I've moved again!
relentlesstoil.typepad.com
Hope to see you over there.

P.S. there's (still) not a thing wrong with Blogger; this is just how it goes.

I'm moving!

We have liftoff!
Originally uploaded by relentlesstoil

Exciting news! After much planning and many failed attempts to learn how to set up Typepad*, my beautiful little sister-in-law to be and I have finally launched our new blog, The Keet and Nini Show.

* There isn't a bit wrong with Blogger (blogspot.com), this is just how stuff shook out.

Thank you so very much, everyone who visited here, and everyone who commented. I hope to see you on the new blog!

I'm headed to another NICU benefit!

Bird and Birdhouse Mini Quilt
Originally uploaded by relentlesstoil

Two mini quilts (including this one), a puppy, a robot, a bunny, an owl, and a pussycat are going with me -- and my husband, who is the go-to photographer for mini quilts.

Off to another show!

Daisy the Armadillo Mini-Quilt
Originally uploaded by relentlesstoil

My second show (all new prints, mini quilts, and nice big quilts) opens tomorrow, Friday 25 May, at the Curiosity Shoppe at 4th & South in Philadelphia. I have been toiling quite a lot, even for me. I look forward to maybe reading a magazine or just plain sitting down -- soon!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day
Originally uploaded by relentlesstoil.

I got the words wrong a little bit, but thanks to fabulous mother-daughter duo Keri and Sheila Bas for introducing Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation to me.
My daughter Maya, age 2, graciously colored this drawing for me.
While my husband did his level best to see that I had a wonderful day (I did), I'd much rather see an end to war than a thousand Hallmark card holidays. And I'm very sure my own mom would sign up for that, too.

Mother's Day Proclamation 1870 - Julia Ward Howe
Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

peep

peep
Originally uploaded by relentlesstoil.

Last year I did a big series of nursery prints about animals and the sounds they make. They were very much geared toward the tiniest of audience members: high contrast, very simple, and unique enough but not very stylized. Today I am thinking of how blissful it would be to design a whole nursery around this new animal-sound-related image, but I think it's maybe too visually sophisticated -- my little girl (age 2) didn't recognize this as a bird when I first showed it to her, and I like her art to be accessible to her.
Still, it's so cuuuuute and springtimey! What do your little ones think?

Bunny

Bunny
Originally uploaded by relentlesstoil.

We've got bunnies on the brain. My daughter was pretty wound up when we put her to bed, and among the songs she sang to herself was this:
Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies, bunnies everywhere
Bunnies in the kitchen, bunnies on the stairs
She conked out pretty soon after that.
I'm gonna take the day off Friday and we're gonna make paper bunnies that look a lot like this. Well, that is my plan, anyway. She may have a different plan. :)