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 

  

I am a curvy woman

 

Fighting 36-24-36

9" x 9"  February 5, 2023, for Project Quilting: "54-40 or fight" challenge 14.3

hand embroidered, machine quilted

This week's challenge is to interpret this traditional block as explained in this post by Trish Frankland and Kim Lapacek   This is a basic 54-40 or fight block:

I was inspired by the concept of fighting against numbers and know that I've been fighting against the ideal female hourglass form for many years. Even when I was younger I didn't think I had the 'right' shape, and lament now, looking back at photos from those years, that I didn't have good body image.  (oy, what was I thinking?)

So here I am, well past 'middle aged', a woman with an AARP card, and recently struggled with dating again after a long marriage.  My youthful body spent. 

So I'm taking up arms, figuratively, against the tyranny of numbers that we cannot achieve.  I'll never be those measurements again, I'll never weigh those numbers again, I'll never be that age again.  I. am. a. curvy. woman. 

peace, 

Paula 

ps - I'm happy to report I've found a partner who embraces, literally, ALL my curves. 

Pink Tax

Pink Tax

8" x 5", January 21, 2023, for Project Quilting: "Pink Tint" challenge 14.2

machine stitched 'shirt fronts, hand embroidered price tags, tiny buttons, machine quilted

This is my response to the Project Quilting prompt: Pink:  The Pink Tax - "an adorable name for an insidious practice" - is the concept that some items are more expensive when they are gendered for women, such as shampoo, clothing, laundry services, toys. 

I created the front placket for the two halves, then stitched down the 3 pastel tiny buttons in pink and blue.

I found prices for a man's pink shirt and also a woman's pink shirt on a department store website, then embroidered the different prices on tags, and attached them to the tiny buttons, such as you might find on a real shirt. 

The machine quilting says:  "why is this shirt less than this shirt?  Pink Tax" - done with a variegated pink thread. 

The Pink Tax does not speak to all the items of toiletries and clothing which women purchase and men don't 'need' - that's a whole other problem.  This is a quantitative comparison of like to like products, which are more expensive when female gendered.  There are many shampoos and soaps that are packaged for women, and more expensive.  Blue jeans are more expensive in women's sizes.  But perhaps the most obvious is a dry cleaning or laundry service that charges more for women's shirts over men's shirts.  

Here are a few articles on the Pink Tax for further reasearch: 

7 Weird Examples Of How Women Pay More Than Men For The Same Products | HuffPost 

The Pink Tax: How Women Pay More for Pink | Bankrate

There’s A Pink Tax On Women (forbes.com)

I don't need pink calculators or disposable razors.  You'll find neutral colored items in my shopping cart. 

Peace

Paula 

 

Keep Abortion Legal

 

Keep Abortion Legal

6" square, January 6, 2023, for Project Quilting: The First One challenge

hand embroidered; machine quilted

This small piece is my response to the prompt: The First One, at this time following the overturning of Roe V. Wade by the super conservative Supreme Court.   It's my acknowledgement of my FIRST abortion; yes, I've had more than one.   Abortion was not illegal at the time, and should not be illegal now.  Legal abortion recognizes a woman's right to bodily autonomy.  For too long, we've been shamed into keeping quiet about abortion, about menstruation, about all manner of female bodily functions. 

This small section of quilting shows where the small mass of growing cells may have been attached to the wall of my uterus. 

This image shows the two color embroidery technique I have been developing over the years, where I color block the background, then embroider a line drawing over this shape. 

Keep abortion legal to allow women full bodily autonomy.  The number of abortions I've had is nobody's business but my own.  I've also carried some pregnancies to term.  That number is also nobody's business. 

Here's a good essay by a woman who writes honestly and eloquently about having more than one abortion, she speaks to the societal stigma:  "I've had three abortions"  

Minding my own business, 

Peace, 

Paula