Inspiration for Prairie Potholes -Harvest

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.

Prairie Potholes Rural View

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.

Canned Cole Slaw Recipe

Coleslaw to can or freeze

1 medium head cabbage
1 large carrot1 green pepper
1 small onion1 teaspoon salt SYRUP
1 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 cups sugar (we used ¾ cup for better results)
1 teaspoon celery seeds (we liked less seeds use ¼ tsp)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds (we liked less seeds use ¼ tsp)

Shred together vegetables. Add the salt. Let stand 1 hour. Drainwater from vegetables.

Boil syrup ingredients together for 1minute, cool. Add syrup to vegetables.

Pack into quart jars andprocess in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes, or put into freezercontainers and freeze. Leftovers may be frozen. This slaw may bedrained before use and mayonnaise added, or used as is.

Dede’s notes: 4/19/08 used 6 one pound bags of coleslaw mix with carrots. Added one large red bell pepper, diced, and one medium sweet onion, diced. Triple the syrup, but double may have been enough. Got 9 pints. GOOD STUFF.

NOTE: Dede gave me permission to share her recipe with the world, this is very easy slaw to can we haven't tired freezing it yet as we always can it instead.

Prairie Potholes No. 15



In progress still. My 6500 was giving me fits last night so I didn't make it very far, I'm guessing here was something lodged in the tension discs. Ergo one flower mostly done and several more to go before she's done. Copies of yellow coneflowers taken by yours truly to ensure I get the petals close to being correct, this is after all a thread sketch.

Prairie Potholes No. 15

The quilt needs to be stitched to the canvas base, however I've decided to add some beads and other embellishements to the surface first.

I'm thinking of adding a treatment to my base canvas, well the edges anyway, like the canvas in the above picture. I started the above piece two years ago and got wrapped up in moving the shop and never finished the thing. It has vintage paint by number pots glued to the surface, somewhere I have around here I have the images and collage items to add to the surface and then it gets placed inside of an altered clock body.

The thing about hanging onto a piece long enough is eventually you realize that it needs more and in this case PP No. 15 needs dimension, dimension in the form of beads etc. The base canvas covered frame needs more paint, I missed a few areas on the edging where it's most likely to be seen.
For some reason Blogger is really bent on loading all of my photos up sideways today, arrrghhhh!

Prairie Pothole No. 15


I was never happy with the way PP No. 15 & 14 looked hanging flat against the wall they just looked ackward like something was missing.

So while at Hobby Lobby today and saw that they sold pre-stretced 14x14 inch canvas'
So decided to purchase on to see how PP No. 15 would look stretched, needless to say the canvas is drying right now I painted it and I plan to stretch the quilt to the frame later tonight.

Horse Manure





We picked up a load of aged horse manure last night to put on the east garden. First we put down a layer of chipped leaves and compost, then a layer of garden lime, then the manure, then another layer of lime. By the time we were done tilling up the remaining sod in the side yard, to make one continious garden space, it was too dark and too late to chip the remaining leaves to put on top of the manure! This is my first year lasanga gardening.

New Garden Space

South looking north, about 45 feet, maybe more, for veggies, herbs, and flowers.

I grew rather tired of the rabbits destroying my grapevines, like the local thief wasn't bad enough, so the grape arbor is now inside of the fenced area.

The fence runs along the sidewalk which will soon have thyme and other herbs growing to fill in the space.

Above - looking north towards the garden shed. Below - looking south towards the front porch and the street.


We enlarged the east garden combining it with the south garden beside the front porch. Dh will build a raised bed, octagon shaped, to go around the crab apple tree under which we will plant currants and goose berries.

No more fence hopping for me, John's also building a gate for the garden as well. One of the blessings of no longer having a large dog means I don't have to have a large yard for the large dog and it also means less mowing!!! Now to finish planning the guilds to go around the trees .

Studio Clean Up

Dh and I have been spending time cleaning the attic, laying down new floor, while it snows yet again, all of this cleaning has made me take a hard look at my studio. I no longer have a design wall AND I no longer have a space onto which to hang artwork.

This is NOT a good thing!

SO I'm looking around and trying to decide what I can live without, what can be sent to the attic to live with the bats and squirrels - seriously we have a mammal problem in our attic - and what is an absolute must for my studio. At this point I think it's important to have some of my finished pieces in and about the house so I can see where I have been, and what I have achieved.