I wanted to make it clear that this was about queer women so I chose to use colors with meaning for the sapphic community, like lavender, and colors of the lesbian flag to put create and detail the women on fire. The embroidered flowers at the bottom are meant to be lavender but I chose to use thread in pink, orange, and white.  

While doing research for this project I came across a political memorial card for Joan Baker. She was a lesbian who died of AIDS in 1993. On the card it says prominently, “Lesbians don’t die of AIDS, do they?” followed by, “This one did.” This very well encapsulates, as it was intended to, the fact that women’s health is understudied and more so queer women’s health. I needed to include it so I embroidered the words onto a piece of fabric to be sewn onto my quilt block. Out of all the things sewn onto the block, this is the only part where I used techniques that would help keep edges from fraying (hemming, wip stitch).

I chose to have the people throughout the hills be on fire because sometimes that's how it feels, like you’re on fire in a field and it never rains and the firemen never come. All you have are the people like you. But through the flames, we are still alive. The lines through the purple in these smaller fires are meant to emulate the people in the larger fire, swirling together, holding each other.