Saturday, June 30, 2012

Embroidery Journal Project - June

This month for the Embroidery Journal Project, the central image is a dream catcher. I chose this design because it reminds me of trip that Sophia, Olivia, and I took to southwestern Minnesota to visit Pipestone.


In Pipestone, there is the Pipestone National Monument which has many quarries where Native Americans are actively working on them. When we visited, there must have been a lot of rain recently because the quarries were flooded and were being drained.

Quarry
Quarry that was being drained of rain water.

Inside the visitor center, there were displays about items that the Native Americans made from pipestone.

Pipes from Various Tribes

Examples of pipes carved from pipestone.

There were other beautiful items created from beads and leather.

Pipe Bags
Pipe bags that were used to carry pipes.

After we looked at the visitor center, we went on a walk around the area. They were re-establishing the prairie, so there were lots of prairie plants and birds singing among the grasses and flowers.

Walking through the Prairie
Olivia and Sophia walking on the trail through the prairie.

Another symbol on the quilt square this month is a flower. Throughout southeastern South Dakota, we saw lots of pasque flowers (South Dakota's state flower). They were in pale shades of pink and cream.

A representation of the pasque flower we saw in South Dakota.

The red feather represents the many colorful birds that are visiting our feeders. There was one young male cardinal who was just starting to get his brilliant red feathers. He was at the feeder and was flapping his wings continuously.


The monarch butterfly represents the monarch caterpillars we have been raising indoors. Olivia and I found a couple of caterpillars earlier in late-May or early-June. They have been eating the milkweed leaves we provided for them for food.


An embroidered monarch butterfly.

On June 28th, the first butterfly emerged. We are waiting for the second one to emerge.

The center part of the dream catcher.

This quilt square marks the sixth one that I've done this year. All the squares are on the same white fabric, and use cotton embroidery floss. By the end of the year, I will have 12 quilt squares - each representing the highlights of a particular month. I'm excited to put them together in December.

1 comment:

Rita said...

These have been great and will make a splendid book of memories when you are done at the end of the year. :)