My Mom as Cowgirl

Like many of my quilts, the cowgirl quilt was an odyssey. I never finish quickly because they have to “feel right”, and because there’s always so many other things to do (like knitting, making presents, working on my website, cooking). I work on one sporadically, so when it’s done, I feel complete and totally satisfied in my accomplishment. 

The idea for the cowgirl quilt came several years ago while helping with the quilt judging at the county fair. I just fell in love with the quilts that had a western theme. Usually though, the western theme fabric consisted of cowboys and broncos. I wanted a cowgirl quilt.

So, I started a search for cowgirl fabric and when I had enough, got inspired by a quilt book by Earlene Fowler. She’s a novelist that writes murder mystery books that take place in San Luis Obispo, CA. Her books all have a quilt name and theme, and her main character is a modern cowgirl.

I never copy a quilt exactly, just kind of use the ideas and appliqué shapes and go from there. I had purchased a printed set of old-fashioned cowgirls. Taking my favorite one, I started building the quilt around the print, adding squares and borders. Then I did some motifs: running horses, horseshoes, stars, etc.

I was having fun, but once the top was pieced, it sat. Don’t know why, because I love the quilting part, and really wanted it to get done. But it didn’t please me, for some reason. It needed something.

Months later, a box of pictures belonging to my mom (who passed away about 5 years ago), was given to me by the daughter of my mom's former boyfriend.  When I got the box, I couldn't wait to see what was in it.  And there was a picture of my mom, as a 1930's teenager, dressed in a cowgirl costume! I couldn’t believe it.  I had never seen the picture before and they just didn’t wear jeans and cowgirl hats then. But somehow, she had the cowgirl urge too.

I scanned the picture, fooled around with the size, and printed the picture out on cotton fabric in my printer. Then I added it as the centerpiece of my cowgirl quilt, and added a ropey trim to accentuate it.,

That’s why the quilt is entitled: “My mom as Cowgirl” . It is a unique tribute to my mom, and how similar we truly are.