Farmer's Wife QAL - Barns and New Blocks...

My Wisconsin Barn Mosaic

In October of 2009, I wrote a blog post with this mosaic I created from all the barns I photographed on a trip to Wisconsin. (You can read that post here.) When I see barns, I feel something inside that's difficult to explain.

On more than one occasion, I've found myself spellbound by light coming into a barn between the boards. The last time it happened, I looked at Handsome with tears in my eyes. I don't know how I feel about reincarnation, but it's like I was meant to be there. It felt like home. Like I'd been there before. Like I knew that place.

Stock Photo from web

These deep feelings prompted me to want to create the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt...and the desire to share my project with some of you. Imagine my pure joy to find that twenty four other women wanted to join me in a quiltalong.

 We started in February with a list of quilt blocks from the book. I blogged and emailed the list to the participants, with a promise that this would be a no-pressure endeavor. We've been uploading our block photos to a special Flickr album, and we've also shared comments and questions among the group. It reminds me of the old-time barn raising, where everyone worked together to create something beautiful...the barn.

We're all working from the same book...The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird. We're also using either the templates from the cd inside the book, or plastic templates from Marti Mitchell's website.

This is how I'm using my book to chronicle my Farmer's quilt journey. I start by taking colored sticky notes and bookmarking the blocks chosen for the month. (I used pink stickies for February and yellow for March.)

You'll notice that there are still pink stickies in there. I haven't sewn those blocks yet (but will this month). Remember, I said that the group is "no pressure", and I'm proving it by showing how I'm working at my own pace.

As I stitch each block, I write the date that I created it, along with my initials. I'm also writing notes on the pages so that whoever sees my finished quilt years and years from now, they'll know what I was thinking as I created the quilt.

I keep all of my supplies (except the fabric I have on bolts) in one of those plastic organizers (like this) so that everything is in one convenient place when I sit down to work on my blocks.

I know farming folk who keep daily records of the weather, along with other information that serves as a diary of their farming life. They keep track of all the grains, seeds and supplies they purchase toward running their farm. Women keep detailed budgets to enable them to purchase the supplies used to run their households, but in days past, they also wrote down their inventories of precious possessions. In some cases, they cataloged their linens and fabrics needed to clothe and comfort their families.

I just added a new app to my iPad that I can use to inventory my fabrics, patterns and threads. How much easier it might have been for the farmer's wives of yesteryear had they been able to use technology as we do.

Before I end my thoughts for today, I'll leave you with the list of blocks that our group will create for March. There are ten this month.

These are the blocks:

• Block # 2 - Autumn Tints
• Block # 6 - Big Dipper
• Block #10 - Bowtie
• Block #15 - Buzzard's Roost
• Block #29 - Economy
• Block #31 - Evening Star
• Block #34 - Flock
• Block #51 - Hovering Birds
• Block #52 - Hovering Hawks
• Block $103 - Whirlwind

These block names make me smile, and some of them hold special meaning.

 I think back on the Autumn tints seen in crisp Wisconsin twilights when I could hear the last of the flocks of geese heading out to the marsh to settle in for the night. Gazing up at the evening stars in the sky with the Big Dipper the most prominent - the first constellation I learned to identify as a child. 

We built our home there and called it "Hawk Hill" for the red-tailed hawks that lived on our property year-round. I can still envision lying in the grass and watching the hawks hover, lift and soar on the breeze.

We have many new memories in the eleven years we've been in Florida. Days seem to pass so quickly, like a whirlwind in time. (No, I'm not going to mention the hurricanes.)

One frequently sees the buzzards that patrol for "opportunities" (meals usually provided when automobiles and wildlife collide), as they roost in the trees along the roads, or even perched on the street lights lining the main roads into town (makes me laugh out loud. "Welcome to North Port, my pretties!").

Better to focus instead on the afternoon and evening musical performances when Handsome dons his tuxedo and black bowtie. I think of a friend's favorite quote "Music softens life's hard edges."

And then, there is the wonderful time we spend in the Airstream. There, our furnishings are more sparse, and our life is spent enjoying the economy of our mobile accommodations.

I think you can see why this group of blocks will be so meaningful to me. I hope that all the other participants are making notes and sharing their thoughts as they create their blocks.  You can click on the QAL link at the top of my blog to find a list of participants and links to their blogs. (No link, no blog - yet!)

You might also enjoy clicking on the Farmer's Quilt book image in my sidebar. That's how you can get to the Flickr album with all our block submissions. Everyone gets to see the blocks being created by their friends, and they can upload their own for an online "bring and brag". Feel free to leave comments on their blocks. They're all so wonderful!

I'll share my newest blocks here when I finish the March group (and those I haven't completed for February), as well as in the group album.