My Quilting Projects

Friday, June 7, 2013

My House Quilt - Red Barn Block


This is a block from my House Block Bee Quilt - a cheery quilt that hangs in my classroom.

I participated in the on-line House Block Bee with eleven other quilters. We were each assigned a month by our queen bee. Before the first of my assigned month, I mailed out fabrics to the others to be used to make a house block for me. I purchased the blue fabric for the sky and the green fabric for the grass. I sent each person a couple of owls and a couple of children to be included in their block. Then I looked through my stash and included scraps to be used for houses, trees, etc. Each quilter could also add their own fabric, if they wished.

Being a farmer's daughter and granddaughter, I love having a barn block in my House Quilt!  

 
My Parents with Two of My Sons Around 27 Years Ago

The Cow

The friendly cow all red and white,
   I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
   To eat with apple-tart.

 
She wanders lowing here and there,
   And yet she cannot stray,
All in the pleasant open air,
   The pleasant light of day;
 
And blown by all the winds that pass
   And wet with all the showers,
She walks among the meadow grass
   And eats the meadow flowers.
 
            from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
 
My Paternal Grandmother, 1950
 
The Pasture
 
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha'n't be gone long. - You come too.
 
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother.  It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha'n't be gone long.  You come too.
 
          by Robert Frost 
 
 
You might also enjoy reading my previous blog post here.

9 comments:

  1. Another great block. I like that you show the individual blocks because we get to see more details. Then you show them pieced together in the big quilt. Nice poem, too. When I was a child, I thought chocolate milk came from all black or all brown cows.

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  2. What a special quilt block and story, Susan.

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  3. I love these photos! My daughter and her husband got a calf not long ago and she told about feeding it from a bottle. Your photograph helps me envision it better. I especially love the photo of your grandmother trying to catch the calf. The calf looks pretty determined to get away. Did you know that the Robert Frost poem, "The Pasture," was set to music in "Frostiana?" It is one of my favorite's in the group. Thanks for sharing your photos and memories.

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  4. I thought I would marry a farmer and spend my life with the smells of compost, the lowing of cows, and the clucking of chickens. What am I doing in Tokyo?

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  5. love your quilt. I was raised on a farm then moved to the city. have retired to the country and live next to a farm so much fun again to visit the animals.

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  6. Great little barn house..love the hooty owl in the window and the cow! The photo's bring up memories of me playing in my step-grandma's cow patures when I was young. Nothing like being chased by a big black bull while you and your siblings are just walking the pasture. LOL!

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  7. What a sweet quilt! Love the photos. You're lucky to have them - so nostalgic.

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    Replies
    1. You really must write a book so each of your children has a copy of all of this!

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