I've been published!

Here's a fun recent fact that I want to share. If you look back in the posts on my blog here, you will see the one focusing on the pink felt breast pocket I made in support of women with breast cancer. It was made at the request for submissions for Melanie Testa's Breast Pocket project. I put the name of my mom, my sister and Melanie under the pocket flap; in memory of and in honor of their struggles with breast cancer...

Well, Melanie was interviewed by Quilting Arts Magazine this past year and she gave them some of the pockets to photograph for her spread. I subscribe to this magazine and so when I opened that issue   (Nov/Dec 2014), I was really surprised!

There, right on the page, was the pocket that I had sent to Melanie, right on the first page of the article! I was so surprised to see my work at the center of the page along with other "pockets." And so darn pleased that I did a little happy dance right then and there. If you zoom in on the first photo, you will see that my name is also in print, right page, bottom  :-)   :-)   :-)

Here are some photos I took of the spread:

“You know how sometimes, your life is so perfect you’re afraid for the next moment, because it couldn’t possibly be quite as good? That’s what it felt like.” 

― Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care

One brave and awesome woman!

Today, I am posting a picture of the breast pocket I have created for Melanie Testa, an artist that I admire for her strength, courage and bravery.

She has put out a challenge for folks to make 1000 breast pockets to raise awareness for the women who choose not to reconstruct their bodies after breast cancer and to pave awareness for those who would like to put their forms aside entirely. Breast pockets are coming in to Melanie from around the world! My pocket honors Melanie's passion and bravery. Here's a quote from Melanie:

"I would never have thought that an aspect of the cancer experience would make me feel so passionate. I firmly believe the ability to ‘Go Flat’ is an issue of women’s rights. This is an issue of body autonomy, women must have complete control over the only thing we can control, our bodies. As a result, Going Flat must become normalized. Women who forgo reconstruction should not wear breast forms for any other reason than having a preference to do so.

When the beautiful, diminutive 75 year old fella pool program attendee looked at me and pinched her ‘bubby’, which is what she calls her breast form, telling me she hated wearing it for the last __ years (more than 2 decades). I fell in love with her, and fell in love with being a feminist, again. Her daughter keeps telling her to put the breast form away. But she does not feel able to leave the breast form behind!

She called me brave. A teacher. She looked at me in awe.

And I am brave, many women cannot imagine leaving home without their breast forms. Others very much want to leave them behind, but feel pressure to wear them for their jobs, and for the people in their lives who expect them to look a certain way. As more women like me, Margaret W. Smith and Jodi Jaecks put their bodies and their choices out there, normalization of this bodily form, this aspect of women’s lives, will occur. Society will re-member the full array of shapes that an individual woman’s body can take in a lifetime. But no woman should feel compelled to wear forms because our society is misogynist and ignorant and has set up an expectation of what the female form should look like. Especially in light of breast cancer."

You can read more on Melanie's blog here.


Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been.
                                                                                       --Alan Alda