Water Under The Bridge

It is very interesting to step back and analyze where creative inspiration begins.  The inspiration for this quilt came when my husband and I took a trip back to our home town, Rexburg, Idaho, in July.  We were eager to escape the crushing heat of the desert and enjoy the relative cool of the high mountain desert in Idaho and the surrounding sights:  Yellowstone Park and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  It wasn't much cooler in Idaho than it was in Phoenix, although the overnight temperatures were in the 60's rather than the 90's!  We stayed in a motel in Idaho Falls, which is about 25 miles south of Rexburg.  The Snake River runs behind the motel and we were able to go for nice walks in the park that follows the bank of the river though town.  One evening we had walked quite a distance and decided to take a short cut using a railroad bridge that crossed the river.  It's funny how those railroad bridges look much more substantial from the ground!  By the time we were half way across the bridge, we were encountering big holes between the railroad ties, rotten wood and very scary views to the Snake River below.  The distance to the river was not that far--maybe 20 or 30 feet, but the Snake River as it runs through Idaho Falls is very deep and has very treacherous currents.  To fall in the river at that point probably would have meant certain death.  Obviously, we didn't fall into the river, and since trains use that particular bridge every day, I'm sure the bridge was quite sturdy, but looking through those holes with the river rushing beneath us was unnerving.

For my quilt, I used woven strips of commercial fabric as the background--to represent the river and its currents; my own hand dyed silk to represent the rocky riverbed and shore; and some of my own woven fabric to represent the raft that I hoped would pass by if we happened to fall into the water.

Frances Murphy