Where the Buffalo Roam

Buffaloes were one of the first things that came to mind when I heard the word "prairie."  I think of the hundreds of thousands of American Bison that used to roam across America's prairie's and how we over hunted them and are just now working to raise the numbers of buffalo across the country.

My quilt is a reversed appliqued buffalo silhouette on a free form pieced prairie.

Gulf Oil Spill

Do you remember those Matinees that we all attended as children on a nice Saturday afternoon? The headlines were boldly placed on the movie screen as they declared the state of our world in a bigger than life manner. This is what I thought of when I heard the word Matinee. The Gulf Oil Spill is bigger than life news, and the pictures of the Pelicans sitting in the vast oil spill is enough to tug at your heart strings. To watch the story unfold every night on the 6 P.M. news made my soul cry. I just could picture those words flashing across the movie screen declaring the state of our world on that fateful day, April 20, 2010. When, are we as a people going to learn that the world is vulnerable and we are stewards of it? It is up to us to care for that which the Lord gave us.

I did a photo transfer and then machine quilted it in grey threads. Using Setacolor paints I highlighted the eye of the Pelican and some on the wings. I hope the solomeness of the picture will speak to our hearts.

In the Likeness of Green

I took a class from Libby Liehman this spring, and discovered the circle atttachment for the Bernina machine. I decided that I would use it to make my "Green" quilt. After piecing the background in different green fabrics, I used multiple green threads to make different size circles.

Prairie Grass

The images of the prairie with the grasses swaying in the wind is what I wanted to capture in this little quilt. I selected a piece of my hand dyed fabric, and placed grasses from my yard in a pleasing manner, and used dried corn silk at the base. I put some bird feathers to replicate a pea hen in hiding. Over the top of this I used tulle, and machine quilted the entire quilt. I thought the grasses would fall apart when quilted, but so far it hasn't. I used sissel twine for the edge treatment. I achieved what I was trying to do, and am happy with the results. This entire quilt reminds me of my trip last summer to the Badlands and South Dakota.