Monday, August 30, 2010

An Illinois Farmer's Daughter



A week or two ago, LuAnn Reinagle sent me this photo of the barn quilt that she recently completed.

LuAnn writes, "I began my barn quilt project last year and finally got it hung Sunday. I've been a quilter for about 4 years and when I heard about the barn quilt trails, I decided I was going to put a quilt block on my barn.

The hardest part was deciding on the block pattern as I had already decided to use a patriotic color scheme. I finally chose the "Farmer's Daughter" block.

My grandfather moved to the farmstead as a tenant farmer in 1927. Four generations of our family have been involved in farming the land. My mother said that every winter there would be a quilt on a frame in their dining room and the neighbor ladies would come help quilt it.

Mom said that she hated it because the room was off limits to the kids until the quilt was completed. She also said that one of the quilter's stitches were too big and would get torn out and redone once the lady had gone home.

I have many fond memories of visiting my grandparents and staying on the farm. I purchased the farmstead in 1995 and my niece and her family now live there. It's located on Route 24, east of Piper City in Ford County, Illinois."

I do believe that all of the folks who have worked so hard to build quilt trails in their communities have done amazing work. But I'm glad to have the chance to showcase a few solo barn quilters as well.

Thanks for sharing, LuAnn.

4 comments:

  1. I spent a few summers in Piper City. I had two aunt's that lived there. During the summer, one aunt and her husband, went to different small towns in the area and showed movies on the screens that were usually set up in the town squares. The movies were projected out of one end of a little blue travel trailer and they sold pop corn out of the other end.

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  2. I have never heard of movies being shown that way--I thought our "drivein," where we would watch movies from across a lake, was the best!

    And yeah, I'd be the one pulling stitches out, too. I do that on my own quilts!

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  3. I'm a beginning quilter but am quite familiar with the Quilt Blocks painted on the barns. We live in KY and I'm always on the lookout for a Quilted Barn.
    Hopefully, we will be able to put a quilt up on our barn as soon as it is finished being built.

    cindy

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  4. Cindy, you are lucky to live in Kentucky, where barn quilts are so plentiful! I have had such wonderful times there. Be sure to send a photo if you get that quilt done!

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