Oklahoma Windsong
You never know where you will find inspiration for your next project. This quilt began when my husband and I were traveling through Nebraska and came upon a windmill farm. I spent at least 30 minutes photographing these windmills. I was fascinated by the variety and beauty of the rotating forms.
Windmills dot the landscape in Oklahoma's countryside. With this as a starting point, I wanted to create a view of my home state as I remember it from my childhood.
The process of construction of my quilt began with a great hand dyed fabric that already had the feeling of movement and of windswept skies. I chose many different fabrics to portray the color changes in the vanes of the windmill. These were applied raw edge to the background.
Scissortail Flycatchers are the Oklahoma state bird and were a natural addition to this typical summer scene. The shadows and light reflections were very interesting to investigate. The birds were constructed in much the same way the windmill vanes were, but with a bit of thread embellishment to give depth and definition. As a final step, small touches of paint enhanced the realism of the forms.
When I began the quilting, I wanted to accent the directional movement of the clouds and the sunshine as well as the currents of air caused by the windmill blades movement.
This quilt has been recognized with several honors including, my home quilt guild's Viewer' Choice award, First place - First Time Entry - Wall quilt AQS Paducah, and Omnigrid's Future of Quilting award IQF in Houston. It was also featured in the AQS 2013 calendar (I told my husband I was
Miss October), and it also appeared in the IQF 2013 Festival Magazine.
