International Quilt Study Center, Lincoln, NE 08-05-14

This is a look back at July 24th when I visited the IQSC for few hours.  They had quite a variety of quilts displayed: thirties and older quilts, quilts from Pakistan and examples from other eastern countries, and several contemporary art quilts. 

 

I've always admired Joy's work, but she is not very prolific and I have not seen many of her quilts in-the-fabric.

Sue Benner works with many styles, maybe that is why I enjoy her work so much.  Always something new and original.  I love the layers in this piece.

 I am not familiar with this artist, but I was impressed with this quilt.  Her technique reminds me of both Regina Benson and Karen Rips.  It is great to hear that IQSC is expanding their interests into the "new" quilts of the late 20th C and early 21st C.

 

Since I had just been to the Quilters Hall of Fame locate in Marie Webster's 19th C home in Marion, Indiana, I was interested in the display they had of her quilt designs and ephemera.

From Ladies' Home Journal, Jan 2012

There is a smaller size of this quilt design at the QHOF that was made by Sandy Sutton who lives here in Orange County.  Sandy was at the celebration for Ruth McDowell in Marion - what a small world it is! 

Fabulous quilting

More of Marie Webster's  designs.

 Antique Star of Bethlehem and Sue Benner's "Cellular Structure VIII". 

 

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A prairie story 08-04-14

In fourth grade kids learn about their home state, so I learned about Oregon.  And my imagination was taken with the Oregon Trail that led so many people to the new territory and, eventually, state.  I read lots of books about pioneers, both fiction and non-fiction.  Some fascinating memoirs from those who had been children on the Trail.  It was all so adventurous and exciting - imagine walking all the way across the country and seeing wild animals roaming, Indians in their natural culture, and, finally, the mountains after months of flat rolling land.  I've often wondered if these memories gave me the wanderlust to travel. 

 

At the end of the 1960's my husband and I took a two month tour of the country, driving north to Oregon and then east to see some of the sights along the route of the pioneers.  In my reading I knew that Chimney Rock was an important landmark; this spire of rock towering above the trail gave the travelers encouragement in a land with few outstanding features.  The day we were to travel the stretch of US26 from Wyoming into Nebraska I was prepared with maps, camera, binoculars and high anticipation.  There are lots of large bluffs along the way so the road follows the North Platte River which provided a pathway for the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, the California Cutoff Trail and even the Pony Express route.  Not far beyond Scottsbluff, Nebraska, with the bluffs on either side is Chimney Rock.  I waited and searched as we drove along the highway.  After we had gone further than it showed on the map I knew we had missed it, or it was gone, worn away by the weather.  My husband turned around and we went back toward Scottsbluff.   I still didn't see any towering spur of rock, one that the pioneers traveled toward for weeks.  We turned around again and suddenly, there it was.  A little stump of rock atop a sloping base, pointing to the sky, only about 300 feet high!  It took me miles to figure out the discrepancy; the pioneers walking or riding in mule-drawn or oxen-drawn wagons traveled fewer than ten miles a day; on the modern highway in our powerful automobile we were doing 65-70 miles per hour.  So, in an hour we traveled as far as they did in a week!  I had a lot more respect for Chimney Rock after that revelation, but I had never driven that way again. 

 

On this Road Trip I detoured off of I-80, up US-26 just to see that stone tower again and visit the new interpretive center built a few years ago.  It was 102F when I returned to my car and the wind was rattling the dry grass and bushes.  I stood there for just a few minutes and imagined what it must have been like for the pioneers to have finally arrived at this way point in their long struggle to reach the Western lands.  But I couldn't imagine it, I'm sure I would have fallen by the wayside long before I reached this point of the journey.  Then I got in my air conditioned car and drove off in 70F comfort.

Chimney Rock in the distance.  

 

Sign directing to interpretive center.

Parked in the lot - to prove I was there!

Very dry - telegraph weed (Heterotheca grandiflora) against the sky.  A plant that may not have been there in pioneer days, but is everywhere in the country now.  It does "telegraph" seeds as it dries.

Chimney Rock (approx. 300" tall)

Chimney Rock Interpretive Center with the Rock in the background.

The rattlesnakes were surely there back in the day. 

Lots of sagebrush and wild grasses.

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Flowers 08-01-14

It was a most unusual Roadside Rest Stop and I am not sure if it was in Missouri or Indiana.  I'd spent the night in Columbus, MO, and was on my way to Marion, IN, when I stopped for a walk around and to visit the facilities.  Someone has obviously spent a good deal of time tending the flowerbeds - they were spectacular. 

 

  I took my traditional picture of my car showing the license plate, just to prove I really was on a trip.  Unlike the landing on the moon. .

 

 

Coneflower with bee.

Coneflower sans bee.

Nicotiana (tobacco plant)

I have no idea what this is (see below) - Lobelia and Pinks in the lower right.

 

This is how this strange plant grows.  Anyone know what it is?

Friend Deb McKay identifies this as Amaranth - Splendens Perfecta.

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Wordless Wednesday 07-31-14

 

Indiana Roadside Rest  July 2014

 

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Thinking of Corky 07-29-14

Corky was born on this day in 1996 and died on November 17, 2013.  I miss him more than I can express, but I look at his pictures frequently and they make me smile and remember him with love.

2003 This always makes me smile - vicious Corky protecting his mommy? 

No, it is just a huge yawn.

His daddy sent this picture.  I would caption it, "The things they make me do are embarrassing."

"Let's go this way." on the 4th of July.

Sometimes he would be asleep and want to stretch out, but was too tired to actually get up and out of his bed.  So, he was half in and half out and sound asleep.

He always loved his stroller which he needed more and more as the years went by. But it made him smile and everyone who saw him in it smiled also.

 Sometimes he would get in a snit because I wouldn't do what he wanted me to. In this case, go to bed and turn out the light.

A vet told me once that sleeping was what dogs do a majority of the time. Corky slept a lot, but always kept track of what everyone else was doing.

This was taken just a year before he died.  He was usually a very happy active dog and this shows him as he ran.  Taken by Stephanie.

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Home again, Home again, jiggety jog....

...or however the old nursery rhyme goes.  I won't do a blog  tonight, unless I wake up in the wee hours and can't go back to sleep.  It was a great trip (4988 miles) and I appreciate all the good friends who kept track of me and worried about me.  I'll have more trip pictures and comments over the coming week.  Love, Del-at-home

Had at least a bit of "hanging rain" every day.  This is in Kansas on US-54.

Road Trip - Indiana Rock Springs, WY to Cedar City, UT 07-27-14

Rock Springs is infested with bulls!  They are made from plywood and have only four pieces - a horns, body with head, one pair of front legs and one pair of back legs.  Simple, but bull like.  I couldn't find out anything about them, but I had very little time in the town.   They are very colorful and add a little surprise to the streets.  I suspect they are a fund raiser where people bid on the different cows - maybe sponsored by the CofC.  But then, this weekend was the Fair and the bulls may have had  something to do with that.

 

The first view from the street that comes off the Interstate! 

From the other side with a more presentable visage.

Some of the bulls are identified with businesses, this JCPenney's bull has a glint in his eye.

Others don't seem to be identified with anything, but all are done by amateur painters.

Here you can clearly see the four pieces that make up each bull.

This one is Appleby's - clever.

Backsides all lined up.

Front sides all lined up - love the Appleby's teeth!

 

Other than this excitement I just drove - totaling exactly the miles of yesterday - 442 miles.

 

To "make my day" I met a blog friend for lunch in Orem, Utah.  Beverly Hart and I read each other's blogs and we had lunch together once before when I was driving through the Salt Lake area.  She is just a very nice lady with lots of talent - quilts and handmade soap that I have seen so far.  She once lived in and has friends in the area of Brea, Yorba Linda, Anaheim and Placentia, so she enjoys the images and info I sometimes post of those places.  We ate at Olive Garden and it was very good - I haven't been for years.  We had "small plates" AND a fabulous chocolate dessert, which we split.  I doubt that either of us could eat a whole piece, it is so rich.  And so delicious.  We had about a two hour visit before I was back on I-15 southbound.  I'm staying at HIE in Cedar City, Utah, tonight.  May make it home tomorrow, but I do want to stop at a few more Row by Row shops.  Many stores closed on Sunday in this very Mormon state, maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow. 

 

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