Farmer's Wife Friday: Progress is Our Watchword

The letter this week was very interesting to me. The writer, from Michigan, seemed to be feeling a sense of pity from women who lived in the city, and she was not going to put up with it! "Now that her city sister seems to pity the farmer's wife let all the farmers' wives straighten their backs, throw up their heads and shout, 'Don't pity me!'...Progress is our watchword, so watch out, for we're going on as fast as we can. This world must be made safe for the farmer's wife. Let's--start--now!'"

Can't you picture this woman standing on a street corner, in a city, with a sign that says, "I'm a farmer's wife. Don't pity me!"

There were a lot of things happening at the turn of the century, in the early '20s. There were new discoveries and inventions. Shoppers were able to purchase items like cars and appliances on credit! But corruption was also rampant.

I'm sure the writer of this letter was happy to be living away from all the hustle and bustle, where "we have no noisy whistles to wake us; the birds and the sun do that."

The first block #18, called Century of Progress, was certainly an appropriate one for the letter this week. It wasn't an easy block to make and I wondered if there had been an error in printing because of the color placement. I usually try to get a clue from the letter for color selection, but "century of progress" didn't bring any specific colors to mind. So I just picked these mulberry shades because I liked them.

For #51, Hovering Birds," I wasn't really in the mood for more blackish birds, since I did that last week. So my birds this week are kind of a rusty color. I'm sure there are some rusty-colored birds somewhere. Do you have any in your part of the country?

I also enjoyed this sentence in the letter: "We are no longer hayseeds [emphasis mine]." As you know, Mark now has the moniker of Minnesota Hayseed Psychologist, and one of these Fridays he will be giving his unique perspective on growing up on a farm. Should be very interesting. You won't want to miss it.

You also won't want to miss Carla's comments on the letter and the blocks for this week. 

Farmer's Wife Friday: City Life Holds no Glamour

The writer of this week's letter, from Park County, Wyoming., spent the first two years of married life as well as much of her childhood in Chicago. She was apparently not impressed.

I'm a city girl. I've lived in several large cities for a good deal of my life, so it's hard for me to make the comparison. But I like to imagine what this would be like: "There is not space here to tell of my love for the panorama of ever-changing beauty that unrolls from my cabin on the hilltop."

One of the two blocks this week is #46, Hill & Valley.

It was interesting that already in the 1920s, the writer was convinced that "when America wearies of jazz and reverts, as a nation, to the ideals of her pioneer forefathers, many will find in the simple joys of the country an antidote to over-sophistication." What, oh what, would she think of 2011?

The second block is #34, Flock. I have always been fascinating by the way birds often fly in a V-shaped formation across a blue sky. How do they pick the leader?

As far as shot cottons, I was less pleased with these two fabrics, because it seemed that both the weft and warp threads were nearly the same, so there isn't much contrast no matter how you turn the fabric. But I do like the strong movement of the block.

Don't forget to check out Carla at lollyquiltz to see what her fabric choices were for these same two blocks.

See you on Monday for The Name Game.

Farmer's Wife Friday: No Safer Road to Travel

The letter spotlighted this week (see what Carla has to say about this letter, too) was written by a farmer's wife in Nebraska. She begins by saying, "I know no safer road to travel through real living than my daughter would take if a farmer were her life companion." She had a very descriptive style of writing and I based the colors on some of her word pictures.

"To see the sun climb out of bed and reach out rosy fingers to pick up the dew drops from field and meadow..." had me choosing colors that reminded me of the rosy pinks and corals of a sunrise.

 Country Path (#24)

"...to watch the joyous greeting of all nature, in the summer time, is worth more than silver and gold can buy."  I imagined fields of flowers, rows of corn, with the green foliage interspersed among them.

Silver Lane (#79)

Do you ever wake up early enough to enjoy the "rosy fingers" of a sunrise?

Farmer's Wife Friday: Living in God's Open Air

When Carla from Lollyquiltz and I decided to do the Farmer's Wife quiltalong together, we tossed around a couple of different ideas on what would work the best for each of us. We finally landed on the idea of just starting with the first letter in the book and go through the book sequentially, doing the two blocks pictured with each letter. I had started reading the letters and found them fascinating so it seemed like a good idea, and the blocks would essentially already be chosen for us.

6" blocks. I thought, "how tough could it be?" I've been making quilt blocks for over fifteen years. I started with Cut Glass Dish. Wow. 51 pieces in a 6" block.

I looked at all those 1" HSTs and tried to decide the best way to achieve some accuracy. I finally decided to make them oversize and cut them down to 1 1/2 inches unfinished. That turned out to be a good idea, for me at least.

The second block, Kitchen Woodbox, looked like a snap compared to Cut Glass Dish. But I'm here at Lakeview with a computer but no printer, and for some dumb reason, I didn't print out the template before coming up here. So I kind of had to wing it. And the sun had gone down so the picture is taken in a cabin with really bad light. (Hey,  Lakeview Cottages has an electrical system from about c. 1917 so we use 60w bulbs). Now that I think of it, these cottages are nearly the same age as the Farmer's Wife challenge.

I'll be making all my blocks using Kona snow and Kaffe Fassett shot cottons.

The first letter, "Living in God's Open Air," really resonated with me, because this was the view from my porch as I thought about the letter written all those years ago.

I chose the colors for my first two blocks based on the colors I saw today in God's open air, the blue of the water, the green and  brown of all the beautiful trees surrounding the cabins, and even the brown and green of the cabins themselves. It is all so beautiful. To answer the question, "Would you have your daughter marry a farmer," the writer says," I would have her marry a farmer because there she has the chance of living in God's open air, of living a pure life, away from the meanness of a rural town..."  That's what I was feeling today, the beauty of living in God's open air.

Check out Lollyquiltz and see how Carla interpreted these same two blocks.

We're (finally!!) in business

After having to cancel our first two rental weeks here at Lakeview Cottages, and after shoving three weeks of work into three days, we are finally open for business and guests have arrived!

We had record snowpack this year. It went from this on June 2

to this, taken this morning (see that little snowdrift in the background?)

There isn't enough water in the lake yet to float our boats (that is kind of fun to say...), at least not the motorzized fleet. They are still resting on a snowbank.

But the kayaks, canoes, rowboat and paddle boat are ready to go. Here at LVC we like to name our nonmotorized fleet, so there is a kayak with my name on it, the "Cindy Lou." This year we named the paddle boat the  "Cheri Lynn." Cheri chose the paddleboat for her namesake because that is where George proposed to her.

Cleaning up the waterfront involved walking through snowdrifts to get to the shore.

We had some extra help, including Jill (putting the decal on the paddleboat) and Jason (being very helpful with many tasks throughout the weekend).

Don't get the wrong impression that it is all work and no play. We still take time out to enjoy the view.

Mark was able to capture these pictures, taken at the same time.

Cheri, raking:

George, snoozing contemplating what needs to be done next:

And then the guests started arriving. It doesn't take them long to get into the swing of things. Some of our long-time guests were spread out in four cabins, and at least over the weekend there were nine kids under the age of 12, eight boys and one girl.

Wondering if we actually rent to real pirates up here? Cal (aaaarrrrr....) probably wouldn't like me posting this picture of him, but you have to do something to keep the kids entertained, so they were having a pirate scavenger hunt.

Not only did the guests arrive this week, the fish decided to show up as well. Can you believe the size of these rainbow trout?

Mark and I went down to the valley on Sunday afternoon, and I came back up yesterday afternoon, and stopped to take a picture of Big Creek on the way.

I arrived just in time for this very excellent meal shared by the same "pirate" crew, only last night they had a Hawaiian luau theme going.

Believe me. I was glad to be back up here at 7,000 feet elevation where the high temp today is going to be a balmy 73 degrees. Tuesday night in Fresno, we decided to go to a Grizzlies game (the AAA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants). It was 105 when we got to the stadium! By the third inning, it was starting to cool down and there was a bit of a breeze, so by the end of the game it was very pleasant.

In a few minutes I will be setting up my sewing machine and starting on the Farmer's Wife blocks. Carla from Lollyquiltz and I will be doing a Farmer's Wife Friday series. We tossed around different ideas and finally decided to follow the book from start to finish, including some comments on the letters, which are really fascinating to me. So we'll each be making the same blocks each week. She is using prints, and I'm using....well, I guess you'll just have to come back tomorrow to find out!