North of the River

North of the River - let me explain. I live in Liberty, MO, which is 15 minutes from downtown Kansas City. The greater Kansas City area is divided by the Missouri river - the Mighty Mo - which runs west to east. No matter what part of town you live in, you are automatically defined by this division. You either live south of the river or -you guessed it - north of the river. Also, since I am originally from North Dakota, I have an extra attachment to "north". The cover quilt, measuring 32" x 42", has a real "north woods" feel to it. It's made with various plaid flannels in tans, blues, greens, and golds. The gold Eight-Pointed Stars in the sky peek out from the mountains formed by blue & tan Log Cabin blocks. Between the mountains & the homestead fly a row of plaid Flying Geese. The log cabin and trees are wool applique and - if you consider "north" to be "up", as I do - this homestead sits north of the river, which is made using strips of various blue flannel plaids. On the other side of the river a little wool bear wanders among a wool appliqued forest. There are five additional wall quilts in this book ranging in size from 35" x 45" to 19" x 24". There is a scrappy flannel tote bag featuring a wool applique front panel, a wool pillow and folk art banner, and little log cabin pillows. And embroidery. Some of the most popular designs in this book are the five embroidered pillows. These pillows feature simple embroidery stitches, fully explained & illustrated, with pieced flannel borders. I don't call my work primitive - but we can call this work the most basic kind of embroidery -mistakes are allowed - we think it adds charm! To finish things off, parts of the embroidery designs are repeated on the back yoke of the denim shirt worn by my daughter, Jess.