On Rowan Creek

Created for Project Quilting 9.1 Hometown Proud Challenge.

I knew I was facing a challenging week this week. I would be gone from Monday noon until Thursday afternoon.  So I needed to come up with an idea quickly and it had to be simple enough to complete on time.

I grew up in Belmont, first state capitol of Wisconsin. It is also home of the Belmont mound and Joy Lake where my family held many annual campouts.

I have lived in Poynette for the last 38 years, so it is my current hometown.  It has several really great things going for it. Of course, my favorite is Lapacek's Orchard which is owned by son, Jared and his wife, Kim. There is also Rock n Wool Winery owned by my nephew, Shaun, Creek Bed Country Pharmacy, the MacKenzie Enviromental Center, and the state game farm that raises pheasants to release for hunters. We also have Lake Wisconsin and the Schoenenberg Marsh.

I put all these ideas into my brain and went to bed.  I woke up thinking about Rowan Creek. It is a trout stream that runs right through Poynette.  This was an idea I could work with. I happen to be possessed by string quilts right now. I finished a couple and have no less than 3 in progress. Ideas keep popping into my head and I just have to try them out.  So I decided to do a simple string quilt table topper based on Rowan Creek.

I started with foundation squares of soft n sheer and laid them out on my countertop, then drew a creek winding across them. I marked which areas should be blue to represent the water and strip pieced those areas, then added browns and greens along the banks of the creeks.

I thought I should add some houses. Since Bourn Creative says orange is the color of joy and creativity, I decided all the houses would be orange. Either that or I found some blocks and partial blocks in my orphan block drawer that had orange houses on cul de sacs that I had inadvertently made while attempting to make this quilt.

It is my firm belief that every good orphan block will find a new home and that time ripping these blocks apart just because I used a creative alternate plan to put them together would a waste of time.

So there it is. On Rowan Creek in my home town of Poynette, WI, where I have been creating for the last 38 years.

Created by Diane Lapacek.

18" x 35".