As you know, I haul my Bernina on vacation. Since we travel in a small camper with only Cotton, our Maltese, and the two of us, it's safe enough, and it gives me a diversion when Richard gets cranky on the road or there's a little downtime.
Anyhoo, I participated in AmandaJean Nyberg's QAL last month and loved it. While I was cutting out fabric, I decided to cut out enough of the blue scraps to make a kit for another quilt to take on the road. Of course, having followed the pattern with the first one, I needed to "make it my own" for the second one.
In a nutshell I cut some of the red fabric into rectangles the same size of the finished blue blocks. Sewing was simply alternating blocks with a total of five rows.
Simple and quick and almost finished by the time we got to my sister's house. Jeanne and Alan have a pretty place in the middle of nowhere. Uh, actually in the middle of a neighbor's fields. We met these fun neighbors when Alan barbequed the best ribs ever. What a great night!
Oops, so anyway, before we left, I finished the little top and took it out for a photo session in Jeanne's yard/Rod's field. Isn't this piece of old equipment and the wheat a perfect setting? I've never seen so many acres of field in one viewing. It's just lovely and lonesome and beautiful.
Before closing, I'll leave you with some of my favorite photos from our very short stay in Minot, North Dakota.
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| Richard acting like he owns "this big boy." |
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Long horns--the menfolk talked about these a lot!
You'd think they had driven them rawhide from Texas on horseback. |
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| Canola--as in canola oil in a month or so |
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Flax--as in linen fabric and flax seed oil (it's being harvested
in Idaho now so perhaps in ND soon) |
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| Hay fields |
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| Epic discussion no doubt--Richard on left, Alan on right |
Both common sights in Louisiana, but I saw the hay stacks and grain bins very differently in North Dakota. Knowing how much they are needed in the winter and feeling the power of that big open space where there are so few people to help, I appreciated the work of storing up for the winter ever so much more. And I thanked God that there are still people who are willing to work hard and risk everything to feed the rest of us.
As you know, I haul my Bernina on vacation. Since we travel in a small camper with only Cotton, our Maltese, and the two of us, it's safe enough, and it gives me a diversion when Richard gets cranky on the road or there's a little downtime. 
Anyhoo, I participated in AmandaJean Nyberg's QAL last month and loved it. While I was cutting out fabric, I decided to cut out enough of the blue scraps to make a kit for another quilt to take on the road. Of course, having followed the pattern with the first one, I needed to "make it my own" for the second one. 
Oops, so anyway, before we left, I finished the little top and took it out for a photo session in Jeanne's yard/Rod's field. Isn't this piece of old equipment and the wheat a perfect setting? I've never seen so many acres of field in one viewing. It's just lovely and lonesome and beautiful. 
This is a pretty little quilt, Mary. Your pictures are hauntingly real. I lived in South Dakota for a year and it's so desolate and lonesome at times. You really captured that in your pictures.
ReplyDeleteGod bless the farmers! Great quilt, love the red.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Very impressive to get a quilt top made at the same time as travelling!
ReplyDeleteI like the quilt a lot - there's something really pleasing about the contrast between the blue strips and the red rectangles - and love the spot you found for your 'on location' quilt shoot. You have definitely been covering a lot of ground!
ReplyDeleteI'm doing some deja-vu-ing with you. I'm working on the same pattern right now and pretty soon we'll be heading out to Yellowstone--no camping though. Thanks for sharing photos of your trip, I enjoyed them.
ReplyDeleteOh, y'all I loved this place so very much. First, of course, is having a sister there, but it amazes me how far one can see when there are no trees blocking the view. I love my trees but this is crazy distant.
ReplyDeleteKate, thanks for the compliment. I really was trying to capture that feeling in the photos.
Sylvia, I met a father/son team who deserves our admiration and gratitude. Like many other farmers, they go quietly about their work feeding the rest of us without our ever knowing their struggles. God bless them, indeed.
Karen and Kaja, we were hauling that poor little camper like it was on fire! The Bernina is my opportunity to wind down after sitting in the passenger seat for hours. May as well make a quilt or bag or something, right?
Rose, get ready for rocks and rivers and waterfalls and flowers and wild animals and much, much more. You will exhaust yourself looking and taking pictures. Not to mention the hiking and people-watching. Stimulating! (My one bit of advice? Wear closed-toe athletic shoes.)
Lovely quilt!
ReplyDelete