West to Glacier

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I’m still re-visiting summer days in the dead of winter; we have wind chill advisories in many areas.  Here is a photo I took late last summer… one of personal favorites. I was on my way home from teaching in Big Fork, MT, hoping to get across the mountains before dark to avoid as many deer as possible.  Oh my, the weather had been so incredibly… spectacular all weekend long!  I had such a fun road trip, stopping to take pictures the whole way over.  It’s usually  four hours just to drive straight through, and I took almost 10 hours to get there, it was so beautiful!  I have some wonderful shots from all over, along the Swan River, Flathead Lake … but this one… the last one I took that day.  It’s special to me because it reminds me of my childhood, as a horse-crazy girl who wanted to be a race-horse jockey.  I nagged my parents until they finally caved in and got me a horse.  She was a PINTO too, and had one glass eye (a blue-clear eye), and her name was “Spook.”  We had such great rides, and made my childhood a sweet one in many ways. I’ve had a deep fondness for pinto ponies everywhere, ever since… Funny how this guy, met on the windy prairie, was a moment in time I won’t soon forget.  HE too, had a glass eye! I call him “Buddy” – as I stroked his nose, and he then followed me around as I snapped pictures!  I really wanted to get some close-ups of him, but he wouldn’t give me enough space! 
An unexpected friendship with a Painted Pony on the Prairie  — Rocky Mountain Front

 And here is the landscape quilt I had made prior to this weekend, as a sample for the classes I was teaching that very same weekend.  It is called “West to Glacier.” 

Commercial batik; all one piece in light yellow, green, and purpley-blue.  A bit of a “western” flair with a yarn that looks just like a rope or lasso.  I wanted to demonstrate to my students that a few very basic  drawn shapes… circles, curvy lines, straight lines, and basic straight stitching… all free motion, and ‘free drawing’ style, can result in a fun project that is abstract but also impressionistic, very personal, and creative!  I loved  creating this piece, as I remembered what it feels like to me when I see the prairie and those incredible Rocky Mountains … meet… collide… blend…and are completely… spectacular!

Bobbin Play, Paintstiks, threads and cords… To me,  “Purple Mountain’s Majesty” is in my backyard, Glacier Park …our Montana Treasure…  Green-blue for those incredibly clear and COLD mountain rivers…  light green for the green grasses, or newly planted spring wheat out on the windy prairie, and for the forest, and all the beauty surrounding us, everywhere…

 Simple details….. smooth, repetitive lines, meandering, reflecting the soft, gently sloping fields of wheat, summer fallow ground, and flat of the prairie in rich browns, and greens.

Yellow Gold for the ripening wheat… the grass turning in late fall… and a softly curved binding… not ‘square’ seemed be the perfect fitting touch…  EnJOY and may God Bless you as you… “plow” – and survive! through your winter.

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of His hands
~ Psalm 19:1

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