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medieval pride parade!

St. Johannis, Lüneburg

A superb Jun purple-splashed blue-glazed tripod censer, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)

worn: a people's history of clothing, sofi thanhauser

women's work: the first 20,000 years, elizabeth wayland barber

fabric, victoria finlay

marriage: a history, stephanie coontz (mostly about marriage as an economic institution)

the once and future sex, eleanor janega (written in an unpleasant post-twitter register but accessible guide to medieval europe's christian misogyny)

various works of the guerrilla girls

The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World by Virginia Postrel

And Still We Rise: Race, Culture, and Visual Conversations by Carolyn L. Mazloomi (I worked on the museum exhibit this book was released with. It's more a discussion of African American history, especially women's roles, through the medium of quilts than a discussion of quilting itself.)

Women in Mexican Folk Art: Of Promises, Betrayals, Monsters and Celebrities by Eli Bartra

Gendered Labor in Specialized Economies: Archaeological Perspectives on Female and Male Work

A Companion to Gender Prehistory edited by Diane Bolger

“Do not unsheath me without reason. Do not wield me without valor.”

Looking badass with a sword that Does Not Belong To Me ™, once again from the medieval-themed wedding I attended.

To do this you need:

quilting cotton fabric, any pattern you like. Nothing too heavyweight!

heat and bond iron-on interfacing (link is amazon; your local fabric retailers should have it. Buy local if you can!)

an iron and ironing board

a computer, with access to www.photopea.com or an image editor of your choosing.

a cricut or other cutting machine that works with sticky mats to feed material.

A roll of vinyl transfer tape--you can do this project without it, but it will be easier with.

To begin, make your design in your image editor. You want large, single color, relatively simple shapes on a transparent background. I have a 12x24 cutting mat, so I made my image 11.5x23.5. Export it as a PNG, and then upload it into design space or whatever application runs your cricut or cutting machine.

Prepare your fabric by cutting it to the size of your mat. For me, that's rectangles of 12x24 material. Also cut the same size out of heat-and-bond. DO NOT REMOVE THE BACKING PAPER FROM THE HEAT AND BOND. Once you've got rectangles of fabric and rectangles of heat and bond, attach the heat and bond to the fabric with an iron.

Prepare your sticky mat by attaching a layer of vinyl transfer tape face-down, so the sticky side is up when you remove the backing paper. This will prevent the fabric from leaving lint all over the mat, and the backing paper for heat and bond is very prone to tearing--without the transfer paper, you'll be cleaning your mats a lot between every cutting.

Stick the heat and bonded fabric face-up on the mat, so the paper backing of the heat and bond is adhered to the transfer tape. Smooth out to remove bubbles. And then load the mat into your cricut! I've got an explore air 2 (several years old now) and I used my normal blade at its deepest cut settings, and fire away. (Designs do not need to be mirrored.) Before removing your finished cut from the sheet, double check that the blade has gone all the way through and you will not need a second pass-I never did, but check just in case!

Peel everything off the mat, discarding the paper backing/transfer paper layers, then iron your fabric designs onto your bunting! If you want things to be really durable, you can sew the edges down like a normal applique, but for bunting, I didn't feel it was necessary.

Happy Stabby Day! 🔪 In March I ponder upon Brutus, specifically the Roman aristocratic culture surrounding him and how it may have shaped his decisions. Yapping below.