One Disaster at a Time

Pictured here is a 30"x30" wall quilt (there's a built in sleeve for hanging on the back) that myself and the other members of my artist collective, The Midwives Collective & Gallery, stitched to raise money for our chosen charity: Midwives for Haiti. Each block was done by a different member (though Christiana did the two of the cat and dog dreaming and I did two, the middle stylized flower and below that, the fish scales). But anyway, it's wonderful to have various styles and visions come together into one piece. Additionally, this quilt is being raffled off into the beginning of July! All the $$$ from the raffle goes to Midwives for Haiti.


Now, I know that since Haiti was leveled by that terrible earthquake about 5 months ago, other horrific disasters have happened: Guatemala's sinkhole, Earthquake in Chile, Floods and Mudslides in Rio De Janeiro, BP's Gulf Oil Spill and we're only 1/2 way through 2010 (and of course, we're not done digging out of the global recession....). It's a bit overwhelming at times, rendering me completely helpless. But doing something like this quilt, as well as doing my own quest against Breast Cancer, makes me feel a bit like I can do something, that something is in my control to, if not completely fix, at least be a part of the solution and sending out something positive. And, wonderfully enough, you too can be a part of that positivity and purchase raffles for this quilt for CHEEEEEEEEEP (and know that you're helping pregnant women and new mothers have healthy babies).

Thanks!

Last time I slept?

I'm not sure when was the last time I got a full night's rest. It's been weeks. 

THIS IS WHY

*I hope to see everyone tomorrow, Friday, June 11th, to celebrate. :)

SquidWhale is taking over my life.....

Not that I mind. I mean, I kind of do because I have a back-log of projects, both for my personal work and for SquidWhale, and each day I conjure new projects for both of my creative endeavors. I can see now that my work will never be done. I'm thankful for that though. If I were done with all I wanted to do, I'd be dreadfully bored. Then what? I'd wait around to...I dunno, die? Snoooore.

Sarah has developed these awesome plaid mice. The other pieces are elements from our 4ft. wallpaper design.These images will eventually be printed onto fabrics that will then be used for our product line. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, I don't have much to show you right now (except the above image), but my partner in crime, Sarah, is going to be updating our shared SquidWhale blog soon with details of our thrifting adventure and where our work is thus far in our first collection. The thrifting was our first one together. She's been thrifting her whole life, and I've known Sarah for, oh, about a decade, and this past weekend was the first time she got me thrifting. I think it helps to have a focus on what you're searching for. It also helps that I'm imbibed with a sense of purpose and determination at building my own business. 
Additionally, for the Midwives Members Show in June, all members are doing a quilt block for a small redwork quilt. A couple of us are doing two blocks. This is my second one:

Just a bunch of fish scales.

I'm thinking some of these will be filled in with a satin stitch.

I also have an octopus thing I'm drafting right now for an embroidery project. This project was on hold for a while to work on my dyed silk pieces for my show, LAMINA, which is up at Barefoot Clinic until May 28th. But I'm looking forward to making the octopus. I love doing the research and drawing the imagery and then building that into an embroidery. Sometimes I get frustrated at how time-consuming these things can be, but I remember that it's OK to take my time to do it right, and there will never be enough time to do all that I can think of doing, but it's good that I don't have a lack of ideas to be excited about. And hey, at least I ain't bored. ;)

Redwork embroidery quilt block - Finished!

Finished off my redwork quilt block last night! It's fun to see my design done in embroidery. Next up I'll be making hand-painted wallpaper with it and a few other designs.

Redwork Embroidery Quilt Project

For the Midwives Collective's upcoming members' show (June 2010), in addition to our own personal works, we're doing a collaborative group project: a redwork embroidery quilt. Each of us is going to produce a single block. Then my mom and her friend are going to piece the quilt together and finish it off for us (Thanks Mom!). The pictured red fabrics are the other fabrics that are going to be used in our collaborative quilt.
This quilt will either be auctioned or raffled off during our show. 100% of the proceeds will go to benefit Midwives For Haiti.
The design I'm using for my own block is taken from an original repeated design Sarah and I are producing for our collaborative installation for the Midwives members' show. My current designs are based on the stylized florals of Richard Hoffman.