To Nana with love...

I've been working on a quilt since January of this year called "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt". It consists of 111 six inch traditional blocks. The quilt honors those Farmer's Wives of the 1920's when farms were folding all over the country. Money was scarce and the city beckoned offering jobs, cheap entertainment, and conveniences that were tempting to those accustomed to hard work and sweat. The city also offered things like liquor, speakeasys, crime, dance halls catering to to the young and impressionable and other easy ways to dissolve the family unit,. When "The Farmer's Wife" magazine asked it's readers in 1922 this question: "Would you want your daughter to marry a farmer?"

...the letters came in by the thousands and 94% of all the respondents adamantly said "YES!" The winning letters included in the book for this quilt were well thought out and very articulate in explaining the reasons why. Though they were thrilled  with the modern conveniences that would make their lives easier: indoor plumbing, telephones, carpet sweepers etc... they wanted their family life and values to be left alone.

I love the whole idea behind this quilt. I've enjoyed making every block and choosing every fabric. I made it completely from what I had on hand when I started and didn't purchase a thing for it's completion. I guess this shows how deep my fabric stash goes. I should be embarrassed. Anyway I've decided to dedicate this quilt to my Nana; the mother of my dear daddy.

-Winona- 

She was a raven haired beauty who loved riding her horse and hated having her hair bound in braids. After her mother would do her hair in tight braids for school she'd unwind her braids on the way to school so her hair would be wavy, and free to blow in the wind. She marked my Papa as the one she would marry, and by darn, she got him. She loved huge billowy clouds and thunder storms, the crackling of campfires and the smell of pine. She loved all the seasons and colors of the world. She was an incredible cook, even when camping, and loved her family well by preserving the bounties of the earth and preparing those bounties in delicious ways to feed her family. She was no stranger to hard work and always had a garden. She was a country girl who loved the wide open spaces and spectacular vistas.

-Wedding Star-

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-Streak of Lightning-

When I think of Nana my sense of smell dominates all others: Roses, sweet-peas, lilacs, cinnamon, hot butter, fresh bread, roast beef with gravy and new potatoes, the seductive aroma of damp earth combined with sun warmed tomatoes and garden peas. I even remember eating those straight out of her garden in Dutch John when I was just little.

 -Evening Star-

-Shooting Star-

She loved color! Reds, purples, golds, emeralds; the richer and more vibrant the better. Purple was her favorite though, I think. When she got older and her hair started to go gray she used a blue rinse on it and she looked so pretty with her bluey-purpley hair. I loved it. I wished I had hair that color.

-Star Gardener-

-Homemaker-

When I think of visiting her the sounds that come to mind are Gospel music, songs from musicals like "The Sound of Music" and old western tunes about dogies and goober peas. I heard a lot of Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, Roy Rogers, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. I came to appreciate The Mormon Tabernacle Choir because when we went to visit Nana and Papa it was usually on a Sunday and MoTab would be the featured performer on their stereo. "How Great Thou Art" became my favorite hymn because I'd heard it so many times in their home looking at pictures of the Tetons. Who could resist that?

 

-Peaceful Hours-

-Wild Goose Chase-

She had a large wooden rocking chair (it was large then) and over this chair was a Crazy Quilt. When dinner was over and before the evening slide show was to begin I'd curl up in that old rocker and drift contentedly in my cocoon of comfortable safety and love, surrounded by the familiar sounds of the silverware clanking in the sink and the hum of adult voices and occasional bouts of laughter as my dad and his siblings would reminisce around the now cleared dinner table. I would trace with my finger the seams in that old quilt and feel the textures of the different fabrics while listening to tales about when they lived in Canada: the saw mill on Stuart Lake, picking Saskatoon berries, ice skating across the lake in winter  to get to school and snow so high it would reach the second story window of the home they built on Stuart Lake in Central  British Columbia. No central heat, no indoor plumbing. Outhouse? Yes. Kerosene lanterns? Yes.

-Maple Leaf-

-Strawberry Basket-

She was a pioneer and a devoted wife. She had more than a hint of the gypsy adventuress and the strength it takes to be a mother of eight children, two of those dieing as babies. She had the yearnings of a true romantic and the common sense of a dyed-in-the-wool pragmatist. She may not have been the wife of a farmer but she had what it took: great love, deep faith, strong convictions, a forgiving heart and an indomitable spirit.

 -Friendship-

 -Night & Day-

I dedicate this quilt to you. I'm so grateful to have known you. I'm so grateful to have inherited some of your characteristics and traits.

I love you Nana!