Yikes! Swimsuits

 

 Swimsuits! 

6" x 7"   March 17, 2023

paper piecing, couched cord, machine quilting

in response to Project Quilting 14.6:  Conquer a Fear

This is a tongue-in-cheek response to my, and most women's, fear of trying on swimsuits in preparation for warm weather.  

I found an online pieced swimsuit pattern, on the list of free patterns from Moda.  It was traditional piecing, which I translated to foundation piecing because I prefer it.  I also have a challenge from my Stitch Lab at Gotham Quilts to create something using couching, so I made it look like these swimsuits were hanging on a clothesline. 

Thanks to Kim and Trish at Project Quilting for a fun season of challenges! 

The Girls of Revolution Street

 Remembering Mahsa Amini and The Girls of Revolution Street

8" x 9" March 5, 2023

Fusible applique, machine quilting, faced

in response to Project Quilting 14.5: Not a Square

I machine quilted this small portrait with a few wisps of hair escaping the hijab; showing the sort of small infraction committed by women which can result in charges and even death. 

In September 2022 Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman was detained by the morality police in Tehran for not wearing her hijab properly.  She was beaten and died in custody.  She is one in a decade's long history of women of Revolution Street (Not a Square ;) protesting the requirement to wear hijab in Iran and other countries. 

"All over the world and throughout history, a woman's body has been the playground of various ideologies and identity politics, and a strict dress code for women has always been a strategy to uphold these political identities.

-Alma Fazeli"

To read the entire essay, click HERE. 

Women and men all around the world protest laws that use religious 'values' to deny women bodily autonomy.  This is a problem everywhere, not just in Muslim countries.  Women (or men, or any gender!) who CHOSE to wear hijab or any other dress style should have the right, autonomy, privilege of doing so.     

Peace, 

Paula