Fucking Magic!! pillow

a few weeks ago i came across this blog post by genderbitch posted on questioning transphobia, "Intent! It's Fucking Magic!".

omg, LOVE. for every annoying thing there is about the world of facebook, there are opportunities to be sent links like this one!

first off, i'm pretty political, especially in crafting land, but even more than i come across here. i believe whole heartedly in fighting oppression of all kinds, and i'm always trying to learn and to do more. i invariably end up in conversations about racism or sexism or cissexism or classism or transphobia or ableism or biphobia or any other ism or phobia where people who don't want to learn/accept/admit their privilege try to derail the conversation with whines about "intent".

ohh, but i didn't mean it that way!

tough cookies darlin.
a) half the time you DID mean it that way, you just don't want to admit it (and you may not even be aware that deep down that's how you meant it, but you still meant it).
and b) it doesn't matter how you meant it, it was still an offensive/oppressive thing to say.


so i adored the post because it was brilliantly true.



and second, you may have noticed, but i tend to get a little snarky at times. opening your mouth is considered to be bitchy if you're read as female, especially if you spent your formative years hanging out with queens and certain types of gay boys and inherited a propensity for sass along with your love of menthol cigarettes and false eyelashes.

hence, i love sarcasm. especially good, oh so deserved sarcasm. and oooh, is derailment ever an action deserving of good sarcasm.

pretty much immediately after reading it, i knew the title was a phrase i'd have to stitch. i hauled out my graph paper and charted out the letters, and then paged through a book on blackwork until i found a border i liked.


it's stitched out on green aida cloth that i thrifted a while ago, with dmc 973 for the yellow.


i found this awesome fortrel in my stash that matched both the green and the yellow, and i knew it was fate. it had to be a pillow! (plus, any excuse to use fortrel makes me happy!)

i didn't want just boring straight plaid on the front, so i cut up pieces and crazy quilted them together around the cross stitch.

i backed the aida with green felt, to ensure that no pillow stuffing showed through


i used plain plaid for the back, stitched them up together, stuffed it, and ta da!


i have a pillow to sit on top of my sofa, one pillow closer to my quest to cover the top of my sofa with pillows all great grandma style. (but with more interesting pillows!)




(genderbitch posted this originally on her own blog, and there are more responses to it there, if you're interested. for that matter, her blog in general is worth checking out. she's on a bit of a hiatus, but there are still tons of things to read!)