Luana Rubin

I Know It When I See It

People often ask me how to spot new trends. It is an elusive subject, and I honestly don't know if it is something that is innate, or a talent that can be learned. I do know that anybody who goes into retail or design better have at least a little bit of trend-spotting skills, or they will be lost when trying to make choices for what will sell 6 months or a year from now!

Color Forecasting is one type of trend-spotting. Pantone has taken the art of color forecasting to the level of a Breaking News item, with their Color of the Year. We may well ask, what does the Color of the Year mean? Is it something that is selling well at retail right now, something that we'll see flooding the stores for the next year, or something designers should be putting in their next collection?

Well, it is all 3, depending on what industry, what price point, what area of the US (or the world!), and what age of the customer.... and a few other market variables. A trend that is hot in New York or Los Angeles now, can take 2 to 3 years to reach saturation in the Heartland... sometimes longer!

To illustrate my point, on the evolvement of trends over time and distance, I am going to tell you a story.

About 10 years ago when all the eyeglass designs were of small rectangle lenses, those of us who actually want to SEE out of our glasses, became very frustrated. (I've worn glasses since I was 10, and can't function without them.) Every eyeglass shop I went to had the same teeny frames. For the last 10 years I've bought stylish funky frames from France, because I didn't want to have glasses that looked like everyone else. In the meantime I hunkered down and waited for this small eyeglass trend to pass. Unfortunately it lasted for a very long time, and as I graduated to progressive lenses, I had even less space to see through because my lenses were divided into 3 zones of 3 different prescriptions. Ack!

Then while I was in New York last week, I saw the eyeglass frames of my dreams! I saw them worn by a young woman in a restaurant. She probably wondered why I kept staring at her. (I was committing the design to memory, but was too shy to go ask her where she got them.) I came back home and spent a week hassling my local hipster eyeglass stores, trying to figure out who makes these frames!

The closest thing I could find was on a blog in Europe. I went to my local eyeglass shop that carries this brand, and was told that style had not even been released in France yet, and it wasn't possible that I had actually seen them online, and they wouldn't be sold to the US market anyway. Sigh...

Meanwhile the market is saturated with tons of tiny rectangle frame glasses. Personally I like larger lenses - preferably in a Cats Eye or Retro style. I know this style is coming, and it may take 3 more years for it to filter down to the hippest eyeglass shop in Boulder. In the meantime versions of this design are in New York and Paris, probably Rome and Milan too, and I am determined to get my hands on a pair.

This is one way of spotting a trend.

So when you are wondering - what is the next big trend? - take this advice I got from my first boss as a young fashion designer:

"I'll know it when I see it!"

Speaking of which, if you are a Modern Quilter, be sure to snap up a copy of the new Modern Patchwork Magazine. After I saw the preview copy last week, we doubled our autoship!

May you finish your tax forms early this weekend, so you can have fun looking at all the new fabric trends on our website. *wink*

Creative Nudge - Creative Pet Crafts

We love to hear about all the crazy and creative things that you make with our fabrics. One of those categories is Pet Crafts. With all the novelty prints that we stock ( especially the dog and cat themed fabrics!), it makes sense that animal-loving quilters and crafters would shop here to find the perfect themed fabric designs!

Dog owners make warm doggie jackets, colorful collars, plush beds and waterproof booties for their canine buddies. Here is a photo of a little dog who was dressed up for the Easter Parade, a couple weeks ago in NYC. Do you think the owner had fun putting this outfit together? *wink*

Dog jackets are very common in cities, where plenty of short-haired dogs are bounding around trying to keep warm on their early morning walks! Have you made a quilted jacket to keep your pup toasty?

Stay Curious

One of the foundations of my creative life, is to stay curious. I feel sorry for people who think they know everything, and are always trying to impress their "knowledge" on those around them.

One of my mentors told me when I was 22 - "The more you learn about the world, the more you realize you know nothing." This was long before the limitless and exhausting supply of facts and images available on the internet. Yet despite all the endless knowledge that is available in seconds online, why is it there are still people who seem to know it all?

One of the great mysteries of the Universe! *wink*

No matter how many books you've read, how many museums you've visited, how many different places one has checked off the bucket list... there is always something more to see, to learn, to absorb and process. Just about the time we think we know something, another layer of information is revealed. Technology allows us to pull ever-more details out of the invisible world around us. Accumulated statistics reveal patterns that boggle the mind.

Another thing I learned from my mentor was to be generous with one's knowledge. We learn the most when we teach others. Our world gets very small when we huddle over our skill set and knowledge base. "Aha!" moments often come when our ideas are reflected back to us by others, especially students who ask a lot of questions!

In Fine Art and Fashion, ideas and influences spread like wildfire. A true Creative will always have more ideas and more inspirational firestorms than those who put all their energy into controlling the use of their work. What would have happened if Van Gogh had worried about copyright and copycats? A true visionary is always looking ahead, not backward.

In the creative fields of art and design, if we want to be a leader, we are constantly spinning off the progression of ideas around us, and weaving or stitching (literally or figuratively) those ideas into something that looks new but is really a unique way of combining and expressing what has come before. Our work is inspired and influenced by others, whether we admit it or not, consciously or unconsciously, and hopefully our work then inspires others. It is a grand spiral of creative Lifeforce that has elliptical cycles but has reinvented itself on every loop.

All of my adult life I have been a Continuing Ed student, and I've tried to take classes that really challenge my brain. When I travel I try to sign up for a guided tour with an academic-oriented guide. When I return home, I bring along history books that will help me with a deeper understanding of my travel experience.

...and in the end I discover...I still know nothing!

How do you stay curious?

Creative Nudge - Story of a Mentor

For all of our friends who have followed Sophie's adoption story from China, I thought you'd like to know that today was the 10 year anniversary of her Gotcha Day! In case you are not familiar with the term Gotcha Day - it is the day the adopted baby is first placed into the arms of the adopting family. How is it possible that it's been 10 years?!?

Last week Sophie and I were in Ohio filming 4 segments for Quilting Arts TV. This will be Sophie's 4th and 5th appearances...airing later this year. You can see clips of her first three appearances on our video page. My favorite is her first - she was 7 years old and sewed on her Bernina on camera with Pokey Bolton the host of QA TV.

For our local quilter friends, I wanted to let you know that the (mostly) tax-deductible tickets to my Longmont fundraiser event May 5, are available online now.

This is to help raise money for the Longmont Historical Society to maintain the Victorian estate of the Hover Home. Costumed docents will serve tea and cookies on the patio at the reception afterwards. A lovely time will be had by all! *smile*

Today my mom and I had lunch with an old friend of the family who is celebrating her 97th birthday. In fact we met Eleanor over 40 years ago when we moved to Longmont from Hermosa Beach, and my mom got involved with the Historical Society. Eleanor is an amazing woman who has been a mentor to both my mom and I, since I was a girl. She was a CU Boulder graduate in the 30's, and was involved with the education board for decades.

Eleanor is now an avid bridge player, and she is now working on reaching her Silver Life Master level. (She reached Life Master at 90, and is currently a Bronze Life Master!) That seems quite exceptional for a 97 year old.

Today we talked about sewing and needlework, and she confessed to me that she was terrible at handwork. However, she did sew all her own clothes as a young woman, and then sewed all her kids' clothes! I said it sounded like she was a whiz at handwork! Who cares about imperfect buttonholes from 60 years ago?

It is great to have a mentor who still has passion and lofty goals when she is tipping towards being a centenarian. Her competitive spirit and devotion to education and justice, is an inspiration for my own future.

Do you have an amazing mentor who continues to inspire?
Are you "Paying it Forward" as a mentor, because you were once inspired by your own mentor?

Creative Nudge - Go To Your Happy Place

Mother Nature apparently didn't get Punxsutawney Phil's message that Spring has arrived. The day before my trip we had 9" of snow in Boulder, and the two days I spent in Ohio with Sophie (filming 4 segments for Quilting Arts TV with Pokey Bolton) were also filled with lots of snowflakes.

Sunday night I had dinner with Kathy and Bob Price, and I got an update on what our eQuilter donations are doing to fund further relief efforts in the US and Guatemala. Mission of Love continues to ship medical supplies for the Guatemala City hospital, and building supplies for the children's hospice in TecPan.

Today my friend Mark Lipinski finally got his kidney transplant, donated by his friend and neighbor Mary Eichler. They both seem to have come through the surgery with flying colors, and are resting and recovering at the hospital tonight. What a miracle...and what a relief!

I have a stepbrother whose life was saved with a kidney transplant (good thing since he is the father of twin boys!) and another friend who is a long-time heart transplant recipient. Another friend's wife received a liver transplant and miraculously has her life back. So tonight I am just remembering and thanking those who have donated (including Mary!) so that others might live.

We had some sad news in the quilting world today: Pat Campbell (known for her Jacobean Applique) has left this world for the big quilting hoop, after being cared for by her husband John for many years. Pat was a well-loved quilt artist, teacher, fabric designer, and author; and she will be missed.

Sophie and I decided to stay on the East Coast the rest of this Spring Break week, after leaving our Quilting Arts and Mission of Love friends in Ohio. I lived in NYC for 6 years, and it has a special place in my heart. It is much more pleasant to be here now, compared to the 80's when I lived in the East Village.

There are still many business closed and many residents displaced because of Hurricane Sandy - even more so outside of the city. If you have a quilt you'd like to donate to someone in need, we'll make sure it is put into the hands of a hurricane victim very quickly. The quilt donations have slowed down but we are receiving more and more urgent requests from groups for comfort quilts. Many sincere thanks to all of you who have already sent in beautiful quilts for this hurricane relief effort, and many thanks to Timeless Treasures for their distribution work.

As Sophie and I walked the Avenues of New York today, the skyscrapers lit up from the Golden Hour at the end of the day. I saw many people on the street stop to admire the light on the skyline, and many who took a photo of the dramatic colors reflecting off glass and stone. It could have been a sunset on Maui, the way the people on the street responded. It was a reminder that we all find Beauty, no matter where we are, because Beauty feeds the Soul, and is stored in an inner archive of creative inspiration.

To recharge my creativity batteries, I "go to my happy place", one of which happens to be Manhattan!

** This photo was taken in front of Grand Central Station, with the Chrysler Building in the background.

* SAQA & Andover Fabrics Call for Entries *

* Hurricane Sandy Quilt Relief Info *

A Full Plate of Blossoms!

 

Do you ever have weeks where everything just seems to hit all at once? That's the kind of week I had...starting with euthanising our beloved doggie Sunday, flying to a trade show Monday, helping Sam to catch up after being home sick for 3 weeks, getting ready for Quilting Arts TV, and now 9" of snow! There were 600 flights cancelled in Denver today, but I'll be driving to the airport at 6 am Sunday morning.

In the meantime we are trying to get used to a household without a doggie.

Sophie and I are on the road all next week - starting with filming at Quilting Arts TV studios in the Cleveland area. (You can see clips of our previous appearances on the show, on our eQuilter video page.) We'll have dinner with Kathy Price from Mission of Love, and hear about the ongoing relief work in Guatemala, and elsewhere.

If any of you Canadian quilters are planning to come to the Penticton show in May, I will be at the award ceremony the evening of Weds May 15. I signed up for a tour that day, and if any of you would like to join me, you can sign up online. I'd love to hang out with some local quilters on the vineyard tour May 15! Also, I have to figure out how to get from Penticton, to a 3 pm flight in Kelowna on the 16th. Suggestions are welcome!

A week from now Sophie and I will be at the Kite Festival on the Mall in Washington DC, and hopefully the cherry blossoms will be in abundant bloom. I've got my camera charged up, loaded with an empty memory card, and I am anxious to take some Springtime photos! By this time next week I hope to be in a shower of cherry blossom petals, instead of a shower of white snowflakes.

The Tokyo Quilt Festival always has plenty of Sakura (cherry blossom) themed quilts, so I was inspired to search for more photos to remind me of these lovely quilts. I am also just crazy about cherry blossom fabrics, so when you see those designs on the eQuilter site, you'll know I had a special hand in picking out those lovely Asian fabrics. Yummy!

Are you taking a Spring Break this week?
Will you be taking photos of spring flowers, to inspire a future quilt project?

Creative Nudge - Springboard for Creativity

Tonight I am writing to you from my hotel in Las Vegas! I am here for 2 days at a textile show, and I just finished up ordering lots of bodacious fabrics that are shipping this summer.

After immersing myself in the spare design aesthetics of the Modern Quilt movement at QuiltCon a couple weeks ago, I found myself still very eager to dive into several very opulent gilded fabric collections that are inspired by textile designs of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The more I look at fabric, the more I learn about color theory and design. You can look at surface design every day of your life and still learn more by going to museums, looking at design and history books, and just walking though a fabric or department store to take in all the varieties of design interpretations. I just never get tired of looking at color and design!

What is most exciting to me is how we can still come up with new and interesting textile designs, simply by re-combining old motifs in new colors, re-scaling (making larger or smaller), and especially by juxtaposing with other textiles.

I am eager to share with you the many new versions of yarn-dyes, including multi-color chambrays. (also known as shot cottons) There is also a whole new crop of classic plaids that have been re- imagined, re-colored, re-scaled and then combined in quilts in imaginative ways. I am also loving fine quality prints that mimic ikat plaids with bi-color twist yarns. You have to be a pretty serious fabric head to realise the enormity of these re-imagined classics.... they are like a visual punch line...and they make me giggle.

As new technical innovations begin to trickle into the overseas factories, and designers learn how to exploit these new design opportunities, we will see more fabrics that catch our eye and look "different" ... but we can't quite explain why.

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

We had a very sad weekend. Our beloved sheltie had a health emergency over the weekend, and I had to make the painful decision to euthanise on Sunday morning before I left on this trip Monday morning. We are in the habit of letting her out first thing in the morning, and it will take awhile to let go of all our doggie habits. Cherry was born on Valentines, and left us on St Patrick's Day.

Tuesday morning at 7:02 am EDT (4:02 PDT) is the exact moment of the Vernal Equinox - when the sun passes over the Equator and Spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere. (...and Fall begins in the Southern Hemisphere) I am more likely to make and keep Spring Equinox resolutions, than New Year resolutions, so I am using the impetus of Spring for a Creative "To Do" list that will keep me focused for the rest of the year.

How does Springtime inspire your creative process?

** This image above is a detail of the quilt "Life" by Yoshiko Katagiri from the Tokyo Quilt Festival in January 2013.

Supporting the Richness of our Quilting Organizations

Happy Quilting Day, Happy Pi Day,
and Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Lately I've been working with board members of various organizations, brainstorming how to raise funds so they can upgrade equipment, attract new members, and thrive without constant financial stress.

As I mentioned last week, I am working with SAQA and Andover Fabrics on a fundraising design project.

I accepted an invitation a few months ago to sit on the development committee of the Boulder Philharmonic, and it has been interesting to look at the fundraising topic from another angle.

Recently crowdfunding has been a popular and usually successful way to raise funds for projects, such as the recent (successful!) fundraiser for the Tentmakers of Cairo documentary.

Yesterday Karey Bresenhan posted a very humble plea for support to raise $ on Indiegogo for the Texas Quilt Museum to buy a new projector system so they can host programs at the Museum. (see my blog for this post) A smart investment for TQM!

Just this morning I received a enewsletter from the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, that they are in need of emergency funds. I hope they will get a crowdfunding page up soon so we can all pitch in whatever amount is possible!

I really respect and admire those who sit on these boards, and who try to figure out how the heck to raise money to keep these organizations afloat. Raising membership fees or ticket prices is not always the answer - if you lose members because of the higher fees, then you are right back in the same hole.

So I just wanted to salute those who are working so hard behind the scenes, (as volunteers mostly!) to keep all the museums, non-profits, quilt exhibits, conferences, and other events in the black - i.e. with balanced budgets. It is not only our lawmakers who struggle with this issue!

Our Wonderful World of Quilting is a microcosm, and our leaders are privately wrestling with the same budget issues that the politicians are wrestling with publicly in the Macrocosm.

If you have a moment to visit one of those crowdfunding pages, remember that even $5 helps, if 1000 people each give $5 or whatever they can afford. These organizations are incredibly rich sources of creative inspiration and technical design information for all of us, so your $5, $10, $50 or more will give you a rich return on your investment. I am going to go make a donation right now!

Tuesday night I will be writing to you from a textile show in Las Vegas.



* Hurricane Sandy Quilt Relief Info *

* Sandyhook Elementary Memorial Quilt Project *

A Message from Karey Bresenhan:

(Posted on the Quiltart List this morning)

Folks, I hate to ask for money worse than I hate snakes. (And I really,
really don't like snakes!) But sometimes the cause is just so good that you
have to overcome your hesitation and just ask. And so I am asking. The Texas
Quilt Museum, a cause near and dear to my heart, needs to get a
state-of-the-art digital projector and large retractable screen so we can
use Gallery II as the lecture, film, seminar setting it's turned out to be
perfect for. But since we have no way to project anything in this gallery,
or to show a teacher's slides, etc., we can't make the best use of the space
and we end up turning away educational opportunities that lots of quilters
would enjoy.

We're trying the new "crowdfunding" method where you go online
and ask for a little bit of help from a lot of people. We're using Indiegogo
and trying to raise $7000 by midnight April 9. We've raised  $4125 as of
today, but that last $2875 is going to be tough.  Lots of people you know
from QuiltArt-like Frances Alford and Leslie Jenisen-have made donations
(God bless them!) and I'm hoping that you will want to help too.

Now I really do know this list. I may not post all the time, but I read.and
I know that money is not just burning a hole in most of your pockets! But I
also know you have generous hearts and you love to help people. So I am
asking for your generosity and your help. You don't have to give $100 (o be
still my heart!) to be part of this project. You can give $10...$25.$50 or
any amount you want. And any amount will help.  Just go to the link below
and take it from there. We even have neat little thank you gifts for
donations of $25 and more!

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/texas-quilt-museum/x/2371122

I'm not in the habit of asking for help. Most of you know that about me. I'd
much rather offer it.in the form of great shows, special exhibits you can be
part of (remember the Journal Quilt Project, she says modestly), etc. But
this time I can't do it all myself! So please help.  Thanks!

Karey Bresenhan

Co-founder, Texas Quilt Museum

Director Emeritus, International Quilt Festival-Houston, Cincinnati, Long
Beach, Chicago

Why do we make quilts?

Why do we make quilts?

The reason has evolved as women have evolved in society. This practical craft of recycling clothing scraps to make warm blankets, has a history around the world from America to Japan and beyond, because fabric is precious and we hate to throw away something that can be reworked into something useful or beautiful.

Most women have forgotten what the Suffragettes went through to win the right for women to vote. That was one stepping stone as women began to dream about having their own careers, and throughout the Twentieth Century we remade the idea of what it means to be a woman in the world.

Today our daughters grow up in a world where equality is often taken for granted, even though there are plenty of women around the world who still don't have the rights that our girls and young women assume are here for the taking.

I've been thinking about how quilting has evolved along with feminism. It has changed along with us - from a necessity to something that could be perceived as a luxury. (Buying fabrics and collecting a stash, making creative and artistic quilts, instead of using scraps for a patchwork blanket to keep out the cold.)

Sheryl Sandberg is on the cover of Time Magazine this week, and her book excerpt discusses how success can equal unlikability for women, and also how many women are still trying to achieve the impossible goal of " having it all". No matter how hard we try, we often will feel like we are missing out on something. It is difficult to feel completely content with our lives, no matter how much we accomplish, and no matter how much we try to let go and just BE.

Quilting helps us with this conundrum. When a sister has breast cancer and we feel helpless, we make her a beautiful healing quilt. When friends suffer a terrible loss, we make comfort quilts to remind them of our love and support. When a community suffers a trauma such as Hurricane Sandy, the larger community comes together to send quilt relief... the equivalent of a group hug.

Life is messy, and much of it is out of our control, but when you make a quilt you have time to sort it all out in your head, and by the time your healing quilt is finished, you've received a healing in the process of making the quilt. As women's confidence and freedom has progressed, we have given ourselves permission to use quilting and sewing as Art Therapy. Instead of feeling guilty about making art, we embrace the process as a journey of self discovery.

Many years ago I heard a statistic about how many corporate women were turning to crafts for stress relief. Quilting, sewing, painting, knitting, crocheting and other arts and crafts have been embraced by a new generation of working women, as they discover what so many mature quilters knew already.

When you make something for someone who is hurting, it heals your own heart.

When you make something beautiful, it reveals the beauty of your own soul.



** This image above is a detail of the quilt "Imagine" from the Tokyo Quilt Festival in January 2013.

* SAQA & Andover Fabrics Call for Entries *