It is my day on the Arizona blog tour! As I mentioned in my last post, Arizona is a Limited Edition line from Art Gallery Fabrics. Art Gallery chose 3 designers to share their vision. Arizona is the vision of April Rhodes!
When I was asked to participate in the blog tour, I started brain-storming ideas for my makes. I have spent some time in our wonderful American Southwest! When I was a child, my family traveled west to visit my uncle in Los Angeles. It was a car trip in a huge 1964 station wagon...from Ohio to California. No air conditioning...mom and dad and three kids...pulling a pop-up camper!
It was awesome! We hit all the hot spots along the way...
that's me with the cheesy smile...at the Grand Canyon.
I learned so much about our western country on that trip...and gained such an appreciation and compassion for the Native American culture. I recall stopping at a gas station in New Mexico. Almost every gas station had a souvenir shop selling bad knock-offs of Native American culture. A tourist attempted to take a picture of an older woman. She was obviously a member of a Native Tribe, but she ducked behind a post when the man pointed his camera at her. I was told that she didn't want her photograph taken because this would steal her soul. Even as a child, I knew there was more to these people and their culture than the trinkets being sold on every corner.
Many years later, I traveled again to the Southwest to stay with my sister in Oklahoma. Her husband was stationed at an Air Force base in Oklahoma and I spent many summers living with her while on vacation from school.
Not only did I learn more about the Native Tribes in the area, but about the women of the prairie.
I was shocked when I saw my first sod house!
This is actually a much nicer version of the sod house I saw! The one I visited was not nearly so swanky!
I could not believe the fortitude of the pioneers who traveled West. These were people who left their familiar surroundings behind in hopes of a better life. Even as rough as the sod house seemed, it was their home and their piece of land.
They were Sooners!
They raced to claim a piece of the "Unassigned Land". Of course, these lands were opened up for settlement because of the Indian Appropriations Act. Seems like a nice title for an Act that moved the Native Americans from their land to reservations.
The west is a huge expansive area...it's unfortunate a better solution could not be found.
Well, I could go on and on about my love for the American Southwest and my appreciation of our Native American people and their culture...
they truly are a National Treasure.
I decided on two projects for the Arizona blog tour...
A small quilt...
actually a very large version of an Album Block...
I replicated the Arizona as it appears on the selvedge of the fabric.
it is quilted by machine in the ditch and then hand quilted.
I had another idea rattling around in my brain!
A pillow...similar to this one...
But, of course, I wanted it to reflect the American Southwest...
what is more iconic than the image of a longhorn!
I hope I captured it...
This is the final week of the blog tour!
But you still have a few chances to win your very own fat quarter bundle of Arizona!
For my giveaway you will have two chances to win....here's what you need to do....
1. Become a follower of Molly Flanders and leave a comment here
and for a second chance
2. Become a follower of my Instagram and leave another comment here that you did! There is a link to my Instagram on the right or you can find my account under MARYSDUGAN
Please be sure that you are not a No Reply Blogger or leave an email address in your comment.
I will close the giveaway on Thursday May 15th.
Best of luck!
xo mary
