Solomon Northup in redwork

I've known the story of Solomon Northup for a number of years. He & his wife Anne lived in Kingsbury/Sandy Hill (Washington County, NY my home county) where they had a farm, before moving to Saratoga Springs. He had ties to the Old Fort House in Fort Edward, NY across the street from my best friend's childhood home. A colleague of mine (Cliff Oliver) is a Solomon Northup re-enactor. I've read 12 Years a Slave more than once. The language is beautiful, & the experience visceral. I highly recommend it.

I was very pleased when the movie adaptation of 12 Years a Slave won Oscars for Best Motion Picture of the Year & Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Lupita Nyong'o). However, I was most excited when it won for Best Adapted Screenplay (John Ridley). To me, this was the biggest win, for it was like Solomon himself won an award for his writing. I cried.

Pattern of Solomon Northup

 Since there are no known images of Solomon, I used a still from the film, with Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon, as a basis for my redwork pattern.

 I was working on this embroidered portrait the night of the Academy Awards.

Tonight's #MovieToStitchTo is the #Oscars2014 of course! Embroidering a #12YearsASlave inspired #redwork pic.twitter.com/LEOFlbCk2h
— TishaDolton (@aprilsongstress) March 3, 2014

The final redwork portrait of Somolon Northup by aprilsongstress

I really like how the embroidered portrait came out. Just need to finish up the framing.

Saratoga Springs, NY has declared the 3rd Saturday in July to be Solomon Northup Day.

Happy Stitching!

Happy 40th Birthday to me!

Thursday was my 40th birthday! Today is my birthday party. When searching for a theme, my mom & I were trying to find something "me" & cheap. Enter my fabric stash!

Red toile canvas by Waverly

Using my plethora of red toile fabric & a bit of plastic sheeting, we covered all of the tables. 

Basic red toile cotton & Twizzlers

Two redwork portraits of me

Next, we used some of my redwork portraits & pinned them to the Irish lace curtains in the dining room.

Redwork portraits of Gavin DeGraw & Richard Marx

 Then we put out the scrapbook & my senior yearbook. The bulletin board is for book quotes the guests were asked to bring. My best friend is making the cake. I will post that later. Can't wait to see it.

Vintage redwork & portrait of Solomon Northup

Happy Stitching!