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Weaving saddle blankets for modern day cowboys

Linda Morton-Kiethley sits at her largest loom, a tapestry loom, in her home studio in Melba, ID. She’s weaving a pattern to be installed on a handmade leather purse, a bright triangle of yarn before her, in red, blue, green and gray.
Arlie Sommer
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Expressive Idaho
Linda Morton-Kiethley sits at her largest loom, a tapestry loom, in her home studio in Melba, ID. She’s weaving a pattern to be installed on a handmade leather purse, a bright triangle of yarn before her, in red, blue, green and gray.

This week on Expressive Idaho, we head to the Melba home studio of weaver Linda Morton-Keithley. She started weaving more than 50 years ago, when she took an undergraduate occupational therapy course at Western Michigan University.

Morton-Keithley dove deeper into fiber arts for a master’s degree in historic costume and textiles at Colorado State University. Her education led to her roles that include being a curator, museum director and an archivist.

Now, she and her husband outfit modern cowboys with handmade gear, including Morton-Keithley’s hand woven saddle blankets. Arlie Sommer brings us her story as part of the Expressive Idahoseries.

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