Tuesday, September 30, 2014

little change up.



This is a photo taken across the Clarks Fork River from our cabin.  You can see the Clarks Fork River in the front of the pine trees.  Our hope is to retire in a few years and live on this property full time.  We often sit on that porch, drink a cool one, and are amazed at the awesome view of our front yard.  This photo was taken November/ December of 2013.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Running Wild

Running Wild 
This is another thread painted quilt.  I gave this one to my son John, so it lives in Anchorage. 
It represents the wild horses that roam the peaks just outside of Cody.  Every once in a while you can actually see these horses from the highway between Cody and Greybull.  

Monday, September 15, 2014

Tactile Challenge 2014

"Flowers at dusk"

This quilt is another thread painted quilt it measures 18" X 24".  I finished  this for the TAGY   Tactile Challenge. We chose 2 techniques last December and were to use those or 2 of our own choosing,  with one being a technique that we might have never used or are not comfortable using.  The two I chose in December were beading and appliqué. I did both of those, I still do not like beading.  I did choose another, I chose to do the binding with a flange, but this binding/flange is a bit different than most.  It is not separate from the binding, it is in fact the binding.  Finished this…  this was started about 8 years ago.  I find it interesting how my own techniques have changed.  Unfinished  this quilt was not totally thread painted,  it now is with the exception of the white flowers, they have some fabric showing through. I do not like how the bottom of the quilt looks, the grass is odd to me but, Good to have another unfinished project completely done!!

Monday, September 8, 2014

Hiding Out in Old Trail Town

This is my Old Trail Town Challenge.  TAGY members went to Old Trial Town here in Cody a year ago last May.  We all took photos and from those we made our OTT challenges.  I had stayed a bit later than most that day,  I noticed the rabbits and bunnies started to come out.  So that is what I chose as the subject matter in this challenge.  I tried very hard to use a boardwalk or an old wheel as the backdrop for the bunny, but it never looked right.  Old Trail Town is full of old log cabins so I used the quilters traditional log cabin as the backdrop, added the rocks and a little grass around the bunny.  This quilt and 15 others will debut at Yellowstone Quilt Fest this week.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Speaking with Magpies

Speaking with Magpies a book of poems by James McGrath is the inspiration  for this thread painting.

  Speaking with Magpies

In their nests of woven twigs,
they hold lost rings,
old letters, duck feathers,
cat fur, identification tags, from neighborhood dogs,
broken talons of owls,
Tafoya's lost keys.

They sit on fence posts gathering stories
voices of spotted towhees,
shadows of red-tailed hawks,
passing clouds
whispering hisses of snakes, 
twistings of lizards,
the agony of polluted lichens.

Their tail feathers,
longer than their lumpy bodies, 
are usually frayed from leaving messages,
poems in the road dust and sandbars,
arguments in the apple trees.

Their stories are carried
from orchard to orchard,
across mountains,
through windows,
held in the laps of children, 
caught in the coats of bears,
etched in the spots of lynx.

Magpies are the Mevelana Jelaheddin Rumi
of the natural world, waiting
to give their hoards away
to those who listen to their chattering wisdom,
who write poems or sit on stones
loving the world as it is.
                       
                 10 November 2004