Catalyst

Over the summer, I asked my friend Kelly if she wanted to participate in an artistic experiment. I wanted to try embroidering on a painting. Kelly is a gifted painter, specifically water colors, and she was game for collaborating on these pieces. She created four paintings; two floral still life paintings and two landscapes. The landscapes reminded me of postcards, so I decided to stitch quotes on them. I picked quotes from two women I admire, Shirley Chisholm and Gloria Steinem. The Shirley Chisholm quote is a favorite of mine.

For the last piece of February, I'm sharing another Chisholm quote. I started reading Ijeoma Oluo's book Mediocre at the end of January and read the chapter "Socialists and Quote Queens," which includes a section on Chisholm's historic 1972 presidential campaign. I realized after reading this section that while I know about Shirley Chisholm, I don't know that much about her. I purchased her memoir, Unbought & Unbossed. It's one of the books I'm hoping to read in March. 

Here's today's piece:

We all have the opportunity to be a catalyst for change, no matter how small or large that change is. That's the energy I want to continue to carry into the rest of 2021 and beyond. 

Details:
Stitches: back and straight stitches
Thread palette: Sublime Stitching 504, 701 (both 3 strands)

Another month is done! I've completed 59 pieces, so I have 306 to go. I'm not going to change much from a process perspective in March; I did start completing only the borders that weren't stitched this month. I think it works; there's not reason each box has to have the same border pattern or thread color. For some of the pieces this month, the border worked for both days. We'll see how this shakes out in March. I'm also planning on trying applique next month, and maybe incorporating some other materials like pom-poms and more sequins. 

Here are some photos and video of the completed month. Yes, that's painter's tape on the wall where the finished months are hanging. I haven't decided how I want to display the finished months, so I'm using the tape for now.