Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Monday, September 28, 2009

Here come the squares!





Hi friends! 

Here are some of the squares, to inspire you and give you ideas for your own. Lia's square "Polar bears and a waterfall" is made by glueing fabric and metallic stars onto a piece of an old white sheet (with fabric "tacky" glue) and drawing with T-shirt pens. Adam's square "Sea meeting land" is pne of his photos transferred to canvas and glued to a black background fabric. Jon's square "Gecko for Annie" is made with fabric cut-outs glued onto a fabric background-- all of our fabric has been salvaged or donated! Will's square "Winter in Crestone" is drawn in permanent marker on an old sheet, and then painted with fabric paints. You can see more of the squares being laid out on our living room floor in the other picture. The one I'm laying down is a gorgeous, traditionally quilted piece from Sandy, in Bolinas, CA, of the plight of the Kuna people in Panama, and the orange one in front of that was mailed to us from Mississippi by Aidan, who, at three, is the third youngest artist with a square in the 350 Reasons quilt! To make your own square, please see the post "How to make a square" and let me know you're making one: speckled-lettuce@yahoo.com so I can add you to our list!

We have lots more beautiful squares. I'll post them one by one....
Thanks for your participation!
America

Thursday, September 24, 2009

help support the quilt... commission a square

Friends, 

If you've been unable to participate in the 350 Reasons Quilt because of time or other concerns, please think about supporting the project by commissioning a square. We've been amazingly blessed by donations of fabric, but we're hoping to cover the costs of venue to display the quilt (we're still  negotiating with Parks and Rec in San Francisco about where we can have the event) and some of the art supplies. 

My brother and I are both artists and we're offering to create custom made squares for $50. You pick something you love about life on Earth and we'll make you an original piece of quilt art for the quilt, and send you a print. Please email me (America) at: speckled_lettuce@yahoo.com if you'd like to commission a square or you know someone who would be interested.

Thanks!
A.

Monday, September 21, 2009

exciting news

Hi Everyone!
There have been a bunch of new moments in this project these last few days! For one thing, people have been generously donating fabric for the quilt, which is wonderful. We'll also be at Bill McKibben's talk at Sonoma Country Day school on Oct 2nd with a few of the quilt panels and materials for people to make squares or be inspired to make squares there. Tickets for that event can be purchased on line here: http://www.scds.org/podium/default.aspx?t=116556&rc=0  I'm also talking to the youth summit organizers at the Bioneers conference and it looks like the 350 Reasons Quilt is going to be part of their activities, where many people will be able to see and know about the quilt. We've also had a bunch of new possible school classes wanting to make squares. The quilt is growing!

We still need lots of help! We're no where near 350 squares. If anyone has extra sheets or fabric they don't want, please let me know! And even more importantly, if any of you can have a square-making gathering and make squares to send us, please do! Most importantly of all, please tell everyone you can think of about 350 and Oct 24th!

Thanks for all of your beautiful work!
America.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

the quilt so far

The quilt is growing!
We started receiving the first mailed-in squares this week, beginning with a bright orange square with waves and stars and lizards on it from a little guy in Mississippi, and we're expecting squares from the UK, Canada, maybe Papua New Guinea (!) and closer to home, from Oregon, Michigan, New York and Arizona as well as an offer from the Green Gulch Zen center and hopefully a few classrooms and quilting guilds. I finished the first of the giant center squares that spell out 350 today-- so the 3 is complete. For your inspiration, some of the things people love that we're sewing together are: pacific tree frogs, monkeys, drums, bicycles, the breeze at 6pm in Cali, Columbia, a hawk, the blue sky, sea turtles, sheep made out of real sheep.... what a beautiful landscape! It's really inspiring to see it coming together.

We still needs lots of squares!!!

It would be fantastic if anyone who's able to host a little gathering and paint, marker, quilt, silkscreen, glue, dye, stencil-- anything!-- squares and then mail us a bunch of them in one go. Even if it's you and two or three friends, we can build the rest of the quilt 3 or 4 people at a time, no problem! Old sheets have turned out to be a great resource that most people have hanging around for fabric.

Thanks a million for your participation!
A.

PS. We're still waiting to hear back from parks and rec in San Francisco about where we can get our permit to display the quilt on Oct 24th, but I'll post it here as soon as we do!