I have loved doing the
Farmers Wife Sampler over the past year. A friend got me onto it as a block of the month and its been a challenge but well worth it. While doing this I have joined two online groups, one on
yahoo and the other on
flickr, both groups have inspired me along the way.
The author of the Farmers Wife Sampler was Laurie Arron Hird and she has just released her new book.
Its called the Farmers Wife Pony Club Sampler and its gorgeous.
Here's a little bit about the book:
"The Farmer's Wife Pony Club Sampler Quilt--Letters From the Lucky Pony Winners of 1915 and 90 Blocks That Tell Their Stories, by Laurie Aaron Hird; release date: July 2011
In 1907 the Webb Publishing Company of St. Paul, Minnesota, created The Farmer's Wife Pony Club. Children were invited to join and compete for prizes by selling subscriptions to The Farmer's Wife magazine. The grand prize was a Shetland pony with a saddle, bridle, and often a carriage. To satisfy skeptics who doubted a child would, indeed, receive a pony, they asked the winners to send photographs of themselves with their ponies. Thankfully, many children also sent thank you letters along with their photographs. These endearing, poignant, and sometimes hilarious letters provide a unique window into the lives of children in rural America in the early 1900s.
As a tribute to these Lucky Pony Winners, Laurie Aaron Hird has taken 90 traditional 8" blocks and designed a queen-size quilt in their memory. "
Her quilt has lots of novelty fabrics. My FWS is being done in 1930's and I still have to decide just what sort of fabrics I am going to use for the Pony quilt.
The plan is to make one for each of my young blokes, one with a blue base and the other with a red base. I already have quite a few novelty fabrics but I am not sure I am going to go that way. Possible I might end up doing just blue/white and red/white..not sure.
Once again there are groups on both
flickr and
yahoo. Both are offering quilt alongs which is a great way to inspire me to keep getting blocks done!
There are shops that are doing BOM's of this quilt. Here are a couple that I know of, starting in October so be quick.
Hidden Quilts.com BOM using novelty fabrics inspired by the original quilt
Homestead Hearth.com BOM in two colour ways, either 1900's repros or Batiks which would be stunning I think!
The book is available through
the farmers wife quilt site as well as through most major bookstores. I have ordered mine from Laurie, she also signs them for you which is a bit of a thrill...LOL
Laurie also has a
blog about both quilts.
Disclaimer: no brown paper bags of money or fabric have changed hands for me to do this write up. I merely want to let you know about the new book!
