When I was twelve, I became a country girl. Up until that point, I had been a bonafide city girl, living in a suburb on a quiet cul-de-sac. All that changed the year I turned twelve. My parents moved us to the country. And since I was the oldest, some of my siblings never knew anything but the country. That would mean my five little brothers.
I loved all five of my little brothers and taught them all kinds of things as they grew up. Surprisingly, even though they were outside boys, bonafide country boys, I taught them how to embroider and they didn't protest. We embroidered baby animal quilt blocks when they were preschool and elementary age. (The five of them were born in a six year span.) The blocks never got finished, though, because chickens, and goats, and calves, and horses called, and then the boys began restoring old engines, and mowers, and bicycles, and now trucks.
So, this winter, I went on a finish project kick. This was started simply because I was snowed in my tiny apartment for three straight days. That was rough. So I started looking for things to do and I found the blocks. First, I finished sewing them and I put names and dates on all of them. (This was accomplished while talking to friends on the phone.) Then, I put the blocks in Biz and water. Biz is an amazing thing. It removed all the little boy fingerprints from the white blocks, but it didn't hurt the stitching one bit.
After the snow and ice melted, I visited my favorite local quilt shop.
There I found these adorable ginghams to border the blocks - because, in my infinite fifteen year old wisdom, I had made the blocks rectangle instead of square. After squaring off the blocks with gingham, I cut blocks out of the farm boy fabric I had bought years before at Hobby Lobby. The blocks were 12.5" when I was done cutting.
I laid out the blocks on my bit of bedroom floor to decide on the most eye-catching pattern.
After piecing the top, I took it to a dear lady who hand quilted it for me - in time for Mother's Day. I put the binding on the day before Mother's Day and we gave it to my dear mother.
Isn't she beautiful? I think so, especially for having borne eight children - with the five boys all teens right now. She was thrilled with the gift - and surprised!
For a parting shot - here are the boys when they were all elementary age - so a few years after they worked on these blocks. Wish I had a current picture - but then, they are much cuter in this picture.
They are pumping water when we were on a family vacation - they used to beg to get to pump...now they wouldn't do it if you paid them! How times change!
