PRAIRIE AESTHETIC

aes-thet-ic: noun, adjective: concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty

 Growing up in the Great American Desert also known as the Colorado prairie and being a depression baby has greatly influenced my aesthetic as to what is beautiful. 

 I'm sure that is why I'm so attracted to wind-ravaged old, timber structures; dilapidated fences; and piles of rocks.

Even as a child, I was fascinated with the local structures built of rocks -- the building material so widely available on the prairies.  

My first attraction to rock buildings was, as a grade-schooler, our local swimming pool bath house.  This was my first interest in architecture also --- how can they build a structure out of rocks, my second-grade mind wondered?????

Rocky Ford swimming pool - 1940s

Today, I like to search out the WPA projects that provided work for the unemployed of the depression era in the 1930s.  To me, the rock fences and structures they built are amazing.

Rock wall and maintenance shed,
 Lake Side Cemetery, Canon City, Colorado

Orator's stand at Hillside
Cemetery, Rocky Ford, Colorado

Mineral Palace Park, Pueblo, Co.  Rock bridge
built by WPA project in 1938

When we owned this house as adults, I could look out every day and see this pillar.

Pillar entrance to Reservoir Hill, Rocky Ford

Rough timber structures and fences, peeling paint, and old iron fences from another era can still be found today.  Amazing that they have survived the wind and dirt for this long.

Royal Gorge History and Museum Center
Canon City

Original school building from 1877
Rocky Ford

Greenwood Cemetery, Canon City

These very old structures were found on my family's 1880 homestead. 

Out building

Abandoned sheep wagon

Original corral fence.

Adobe structures are interesting because of the different colored soils of the area.

Painted adobe original homestead cabin

Garden Park adobe schoolhouse, Fremont County

WPA project horse barns, Arkansas Valley
Fairgrounds, Rocky Ford

These are just a few of the thousands of photos I have taken starting in 1991 of my prairie aesthetic.  My aesthetic also extends to the beauty of God's magnificent creations and man's architectural wonders.  I'm intrigued with the juxtaposition between His creations, the work of my predecessors, and my meager efforts. 

I'm blessed to find such joy in my time and place!

That is me playing in the dirt and rocks
 discovering my aesthetic- 1939.  
I'm not sure I was too excited
 about the dirt; but, oh, those rocks!!!

 

LA LA LAND

This is not my usual quilt project, but I needed a break from my ordinary.  I had my doubts about my ability to do a landscape collage, as my 6th grade teacher told me that I would never be an artist because I couldn't draw.  She said my cow looked like a pig! But, I was interested in experimenting with raw-edge applique, so I gave it a shot.

All of the fabrics came out of my scrap bins --- I wasn't going to spend any money on this experiment.

THE STATS: La La Land, 2022, 11"x14", Raw-edge machine applique, machine embroidery, machine quilted.

I won't explain the reason for the name. Let's just say that it came out of a long stay in a hospital with pain-medication dreams. 

I feel it is sometimes important to show my failures (or as I like to call them -- learning experiences).  Not a lot of success with this experiment.  What I learned:   #1  I will stick with traditional applique methods.   #2  A bad dream is not a good inspiration for a quilt.   #3  A good border can sometimes half-way redeem a quilt.  #4  It's a good thing that I remember not to include a cow on a quilt!

WILD CHILD

 Most quilts are either "The Good, The Bad (colloquial for fabulous), or The Ugly".  This quilt definitely falls in the last category.  I have debated since 2016 if I should even finish it.  But then I envisioned it in the far distant future of a doctoral graduate student writing his/her dissertation on the world's ugliest fabric; and when it was researched, that fabric was hidden in this quilt.  So, in the interest of scientific research, I finished the quilt.  Here is my "Wild Child".

I thought the "fussy cutting" might help the quilt, but I don't think redemption happened. So, in the end, why not use the ugliest fabric in my stash for the binding?

THE STATS:  Wild Child, 2016-2022, 40"x40", Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted

Can you pick your favorite ugliest fabric?

 It's a lot more enjoyable to be a quiltmaker than a research scientist.

PLAIN, PLANE GEOMETRY

 Sometimes a geometric quilt design just pops into my head --- that was the case with this quilt!

THE STATS: Plain, Plane Geometry, 2022, 22"x22", Machine pieced, Machine quilted.

I've always loved geometry!

SPANGLED STARS

Finished in time for the summer patriotic holidays.

I'm on my mission to finish up some old quilt tops that never made it to the quilting stage. This top is "Spangled Stars" from 2015.  My original design was in my book about signature quilts and called "Keepsake Star" and was made in 2001.  In 2021, I also used the design to make "Keepsake Star Relived". 

THE STATS:  Spangled Stars, 2015-2022, 30"x30", Machine pieced, Machine quilted.

I'm still fond of this design based on an old traditional star block.

KEEPSAKE STAR, 2001

KEEPSAKE STAR RELIVED, 2021