From My Home To Yours

“From My Home to Yours” is a column, written each month by Martha Stewart, for the Martha Stewart Living publication. In the June 2012 issue, which I used for my first installment of the ongoing Living Martha Stewart Living project, her column was “Collecting Jelly Jars.” When I saw her reminder to write the column for the September issue on “Martha’s Month” for June 25th’s daily task, I decided to take the idea and create a separate project inspired by the column.

I was already sending out mail art kits and individual projects to friends. The two “chain art” projects that were already established when Living Martha Stewart Living began included my friends Kristi Rae Wilson and Adam Fotos. Kristi’s kit was directly inspired by pages we selected from the June 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living (I completed Martha’s Moss Paint calendar entry during The Year of Living Collaboratively).

At the end of The Year of Living Collaboratively micro-residency, I sent out three new “From My Home to Yours” collaborative art packages. Earlier in the summer, I had gifted a Quilting Basket to Erin McQuiston in Urbana, Illinois. Current circulating projects and available projects are listed below. Contact me to receive a package and become a collaborator.

Current “From My Home to Yours” Projects:

Adam Fotos; “Chain Comic,” Chicago, IL; began in 2011.

Mariah Johnson; “Unfinished Island,” Washington, D.C.; began in 2012.

Kari Thompson; “Unfinished Knitting: Helen Jeu,” Iowa City, IA; began in 2012.

Kristi Rae Wilson; “Martha Stewart Living, June 2009 Kwee Kit,” Houston, TX, began in 2011.

Available Projects, Kits, and Packages:

1. “Unfinished Projects: Helen Jeu” include knitting, sewing, and quilting projects inherited from Mrs. Helen Jeu, my aunt’s mother. She left behind sometimes detailed, sometimes cryptic notes for how to complete her numerous crafting projects. Participants help me complete her projects. Choose an unfinished project if you’d like to play one part crafter and one part detective. This is a reciprocal project (you can send it back if you are stuck!).

“Unfinished Projects” of my own include drawings, collages, stories, and sewing projects. This is a reciprocal project. Send me something you are stuck on or just can’t seem to finish. We mutually help one another put it away and cross it off the list. Then, as Jay Z says, “On to the next one!”

Please specify if you want a standard “Unfinished Project” or a special Helen Jeu edition.

2. “Kwee Kits” are individual projects that require some creative interpretation to complete. A kit will include possible sources of inspiration and some of the materials necessary to make a piece of art. I do not know what this piece of art will be when I pack the kit. This is a reciprocal project. The project ends in a finished, singular piece of art that we both own. Kits may be sent back and forth for instruction, clarification, or interpretation.

3. “Chain Comics” start with one panel and go back and forth, each one of us adding one panel, until we decide the story is told.

4. “Unmade Works” are ideas for projects that I had during my time in graduate school. They are all the things I dreamed up, but was not able or brave enough to complete. I made a list of them and included it as the last page of my thesis. These items are listed on a page of this site. Choosing one of these “Unmade Works” entitles you to complete the project as your own.

Please consider crediting “From My Home to Yours” when presenting an “Unmade Works” project as a piece of art.

All “From My Home to Yours” participants will receive a yearly gift. The first gift was a custom-made sewing kit, perfect for the artist on-the-go.