouth is, and share the joy of quilting with some kids!

So I've been going in on Tuesday and Thursday for a few weeks, spending over an hour each time, teaching them the basics of sewing as we cut out and sew quilt blocks.

Today as several of them finished their blocks, and many more could see their blocks taking shape, there was a definite excitement in the classroom. Several kids said they wanted to take them home to sew, before I come back on Thursday for our last class. They all have a needle and spool of thread, and several of them have been hoarding scraps. They have the makings of a serious bunch of quilters!

One of the boys was so excited he was practically hyperventilating. "I finally know how to sew and repair my stuffed animals!"

A few of the girls came to me at the end of class and asked, "Can I keep my scraps?" I leave a pile of scraps on the table when I leave...

Sophie is very happy to be able to share her knowledge of sewing, so she's been my assistant teacher in all of these classes.

I can see how a Sewing Club in Middle School could be a real hit, especially if we could do some cool projects that the *KIDS* choose. Simple stuffed animals made from colorful prints would be a smash hit, I am sure. Maybe a few stuffed robots and monsters for the Sci-Fi fans?

I told the kids that when I was their age, I took Home-Ec in school and sewed every day for a semester. "Lucky you!" they declared, hands on hips and stomping their feet.

What a gift to be able to share my passion with an enthusiastic bunch like these students!

Lucky me!

*************************

Our beloved friend and teacher Libby Lehman is still in serious condition in a Houston hospital. I am posting updates on my personal Facebook page, and will post today's update on my blog:

This is latest report from Ricky Tims....

Libby is about the same, not much change and still in critical condition. She is in sedated sleep and has not been allowed to wake up. This allows her body to heal, but more importantly it should help with the vascular spasms that continue to occur in her brain at the location of the stroke. It still may be a while before the attempt to slowly wake her.

The best news is that this morning there was significant response from her left leg and arm. The doctor was elated.

There are other minor issues but the family has been assured there is no worry for those and that the main focus is still on letting her heal so she can eventually wake up. She is breathing on her own for the most part (still on a breathing machine at low setting) and her vital signs are all good.

I know many quilters want to DO SOMETHING. The family has asked for cards or quilted cards. It is important that any organized efforts to make quilts or blocks be less urgent. I am aware of several efforts in place to make Libby a quilt.

Please consider the ramifications of this effort. Libby does not generally use quilts - so they will most likely be stored. Libby makes art quilts, not functional quilts. She doesn't have display space for wall quilts. She will not want to give them away to charity because they will be very meaningful, but storing these items will be challenging.

I know Libby well enough to know that being inundated with quilts, regardless of how thoughtful it is meant to be, will be challenging for her. She will find a graceful way to deal with it, but just having to deal with it is not necessarily the best thing for her during a recovery period of what could be one to two years.

I maintain that doing something significant down the road is the better option. I'm not trying to be squelch a desire to help - I'm thinking from a different perspective. Sometimes pulling back on the reigns is the most helpful thing to do.

Send your cards and quilted cards to:

Libby Lehman
617 Caroline
Houston, TX 77002.

 

Ricky

Prayers for Libby

Many of you have already heard that one of the icons and founding mothers of our industry - Libby Lehman - is in the hospital after having an aneurysm last week. She was feeling ill in Paducah, and this occurred just after she had returned to Houston. She has had 2 surgeries and a stroke since then, so we are just asking everyone to take a moment and send prayers to Libby in the hospital, and also to her husband Lester, and her family.

I had planned to see Libby at Quilt Canada in Penticton BC in about 2 weeks, and was really looking forward to seeing her again. Anyone who knows Libby knows that she is a generous, positive force full of passion for her work, and she has a deep love for sharing with others. I came to know her over the years, at Art Quilt Tahoe, and later in the Bernina Artisans group reunions in Illinois and Switzerland.

While we send our prayers and wait for the outcome, I am reminded that this is a good time to hug your kids, kiss your sweetie, tell your friends how much you love them, practice random acts of kindness, and above all be kind to yourself. Every day is a gift, especially when we find the kind of joy and healing that comes with our beloved art and craft.

Sunday/Tomorrow I am giving a presentation to raise funds for a Victorian estate in Longmont, Colorado - the Hover Home which is owned by the Longmont Historical Society. I will be showing quilts and textiles I've collected around the world, and telling stories to go with the show-and-tell. Costumed docents will give a tea reception afterward. I am going to tell some juicy stories about my years of living and traveling abroad! There are still some tickets available if you can join us. Every year Mom and Sophie and I go there for their Mothers Day Tea, and I thought it was about time we helped out with their rather precarious financial situation.

My 5th grade quilting class is now busy sewing blocks, and they are supposed to finish their blocks by their last class next Tuesday. Then Sophie and I will press, square up, and sew together all those lovely handmade blocks into a quilt which they intend to present to a veteran.

I gave each of the kids a needle last week, and told them that even today in some communities, a needle is so precious that several families will share one needle. (This was a recent story from one of the Guatemalan villages that Mission of Love is helping.) They are recreating a Civil War era quilt, and we imagined that needles were probably scarce in many of those wartime communities. A spool of thread, a needle, a sharp pair of scissors and a few scraps of cloth...that's all a frugal quilter needed back then.

Creative Nudge - Just Add Sprinkles

Happy May Day!
It is snowing again in Colorado.

As I mentioned in my Saturday newsletter, I had to leave Santa Fe on Friday, to go home for an emergency root canal...so I can't report to you on the SAQA conference there. Darn!

However I had 24 hours to kill, and I kept busy taking photos to keep my mind busy. This is one of my favorite images. It is the entrance to a little gift shop in a hidden courtyard near The Shed restaurant.

If you look close you will see not only the typical Southwest items such as sombreros and serapes, but also red poinsettia flowers, and frosted donuts with sprinkles. By this time I was on major pain meds so I am very sorry my photo of the shop name did not turn out, but perhaps one our our New Mexico natives will let me know the name of the shop.

Anyway, I just thought creativity like this just has to be shared. Personally I can't eat donuts with sprinkles, but they still make me smile. Especially when they are used in an artistic garland over a painted blue door.

*************

Today was my 2nd quilt class in Sophie's 5th grade class. Today we pinned the templates to the various fabrics, and cut out the pieces. Thursday everybody is going to get a needle and thread, and we are going to sew the pieces into blocks.

One of my favorite moments today was when the kids were measuring and marking the extra 1/4" seam allowance around the templates. One girl had a really slippery ruler and was having trouble. However she is a sharp kid, and she picked up on one of my favorite terms from last week's lesson.

"Should I just eyeball it?" she asked, in a conspiratorial whisper.

I looked around, hunched over and said - "Go for it!"

"YES!" she exhaled, and in 5 minutes went from slowest in the class, to completion.

Sometimes you just have to eyeball it in the home stretch.

And then add sprinkles.

* Tickets for Longmont Hover Home Fundraiser * -
Secrets & Storytelling by Luana to support a Victorian estate
...THIS WEEKEND ON MAY 6th!

* SAQA & Andover Fabrics Call for Entries *

Best Laid Plans

I'm sorry I can't report to you on the SAQA annual conference in Santa Fe, because I had to fly home yesterday so I could have an emergency root canal today! However I did manage to spend 24 hours in Santa Fe, and as I walked around town taking photos, I realized that I need to go back there soon.

The night I arrived in Santa Fe, I had a big clue that things wouldn't go as planned. Hertz lost my reservation, and didn't have a single car for me. Even though I had my reservation in hand, they just kind of shrugged and blew me off. The Avis rep happily told me he had just one car left that he could rent to me...at double the Hertz price. Instead I called a taxi, and enjoyed the sunset while waiting in front of the rustic adobe airport terminal.

That night I wandered into town, found a restaurant with some vegetarian options and lots of local color, and found a seat at the community table. As I sat there chatting with others at the big table, I realized I had eaten there the other time I visited Santa Fe...25 years ago!

When I came out of the restaurant, a colorful shop window caught my eye. I crossed the street with camera in hand, and took a photo of...one of my Guadalupe fabric designs! So there is an example of a design process going full circle: from my design inspiration in Santa Fe 25 years ago in the cathedral there, to my return, and my fabric design being used by another artisan to create a final product. I just love when that happens!

My next trip is in a couple weeks - I'll be in Penticton, Canada for the Quilt BC award ceremony on May 15, then headed straight for Quilt Market in Portland Oregon that weekend.

A week later (!) I will be at Quilt National in Athens Ohio on May 24-25.

Quilt Alliance has just announced their event Not Fade Away to be held July 20 in conjunction with Sacred Threads. I was very honored that they asked me to interview Jinny Beyer for the Q.S.O.S. project, during the demonstration portion of the event. I'll also be on a panel with Pat Sloan addressing the topic of "Social Media for Quilters".

So I hope to meet many of you at these events. If you are there and you see me, please don't be shy! Come up and say hello - I'd love to meet you!

* Tickets for Hover Home Fundraiser * -
Sunday May 5, 2 pm in Longmont, Colorado
Storytelling by Luana to support a Victorian estate.

Creative Nudge - Joy of Making

Over the last few days I've been out doing creative fieldwork...observing the joy that comes from making one's own design.

Over the weekend Denver had our own StarFest, which is the galactic Sci-Fi version of ComicCon. For 3 days the convention was overrun with geeks...er... people in Star Trek and Star Wars costumes, DIY Klingon and Dr Who Costumes, and other character costumes ranging from Captain Jack Sparrow...to Wonder Woman. The vast majority of the costumes worn were obviously made by the wearer, who clearly spent hundreds of hours bringing their ideas to manifestation.

It was good to go and see all that raw, crazy, over-the-top creativity and ingenuity. Sometimes we crafters think we have the corner on the DIY market, but there were some serious costume designers who have regular dayjobs but spend their nights and weekends dreaming up highly detailed costumes and accessories. Whoa, some of those big guys who not only dress as Klingons, but also speak the Klingon language, wax poetic when they talk about how they sourced their Klingon "uniform" details.

On the other end of that scale, today I taught my first 5th grade quilting class. We spent our first session designing quilt blocks, cutting out templates, choosing fabrics, and pinning paper templates to the fabric. The kids were TOTALLY into it - both boys and girls. We are creating a Civil War inspired quilt, and our goal is to present it to a veteran before the end of the school year.

What really struck me is how the pure joy of making something, was just as strong with both the Klingons and the 5th graders.

If you follow me on Facebook, you already saw that I was posting from Klingon and Steampunk costume seminars. Mason's comment about StarFest was "I've never seen so many corsets in one place in my life!" Yes how true. Our mothers burned their bras and girdles in the 60's and 70's, so our daughters could wear laced corsets in the new millennium.

Tomorrow I am flying down to Santa Fe to attend the SAQA annual conference. Hope to see some of you there!

The image above is the winner of the SciFi category of the costume contest. Check out my other photos from Starfest!



* Tickets for Hover Home Fundraiser * -
Storytelling by Luana to support a Victorian estate.

* SAQA & Andover Fabrics Call for Entries *

Finding Your Tribe

As the world just seems to get crazier by the day, one way we can find comfort is with our tribe. These days we don't necessarily stay in the tribe of our birth, but rather, we go out and find those of like mind, who share our heart's desire and our passion. We bond with others over similar interests at work, at play, in worship and in our travels. We bond with groups through pop culture, crafting, dietary preferences, and sport. We even find our tribe through academia, and our studies of history and science.

Obviously, Quilters and Fiber Artists are such a tribe! We have annual and seasonal gatherings. We form clans based on aesthetic preferences, seeking a kindred spirit of our preferred medium and technique. Garment sewers and costumers are a parallel clan with a lot of crossover to the crafting and quilting clans. When we travel abroad and meet other quilters and crafters, we are immediately accepted as part of the worldwide tribe.

This weekend I am at a regional gathering of another such tribe. I am at Starfest in Denver which is a costumer's dream. So many of the attendees are wearing elaborate and artistic costumes, which are a combination of purchased items and garments or accessories which they have made or embellished themselves. I just attended a session on Klingon Kostuming (yes, with a "K") and then another one on Klingon Kustoms. These people have found their tribe, and theirs is such a pure joy as they share and partake of their costuming rituals. Even though I was not in Klingon costume... er... Kostume..... it so much fun to sit in on a couple hours of Klingfest.

On a larger scale, we've watched the Boston Tribe go through an attack, a battle, and a joyous celebration in the streets. It just got me thinking about how we bond with larger groups of people, and how we can become a brother or sister to a total stranger when we are taking part in a tribal event. The pure joy and brotherhood we feel when we are part of a larger group of like heart and mind, is a euphoria that erases stress, and can actually be a healing experience.

So this weekend, whether you are with a group of quilters, costumed sci-fi characters, or Bostonians... I hope you can partake in the joy of tribal living with your fellow humans. We are all still trying to comprehend what happened in Boston, and in our hearts, we are all part of the Boston tribe this weekend.

The ultimate tribe of course is Humankind, and as we Earthlings prepare for Earth Day on Monday, I invite you to review our charity recipients such as Rainforest Action Network, and Ocean Conservancy, who are working to preserve the environment and the creatures that inhabit this planet, as we travel through our solar system together on Spaceship Earth.