Dear Mr. President, Thank you for 8 years

Dear Mr. President, Thank you for 8 years of dignity, hope, intelligence, respect, Michelle, Concern, open-mindedness, perspective, ...
12"x11"
completed on Jan 8, 2017

UPDATE 2022: this piece was accepted as a donation to the Obama Presidential Center  

This quilt is made for Project Quilting Season 8 - week 1 with the theme: "8 is Great".  My thoughts were with our outgoing President, and our grim predictions for the incoming president in January 2017.  

Of course, this started with the Shepard Fairey "HOPE" Poster

I traced off the major shapes,

Then I traced the outline onto the red/blue background  (its a little hard to see the drawing there) 

I started my stitching, and discovered that I was going to have to fill in the shapes quite densely to get them to 'read' the different color.

 Here is a picture of the back once I was done, which I post here only because it will never be seen again:

I was glad to be indoors working on this piece, because we had a bit of snow this week:

I've been developing this style of dense embroidery for a few years, and I still have some work to do in this style.  I really enjoy it.  I also like commenting on political/social current events, or any sort of research I've been doing, or books I'm reading or plays I've seen.

I, like many in my blue state, and among my liberal friends, am very anxious about changes in our national culture in the coming months and years. I'm so grateful for these past 8 years, and Obama's efforts to move us towards a more inclusive 'normal'.

Peace  

Paula 

2022 UPDATE:  The Obama Presidential Center opened submissions for artifacts that celebrate the presidential years.  I entered this piece and was later invited to send it in to the curatorial offices in Chicago.  I hope it is one day on display (or in rotation for display) when the center opens.