There is an old song that has the line..." I love those dear heart and gentle people who live and love in my home town .."they never ever let you down". And in my small corner of the world, there are those kind of people. And I am grateful for them, and for living here. It isn't my "home town", that lies across the hills and byways, some 40 miles east of where I now reside. But that's close enough... to go there if I want to, and far enough away to be comfortable.
And now you are probably wondering what that has to do with this particular quilt. Nothing, actually, and almost everything. I can't remember at time when I wasn't a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She's Wisconsin born, and altho she moved across the mightly river to Minnesota, we claim her as our own. If you think my advancing age has put a halt to re-reading her books, you would be mistaken. Winter seems to bring on a need to reach back and touch daily life in a simpler time. And her books are without violence, sex and for the most part, disaster. There is plenty of that in our daily lives, whether or not we want it there. I'm not turning my back on the problems of society and the world. I have opinions,I pay my taxes, I vote. For the most part, I don't get involved more deeply than that. I value peace in the valley...at many levels. I'm not an activitist, and if I ever was, I now prefer listening to the canadian geese that are beginning to "group up" all around this area,preparing for their migration. It's like the first sounds of autumn for me. The air begins to get crisp, and the canadians group.
In one of L.I. Wilders books, Pa refers to her as his" little brown bird". She all dressed in her brown coat and red mittons and hood. I love that word picture. The 9 patch above is called: A Tribute to Laura..The Laura Ingalls Wilder quilt. It's machine pieced, queen size and professionally machine quilted. I kept the setting blocks and triangles all the same tan print, but the rest is scrappy, which is for me where quilt happiness lives.
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5 comments:
Finn -
Again - I love the quilt! And I love Laura Ingalls Wilder. I am young enough that I grew up watching Little House one the Prarie on TV, but love the books much more than the show. Last year I started reading some books called "My First Little House" books with my daughter. They are children's books that take one story from her books and that is the whole book. Really enjoyed them. I just recently bought and reread "Little House in the Big Woods" in preparation for reading it with Maddie. When I was 14, we lived near Janesville, WI. We took a month long trip and hit all the sites from the books - from Wisconsin to Minnesota to South Dakota. It was cool.
Thanks for sharing!
Finn, I too am a huge fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder. And, just like you, I pull out her books every winter to read. Both of my girls enjoy me reading to them and we've also done a whole year unit study devoted to Laura, her life and that time in history. I also have a couple other books of her writings (newspaper, etc).
The quilt is *beautiful*. Definitely a heirloom. :o)
Thanks gals..I think there are alot of us who love those books.
I did find one of her later in life writing called "Sampler" I think, I'll have to go and look.
Also found a few of her daughter Rose's books. Don't like them as much as Laura's writings, but still interesting.
Whew, I can now confess guilt free that I was reading On the Banks of Plum Creek last month. Yes, I've had these books for almost 15 years now (Got it for Christmas when I was 8) and I still don't tire of them.
My main reason for rereading Plum Creek? I could faintly recall Laura working on a "harder" quilt while Mary picked the simple 9-patch. I just HAD to know what pattern it was - Bear's Claw. Laura was struggling with bias seams of the HST. Ma wouldn't let her progress until she got them perfect. :)
My mom loved those books. I haven't read them since I was a child, but you make me realize I need to reread them now.
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