Heather Hossack of Riverton, Wyoming, has always loved horses. From the time she was small, she was surrounded by the four-legged critters.
“If my parents couldn't find me, I would always be out feeding the horses through the fence,” Hossack said. “I've always just had a soft spot for horses. It's just always been part of me.”
Living in Pinedale, her other love was wildlife photography.
Hossack has turned that passion for horses and wildlife into a career designing unique Wyoming quilt patterns. Quilters from all over the world have purchased her original patterns inspired by rodeo and wild critters to create their own art with a distinctly Wyoming flair.
“You get so many different personalities available with quilting, so you can just do so many different things with it,” Hossack said. “Not everybody can make a masterpiece in painting, but everybody can take fabric and cut it up and sew it back together.”
Heather Hossack designed a line of cowboy boot quilt patterns while living in Pinedale that are inspired by her love of Wyoming and rodeo. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Quilter Heather Hossack is inspired by Wyoming’s wildlife and rodeo scene to create unique quilt patterns that feature the Cowboy State. (Courtesy Heather Hossack) 
Heather Hossack designed a line of cowboy boot quilt patterns while living in Pinedale that are inspired by her love of Wyoming and rodeo. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
The year Grizzly Bear 399 died, Heather Hossack had just so happened to design a quilt pattern featuring a grizzly bear. This pattern has sold all over America to quilters wanting to create tribute quilts to the beloved grizzly. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Owner of Heritage Quilts & Fabric Shoppe in Riverton, Wyoming Heather Hossack said that going in and just looking at the fabric in her store is therapy. The options are endless of what people can create and she especially enjoys designing unique Wyoming patterns. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Owner of Heritage Quilts & Fabric Shoppe in Riverton, Wyoming Heather Hossack said that going in and just looking at the fabric in her store is therapy. The options are endless of what people can create and she especially enjoys designing unique Wyoming patterns. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Heather Hossack designed a line of cowboy boot quilt patterns while living in Pinedale that are inspired by her love of Wyoming and rodeo. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily)
Rodeo Life Transformed To Fabric
Before buying her mom’s quilt shop, Heritage Quilts & Fabric Shoppe in Pinedale, and becoming a quilter full-time, Hossack was breeding and raising horses for barrel racing and the track. When she reminisced about her favorite horse, Dashing With Fame, and his love for speed as he barrel raced, Hossack was inspired to create a line of rodeo patterns.
“Dashing With Fame was an amazing stallion, and it's just one of my few passions that I've had through my life,” Hossack said. “He was one that just loved the speed, but he is the only son of Dash Ta Fame that has an all-around championship title, so it says a lot about his trained ability and his pole-trained ability.”
Hossack had nursed Dashing With Fame, who she affectionately called Studly, back to health after an injury that sidelined his career. He went on to win awards and accolades in the horse racing world and barrel racing.
After selling him and watching his offspring head off to their own champion titles in futurities and at the PRCA, Hossack created a quilting pattern in honor of his legacy. The cowboy boots were so popular that she designed another block and is currently dreaming up more rodeo themed designs.
“I just want a horse rearing,” Hossack said. “I will sketch in a book and I'm not like an artist by any means, so I have to really visualize what I want before sitting down and actually trying it and doing it.”
The designs Hossack dreams up range from anything from rodeo to her wildlife photography.
“I always had my huge digital camera with me in Pinedale, and I have a deer picture that was also made into a pattern using collage quilting,” she said. “It's just Wyoming.”
Tribute To 399
Hossack began designing her own quilt patterns when she and her mom joined the annual “quilting shop hop.”
Each year, quilt stores along a 620-mile route in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming would hand out free patterns and stamps in participant’s quilting passports. Hossack would design her free pattern plus an extra pattern to sell.
This past year, the pattern she was selling was of a majestic grizzly bear, and it quickly became a tribute to Grizzly Bear 399.
Grizzly 399 was a famous female grizzly bear in Grand Teton National Park, renowned as the oldest known reproducing grizzly in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
She was tragically killed by a vehicle on a highway in Wyoming on the evening of Oct. 22, 2024, and people worldwide mourned her death.
“When 399 passed away it was right about the same time as our shop hop,” Hossack said. “I've had a lot of people from back east and down south buy the pattern, because they want to commemorate 399.”
The grizzly was featured in the center and Hossack's free pattern was of two grizzly bears standing and fighting.
“It just so happened that everybody was looking for a grizzly bear pattern to remember her by,” Hossack said. “The pattern's name is Walk Among Grizzlies, which she was the queen of the grizzlies. It very much still fits 399 who was one of the biggest influences in Yellowstone for grizzly bears.”
Dashing With Fame is a stallion who has done more than just win awards for barrel racing and producing champions. He has also inspired his former owner, Heather Hossack to create a line of quilting patterns as a tribute to the rodeo world. Her cowboy patterns are uniquely Wyoming, and she is planning more patterns for the future with Dashing With Fame as the star. (Courtesy Heather Hossack) 
Dashing With Fame is an award-winning racing horse who inspired his previous owner, quilter Heather Hossack, to design a rodeo-themed patterns featuring cowboy boots. This quilting pattern is all Wyoming and an ode to rodeo folks across the Cowboy State. (Courtesy Heather Hossack)
Quilting Passion
Hossack calls her quilting ‘fabric therapy.’ She said that just envisioning what you can do with the different fabrics and techniques can be healthy for the mind.
“You can always come in and just pet the fabric,” Hossack said “Move it around and play with it, and it makes a big difference in people's mental therapy.”
When her mom first started the quilt store in Pinedale when Hossack was a teenager, it was about escaping the stress of her full-time job. One of the first quilts her mom created was auctioned off for the Stage Stop Dog Sled Race and brought in over $1,000.
“It was never about the money,” Hossack said. “It was just that she loved working with her hands, and she found something that she really had a passion for.”
This passion has led Hossack to teaching classes and showing people easier ways to create their own quilt art.
“It may not be perfect, and it doesn't have to be perfect,” Hossack said. “If you love doing it, that's all that matters. That's why I think quilting is so great.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
