March 8 is celebrated each year as International Women’s Day, a day about fighting for women’s equality and inclusion and raising awareness about gender discrimination. It’s also a fine day to celebrate feminist icons and women who have blazed trails throughout history.
Honoring a feminist cause with a traditional handcraft might seem a little weird, but part of keeping these crafts alive is acknowledging how long they served as “woman’s work,” considered unimportant and unworthy of recognition. Doing needle arts both helps keep these traditions alive and recognizes the work of all the stitchers who came before as art and craft an worthy of consideration and remembrance.
Maybe you’ll want to honor the day by stitching some amazing ladies in cross stitch? If so, check out the Fabulous Women in History cross stitch pattern from Clouds Factory on Etsy. This stunning design features women from Cleopatra to Malala Yousafzai, all with little icons related to their lives.
For example, Coco Chanel stands next to a mannequin wearing her iconic dress, and there’s a handbag and bottle of perfume nearby.
The pattern is 316 by 191 stitches, or 20 by 12 inches on 16 count fabric.
If that’s a little much for you, why not stitch up an icon on a smaller scale? Feminist Icon Cross Stitch
by Anna Fleiss and Lauren Manusco came out a few years ago and features 30 cross stitch designs celebrating powerful and inspiring women. Here you’ll find a lot of modern icons like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Gloria Steinem as well as historic figures like Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth. (Check out the full list in my review of the book here.)
In addition to 20 patterns for people, there are also 10 designs that include sayings like “the future is female” and “a woman’s place is in the house and senate.”
These projects are the perfect way to celebrate your favorite fearless females any time of year.
[Photo: Clouds Factory via Etsy.]
Here are 20 powerful females quotes you can use for your crafting. If you have a quote to share comment below.
“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.” – Louisa May Alcott
“I don’t want other people to decide who I am. I want to decide that for myself.” – Emma Watson
“A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“I’m tough, I’m ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.” – Madonna
“Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.” – Hillary Clinton
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” – Audre Lorde
“It’s not your job to like me, it’s mine.” – Byron Katie
“We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.” – Malala Yousafzai
“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who’s going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
“A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman.” – Melinda Gates
“Women are leaders everywhere you look – from the CEO who runs a Fortune 500 company to the housewife who raises her children and heads her household. Our country was built by strong women, and we will continue to break down walls and defy stereotypes.” – Nancy Pelosi
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou
“The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.” – Roseanne Barr
“I am a woman with thoughts and questions and shit to say. I say if I’m beautiful. I say if I’m strong. You will not determine my story – I will.” – Amy Schumer
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” – Charlotte Bronte
“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.” – Gloria Steinem
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
“You can have unbelievable intelligence, you can have connections, you can have opportunities fall out of the sky. But in the end, hard work is the true, enduring characteristic of successful people.” – Marsha Evans
“I am not a feminist because I hate men. I am a feminist because I believe in the full equality of men and women.” – Roxane Gay
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