A couple of folks have asked me what my inspiration was it's very simple actually it is what I saw day in and day out as a kid growing up in the country. Every farm had grain bins, barns, some had silo's, etc. I started the Prairie Pothole Series sometime around 2003, made several nice pieces in 2005, and made several more in 2007, but they were always lacking something.
Last Sunday I had hubby take me for a country drive and with my handy trusty digital camera in hand I snapped some shots of farms etc., and came home and started stitching. What can I say while I long for a pure prairie teaming with buffalo, prairie chickens, elk, etc., that is NOT the world I grew up in. I grew up in a prairie filled with tiled fields, ravines, silos, grain bins, barns and elevated fuel tanks.
Todays kiddos are growing up with a reality of confinement houses in their view - that was NOT my reality~!
Anyway... watch for more from my machine as I have many pieces in progress from this idea now.
WIP No. 32 Now that my wet studio is cleaned up I can paint fabric once again, I made this piece today in celebration of having a surface to work on!!! 
4x6 inches
I didn't like these two pieces so I set them aside, with the advent of my new series Harvest, I decided to experiment and sure enough they needed some sketches as well. Lets just say I'm reviewing my entire Prairie Potholes Series now for it's potential to be changed!
Prairie Potholes Rural View - In progress they need something I'm just not sure what maybe a good nights sleep and NO interruptions in the morning will help??? John was in my studio while I was working I have to admit I did NOT appreciate being told I had to stop because he couldn't hear the woman on the phone, you don't want to know what I was thinking but I did keep it to myself.
My living room has turned into a wool room! Not for long though I have to clean the east bedroom and once it's cleaned I can move John's office out of the library and put my wool into the library with the rest of the left over inventory from the store - which isn't much these days. I'm hoping to sell the remaining fixtures etc., and soon. For now it's a good use of the space I just need to find room for my poor loom!
I have twelve pototao bin shelves now, these sit on top of a palett that sits over a gravel filled dirt area in our basement floor. That's Angel our sheltie in front of the bins.
Holes were drilled in the end boards of each bin shelf to aid in air flow, we used 1 x 2 inch fencing for the bin bottoms.
Dh stapled lathe to the bottom of the bins to make them easier to pull out and push back into place much like a dresser drawer.
He used 1 8 foot 2 x 4 to make each bin.
