As my friend Melanie recently pointed out, travel can inspire creativity. We just got back from a loooong drive across the country to New Mexico and back, and I took a few pictures of things that inspired me.
First, we saw literally thousands of these wind generators across the flat, windy, high plains of West Texas and Oklahoma. The complex shape of the blades is quite an engineering feat by itself, even before the rest of the contraption is considered. It was great to see renewable energy in action, and these are attractive additions to the landscape in my opinion. (No, we never saw any dead birds near them, despite looking. Research in Europe suggests this is mostly an urban myth.)
In New Mexico, I looked for the details that said “Southwest”. These design elements are a kind of shorthand for “you are here” and I thought that idea would be useful in designing quilts (or anything else). Here are a couple.
Stucco walls, turquoise trim, tile roof
Courtyard enclosed by a stucco wall with a wooden gate; tile accent along roof edge; flat roof
Now, I’m off to learn to organize my photos in Photoshop so I can find the rest of the pictures from the Southwest 😀
Zippy Quilts 
See these all over – Kansas, Eastern Colorado, etc
My nephew’s job a few years back involved the making of those huge blades (with a company near his home in Windsor, CO)
Have fun in the inspiration after-glow of your recent trip!
Thanks for visiting and commenting. I still worry that the environment in much of the Southwest can’t really sustain the population there, but at least this is an approach to the energy problem.
I love New Mexico and can’t wait to go back. Son will be transferred to OK next year, so at least we’ll have a reason to be in the neighborhood! 🙂 Wow, your drive was long. Did you run across on 40 or go off-interstate?
We went I-40 and mused about how long it would have taken in the days before interstate hwys!
Yep. When I was 8 we took a cross country road trip that took 6 weeks. Of course there was time for sight seeing and relative visiting included. Today I had similar musings as I did a scenic van trip on Old 30. When I was 8 it was the only way along the Columbia River, 100 years old in 2015. What I’d not realized was that it was only 30ish years old when we traveled it! A fun fact from a local museum: the road was built without thought to amenities. Women wanted rest areas, so Vista House was built. Locals called it the million dollar bathroom.
I hear the Columbia River is beautiful. Maybe you’ll post pictures from your trip!
Most inspiring photographs
There are lots of wind turbines in central Illinois, too. The closest to where I live is at Great Lakes Naval Training Center. The “stem” is very short — I think because it’s an urban area — and because it’s so close as we drive by it’s easy to see how HUGE the blades are. An abstract design of wind turbine blades would make an interesting modern quilt . . .
Great idea! I’ll watch for your design 🙂
I love the windmills! They would be a cool art quilt inspiration!
Yes, eventually…