I looked for a quilt that could represent the day, and I think this one is fitting. First of all, the subject -- the joke was certainly on this little cowboy when his pet dog caused his horse to throw him.
Ride 'Em Cowboy
And I think the joke was on me when I was choosing fabrics for this one! What do you see when you look at all the black figures on the red plaid background in this border? Those are supposed to be horses, peeking over a corral fence. I loved the idea of a group of horses watching as their friend bucks off his cowboy. The silhouetted horse heads peeking over the fence was inspired by a painted motif on a chest of drawers designed by famed Western artist Thomas Canada Molesworth (1890-1977).
In the furniture version, the image was easy to read even though the fence was implied instead of being painted into the design. I tried to interpret the design for my quilt in the same way, using the darker red plaid line as my "fence," with the horses' noses poking over the edge. If I concentrate on the top border of the quilt, I can see a line of horses, some in pairs, watching the action. But I think the image got too hard to read when I arranged the horse heads around the other three borders, even though I carefully cut the border fabric so that I could use that dark red plaid line as the fence. You have to kind of cock your head and squint....
I'm thinking that I should have appliquéd a fence and some fence posts in the border. Live and learn!
The plaids look like fence posts. I think you should have put the horses all with their ears up and their necks down and it would have been perfect. It's pretty perfect right now.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun piece!
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