This week was hot for here (which makes me grumpy), I decided to rearrange/clean out the studio (it got so much worse in the process), and I sliced my pointer finger (right where the needle sits while stitching). It's cooled off a bit, the room is almost better, and I can hold a needle again...so some progress.
A new block by a young artist created with @sjsacademy arrived. Her message honors Chief Standing Bear, a Ponca chief and Native American civil rights leader. In 1879, he was the first to successfully argue in the U.S. District Court that Native Americans are "persons within the meaning of the law."
The blocks arrive with the pieces tacked down with craft glue. My job is to secure the fabrics, embellish and add context to the piece. The base cloth felt too white and thin to work on, so I added a layer of muslin around the center design. It was cloth that had gone into a fading indigo vat so it has just a touch of blue here and there. It makes me think of the sky.
The artist wished for Sitting Bull's quote, "I myself would rather die an Indian than live a white man." I'm wishing for Liz's skill with stitching words.
