Tuesday, October 10, 2017

ESCAPE TO SOUTH WEST SOUTH DAKOTA!



As many of you know I'm very busy taking care of my elderly parents, working and helping with our grandsons. A few weeks ago "the stars all lined up" and my husband and I took our RV and headed West starting with the Bad Lands.



We love the rugged land. Desolate but beautiful in it's own way.



Driving through the Bad Lands you encounter all types of wildlife, in this picture we have prong horn antelope and of course, prairie dogs.

 


This was the view from our campsite at sunset.
 


Traveling in the Fall is such a wonderful time (if you don't have children), it's cooler, way less crowded so you get the best camping spots and no lines any where!


Camp set up, dinner finished and I'm enjoy the view while hand quilting on my solar eclipse block.



Two days later as we head out of the park I collect dye plants along the road. Wild sunflowers,



rabbit bush, and sage.



Next stop the Black Hills, our campsite on a mountain lake.



Spent a couple days here, I loved, loved the peacefulness of it all!
Hand quilting on my wool flower dyed quilt.



Lots of mica in the Black Hills,



I collected some to use as embellishments on wall hangings.



Dye plants ready, sage, juniper branch, aspen branch, rabbit bush and sun flowers.



I brought my dye pot along, soaked the wool in the mountain water over night,



laid out the plants,



rolled them up and steamed them for a couple hours. Then left them to set a couple of days in the pot.


Next day we left and went to Spearfish Canyon.
It's the most beautiful canyon I've ever seen. The road goes through the canyon following a mountain stream.



So beautiful, parts of Dancing with the Wolves movie was filmed there.



This cliff was at the end of the movie in the winter scene.



Our campsite,


with a creek running through it.



A short hike to rock cliffs to photograph my block,



filling the moon in with lots of "moon texture", mountains, craters and lunar rover tracks left from man's first visit!



Next morning time to wash out the wool, in a stream with a waterfall, oh my gosh I love it here, I was not ready to go home.


On the way home is this huge sculpture of a Native American women with a morning star shawl.
The average person comes up to about the tops of her moccasins.



It's located at a rest stop on the top off a hill. At night it's light up with LED lights on all of the star points.





My favorite souvenir, the wool cloth printed with a aspen branch with leaves.

Thank you Sandy for showing us this area in 1996, we've been back several times and still love it just as much as we did then!

4 comments:

quilting Deb said...

Love, love, love the scenery!! So glad you had this chance to get away....sure it seems like years ago already, but glad for the chance nonetheless! Enjoy the pretty fall days, the colors and weather leaves so quickly! See you soon! Deb C

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pictures of your beautiful trip. The area is so spectacular! Love your moon block! Hugs !dn

Sue McQ said...

Kathy...I am new to your blog. Your workmanship is wonderful. Love the moon block (wool disc in the middle?) Do you ever sell your dyed fabrics? Looking forward to more of your blog.

Kathy -MIQuilter said...

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. Sue, the moon is indigo dyed wool. I have never sold my wool as it would be quite expensive due to the cost of the wool and the time dyeing it.

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