Kimberly's Squirrel and Adva's Fox

My friends Kimberly and Adva live on different sides of our country, and we are all in different states.  They are always there to share pictures of our latest projects, get a quick bit of advice, listen to a kvetch about some daily annoyance, participate in a long online chat, or pick up where we left off on a sustained conversation about real issues that we may be dealing with.

So when I was packing for a week long vacation, and knew I had to take some hand work with me, I found coloring-book images of their spirit animals (Kimberly: squirrels; Adva: foxes), and some squirrely/foxy colored embroidery floss, and flew off to Punta Cana!





My daily beach or pool packing included a book, and my stitching.  I used the coloring book images as a general guide for outlines, but then I filled in with my own stitches and colors.  Here is the Squirrel in progress, on a pool towel:

When I got home, I machine quilted squirrely words in the background, and then bound the little quilts.   Here is the completed Squirrel: 

So when I wasn't doing THIS:

I was working on this  (close up of Fox) 

Here is the final fox piece,  quilted with fox words

Because we live so far away from each other, we are not often in the same place IRL, so I can't find a picture of the three of us together  (opportunity coming in April!)  You are just going to have to take my word for it, Kimberly and Adva ARE * Adorable.  Lots of love!

Peace.

Repeal HB2 - in solidarity with North Carolina Lily

Repeal HB2 - In solidarity with North Carolina transgender individuals who are endangered by HB2 - requiring them to use the restroom that matches the gender on their birth certificate

20"x20"

completed on Jan 21, 2017

This quilt is made for Project Quilting Season 8 - week 2 with the theme: Carolina Lily.  I knew that I was not particular inspired by the traditional Carolina Lily Quilt block - even though so many other quilts made for the challenge did some wonderful things with this design:

nor by the flower Carolina Lily - although this is where I drew the main orange color of my quilt:

I knew about the controversial "bathroom bill" in North Carolina, so I did some research for transgender individuals in North Carolina and found Lily, Gavin, Trinity and many others who are part of the #WeAreNotThis movement, to repeal HB2 (House Bill 2)

The large letters are created using the paper pieced alphabet by Hunters Design Studio.   Although I reached out to the individual I found in news articles about HB2, Lily did not want me to use her actual face nor name (which I honor) so this is simply female face clip art, meant to represent any transgender individual.  The male and female bathroom icons are the battleground of this movement, placed on the rainbow of colors used by the LGBTQ movement.

I can't imagine how it makes sense that an individual who presents as female would be required to use a male restroom.  The danger we are putting that person in seems obvious.  I understand the fear about sexual predators in female restrooms, (I'm a woman,  I have daughters)  but this comes at the hands of men seeking to overpower women.  I don't know of a single instance where this occurred by a transgender woman.

I'm an ally.

Peace  

Dear Mr. President, Thank you for 8 years

Dear Mr. President, Thank you for 8 years of dignity, hope, intelligence, respect, Michelle, Concern, open-mindedness, perspective, ...
12"x11"
completed on Jan 8, 2017

UPDATE 2022: this piece was accepted as a donation to the Obama Presidential Center  

This quilt is made for Project Quilting Season 8 - week 1 with the theme: "8 is Great".  My thoughts were with our outgoing President, and our grim predictions for the incoming president in January 2017.  

Of course, this started with the Shepard Fairey "HOPE" Poster

I traced off the major shapes,

Then I traced the outline onto the red/blue background  (its a little hard to see the drawing there) 

I started my stitching, and discovered that I was going to have to fill in the shapes quite densely to get them to 'read' the different color.

 Here is a picture of the back once I was done, which I post here only because it will never be seen again:

I was glad to be indoors working on this piece, because we had a bit of snow this week:

I've been developing this style of dense embroidery for a few years, and I still have some work to do in this style.  I really enjoy it.  I also like commenting on political/social current events, or any sort of research I've been doing, or books I'm reading or plays I've seen.

I, like many in my blue state, and among my liberal friends, am very anxious about changes in our national culture in the coming months and years. I'm so grateful for these past 8 years, and Obama's efforts to move us towards a more inclusive 'normal'.

Peace  

Paula 

2022 UPDATE:  The Obama Presidential Center opened submissions for artifacts that celebrate the presidential years.  I entered this piece and was later invited to send it in to the curatorial offices in Chicago.  I hope it is one day on display (or in rotation for display) when the center opens.