Cave in Yellowstone ~~ an art quilt FINISHED!

A couple of years ago we visited Yellowstone National Park and much of the Great Northwest from the Dakotas to Montana and points south all the way back to Louisiana. (The post marking the beginning of that trip is here.) Although we have visited over half of the States, the beauty of our country amazes me. And I hope we live to visit the ones that are unbuttoned on our Across America map.

The beauty of the West, especially Yellowstone, has really stayed with me. I love looking at the photos and decided a while back that I needed to create an art quilt that would capture some of the beauty of those mountains.

 This is the sixth art quilt in this series. Because they are hand quilted with little space between the lines, it takes quite some time to complete one. Nevertheless, I really like this one. 

The yellow colors and striations, the darkness of small caves and rock shelters, peaks against a brilliant sky are all part of what I had hoped to capture in this quilt. 

Other pieces in the series: 
Indigo Dusk
Sunset in Utah
Big Sky in Montana
Southwest Strata
Louisiana Swamp at Sunset

I am enjoying making these art quilts and am not sure I've gotten it out of my system. In fact, I have the next one planned. Want a sneak peak this week?

Sunset in Utah ~~ finished!

I have been enjoying working on some small hand-quilted pieces lately. They take as much time as they take. There's no pressure to get anything a certain way because I just quilt it the way I put it together: improvisationally and intuitively what might be a straight line of stitching today, could be a curve tomorrow. Everything depends on the mood and moment of having the needle in hand.

While we were traipsing around the Midwest, we visited Salt Lake City, Utah, then moseyed down Hwy. 191, mostly homeward, with day breaks at Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. Lots of beautiful scenery in those wild places, along with sand and cacti and sunsets. When I think of Utah, I fondly remember the pink and purple sunsets and wanted to capture that in a small quilt. Still drawing on my memories, this is my rendition. 

After I framed this piece, I hung it on the thread board (upside-down!) where I could see it and remember to take photos at some point. I liked the way it contrasts with the thread and decided to grab one picture here. It turns out that getting close-ups while it was hanging here was quite easy, so I clicked away.

The lines of stitching are meant to help move the eye and also to suggest the floating clouds and sky. Some lines follow the shapes defined by the colors. Others move in organic waves.

While I kept the thread colors true to the fabric colors--purple on purple, pink on pink--I didn't match the fabrics exactly. In fact, dark and light thread mingle and shift to mimic the movement of clouds.

I remember the colors starting out with the darkest pinks gliding above my head and gradually getting lighter as they turn into lavender purples. Streaks of rich, deep purple breaking through.

Of course, this is my sense of the natural beauty of the sky. If you were to look at a photograph of this precise moment, you would probably see something different. Although I took a photo, I can't find it. 

What do you think? Honestly, of course. Does this rendering feel like a desert sunset?

Southwest Strata ~~ Finish

I've been working on this art quilt ever since I finished the first art piece sometime in early December. I planned this one on the way home from the Southwest. The mountainsides are massive rock and dirt of different colors, khaki and brown, sometimes pink changing to an orange-y pink or yellow, depending on the sun and the soil or rock. 

I was hoping to capture some of the levels of color, but also the feeling that the layers are stacked, compressing one on another, which they are, of course. To achieve that look of compression, I slipped small, thin, pieces of darker colors between the larger ones. Then I used darker thread to extend the shapes going from on top of the small rock to the smaller side. The bottom of this photo shows the thin lines of thread "pressure." 

I also wanted the feeling that big boulders had fallen or moved, but have been in their current location for thousands of years.

Using the darker thread again, I chopped boulders into rounded pieces and placed them so that they interrupt a layer or two. Again using dark thread, I created lines for movement and additional color.

Google stock images

The "real" mountains have definite shapes, but to see the shapes one has to look at them from a great distance. When you're right next to the mountain, it becomes a blurred shape that shows lots of color and detail. The bands of color are thick and long going across the entire mountain, but broken up with fallen boulders, deep caves and indentations, and protruding chunks of mountain still standing after soil and boulders around it have fallen or moved. 

This piece is meant to show the side of a mountain that is so close a viewfinder can capture only a part of it. 

When I decided to take photographs of "Southwest Strata" the light was almost perfect. I looked around for hard, squarish surfaces, and found most were underfoot. The brick floor of our patio, the mosaic fire pit, and the rusty medal table all seemed to have just the right color and shapes. 

I left the leaves on the fire pit just for fun interest. I know, the piece of art should carry all the interest, but I couldn't resist. 

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Link Ups!

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!) 

AHIQ

Home from the West

Four Corners Monument (Google Maps screen capture)

Our whirlwind tour of the Great Northwest ended on Saturday as we pulled into the driveway.  The real end came on Thursday afternoon, however. We were driving through the Navajo Nation Reservation and made a quick stop at Four Corners, which is the only place in the U.S. where four states meet: Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. We took a quick picture, did a little shopping at the craft booths and were off again.

Richard and I standing on the marker

As we continued the drive, we decided that we'd had enough. Of course, we both had known it for a few days. There comes a point when we just get enough of the traveling. Richard does not know how to unwind. He is a mover. Always doing something. 

It's the reason that I don't have to drive. He can't sit in the passenger seat because he has nothing to do. I entertain myself but his interests are not as easily adapted to sitting. Woodworking, mechanical interests, and fence-building do not travel well. I tried to drive a couple of hours on Friday, but he was miserable and so was I. Lesson learned, again. 

Today was almost as busy as vacation: I had a doctor's appointment, a guild meeting, and new prescriptions to fill. 

All is well and I enjoyed the meeting very much. Brenda, one of our members, demonstrated how to decoupage fabric on almost anything. How about her adorable frog planter? Isn't this fun?

Only two of us had something to share but look at these pretty quilt tops. They are ready to go to the long-arm quilter. I really like the pattern on this pink one. It may have to go on the to-do list. Ha! I was the other person to share, but you'll have to wait for that because I haven't taken pictures. 


I did, however, take a picture of cute Miss Milly. Goodness she grew in one little short month. 

So how are things with you? Are you keeping up or have you fallen behind as badly as I have? We'll catch up again, right? 

Boy's Tractor Quilt ~~ a finish!

 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.

Richard acting like he owns "this big boy."

Long horns--the menfolk talked about these a lot!
You'd think they had driven them rawhide from Texas on horseback.

Canola--as in canola oil in a month or so

Flax--as in linen fabric and flax seed oil (it's being harvested
 in Idaho now so perhaps in ND soon)

Hay fields

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. 

Is southwest still west?

Side view of the church

It seems like it's been a week since my last post but it's actually only been four days. I guess Richard's crazy traveling routine has me confused. It seems that we drive until we're exhausted and then stop and die for a few hours. Of course, there's been a little sightseeing in all that traveling, but always in a rush to get back on the road.

One of the more fascinating places we visited was the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. I was amazed by the size of the campus and the abundance of flower beds. Not allowed to take any pictures inside the buildings, I had to satisfy myself with a few pictures of flowers and facades. I still had a great time, even with the ticking of the parking meter.

Brigham Young and the Pioneers completed by Cyrus Dallin in 1893.
source information: http://historytogo.utah.gov

History museum of the Mormon religion (I think)
but it's the waterfall on the building that I love.

A little man-made stream almost a block long but only about 4-5 feet wide.
Too bad there are no benches. I really wanted to plop down and rest in the shade.

No idea what these are but there were clusters of them lining the street.

Huge clusters of wonderfully scented roses 

And very pretty!

Blueberries! Ripe for eating. Clustered around the roses.

I could not resist taking a picture of this building--so
quaint in comparison to the other huge structures

 Have you been to Salt Lake City or the Mormon Tabernacle? If so, what was your favorite feature? If not, what in today's post interests you about the area?