1989 - 1992 My Yia Vang's Hmong Story Cloth

Alternating wide and narrow strips frame an 8" embroidered center square. A 2" blue strip, 1/4" grey strip, 1/4" white strip, 1 1/4" grey strip with blue appliqued sawtooth, 1/4" white strip, and a 1/4" grey strip form the border. The center square is an embroidered story of why the Hmong people left their homeland in Laos. The top left embroidered scene depicts a peaceful village, to the right is shown the army and planes bombing the village, below are scenes depicting the refugees on the road, camping out and crossing the river (to Thailand) and the refugee camps. The scenes tell a recent story of the Hmong people and it is "read" going back and forth from the top left to right, then right to left. "Paj ntaub dab neej" (flower cloth of people & customs) incoroporates embroidered figures, animals & scenery often in narrative sequences. The English term for pictorial embroideries is "story clothes". See the "Stories in Thread: Hmong Pictorial Embroidery" project co-ordinated by Marsha MacDowell, Michigan State U. Museum, 1989.

My Yia Vang, the maker of this piece, was born in Central Laos and immigrated to the U.S. on March 20, 1980. She used her needlework skills to make money to help support the family. These were pieces she made to sell at local craft fairs.

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