As Families Must Do

I mentioned the book, The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from 1920s Farm Wives and the 111 Blocks They Inspired sometime last year. I picked it up again today as it caught my eye in my sewing room. I'm not a farmer's wife, but I have a dear friend who is, and she had sent me the book, knowing I like to quilt. She loves being a farmer's wife, and whenever I see it, I think of her. It includes letters from women who share the good things they experience about being a farmer's wife.

I think many of us share the same sentiments in regard to our own homes and desires for our children, be it on the farm or in the neighborhood. Sharing a brief excerpt with you today. I do have modern conveniences, but I still relate to this thought. I think you might as well. If you'd like to know more about the book, just click on the image.

We live in one of those much-talked-about homes where folks do not have all the modern conveniences but we do have good books, good music and a wealth of flowers and growing things about us. Above all else, we live together, working and playing and planning together, as families must do, if the love and unity of that family are to become an inspiration to its members and to the community in which they live. 

~C. McD. B., Marion County, Indiana in The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from 1920s Farm Wives and the 111 Blocks They Inspired

A Farmer's Wife?

A dear friend from back home recently sent me The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It's partly a book of quilt block patterns, and I was first attracted to it because of that. As I began to read, though, I was drawn to it time and again because it's a book from the heart of farm wives--about how farmers' wives in the 1920s liked being who they were.

The first part of the book contains letters that are in response to this question posed by The Farmer's Wife magazine in 1922: "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, have her marry a farmer?" Well, I'm not a farmer's wife, so I began to wonder about their responses. Another dear friend said she always wanted to be a farmer's wife, and she waited until one came her way. They were truly meant for one another. I guess she knew what, I suppose, most of us don't.

More than 7,000 women in the 1920s would agree with her, for that's how many responses The Farmer's Wife magazine received. These women were dead serious about what they thought about that question. And it, undoubtedly, required taking more time than we would have to give it today to sit and compose their thoughts by hand--no emails, no texting, no cut and paste. They wanted to be heard.

The book made me think about what I'd want for my own daughters as I considered my own life. What have I given so much of my life to that I'd want my daughters to do likewise? What would I be so motivated about to handwrite a response to a national magazine? I know immediately...I'd want my daughters to educate their children at home--to be a stay-at-home, home schooling wife and mother. Perhaps another day I'll expand more fully on that response, but suffice it say right now that my grandchildren are enjoying and reaping the benefits of education in the home. We and they are truly blessed.

Oh, about the quilt blocks in the second part of the book.... There are 111 six-inch quilt blocks, with cutting directions and assembly diagrams, and instructions for making a sampler quilt in any traditional size: lap, twin, queen, or king. I've seen some blogs that talk about being part of an online group that's working on The Farmer's Wife blocks. Now I know what they're referring to.

But the best part to me was the letters.