“The Farming Memories”
Mark 4:26-29 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
You might say I was a little obsessed with putting all my farming memories on fabric for the Potato Blossom Festival anniversary quilt. I decided to make duplicate squares and start my own quilt of my potato farming memories. I still had several sketches that I thought would be perfect for a quilt. This time for my squares I added another layer of memories. I had a piece of chintz fabric that my grandmother used to use in some of her sewing projects. After thinking about it, I decided that for each square, I would somehow try to incorporate a piece of chintz into the design.
Chintz is a shiny fabric used for things like slipcovers, pillows and even draperies. Like a cotton, it is similar to calico and often has several designs on one panel. My grandmother often used chintz when she would make aprons, either for herself or to give as hostess gifts. She might cut out a flower as a pocket or to embellish the apron.
If you have been following The Nose Bump Blog, you know that some of my recent blog pages have been sewing tutorials. This page is a combination sewing tutorial and history of some of my farming memories put on fabric.
Exodus 35:35 He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.
“Cutting Seed”
During my farming days, I cut a lot of seed potatoes by hand and picked a lot of rocks by hand. Today’s seed is all cut by machines and most rocks are all picked by machines. Naturally these were two squares that I had to include in my farming memories quilt. Some of them I could see in my mind, I just needed to get them onto fabric. Sometimes I don’t do well with dimension, however I think you will recognize the designs.
One thing I do when I appliqué and have small details, I will use a light weight interfacing on the back of the fabric. As above in “Cutting Seed” and below in “Picking Rocks,” the small potatoes on the seed rack and the rocks in the field and the rock cart, these details are quite small so I stabilized them with interfacing. Sometimes I might only need a small square like 2 1/2“ x 2 1/2“ square to get whatever it is I need from it. And then sometimes I might need a the larger piece that I might even be using the same color for something in a different square. The interfacing gives it a little more stability especially when you’re moving the square a lot to do all the appliqué.
“Picking Rocks”
One of my grandfather’s cousins used to come to visit us every summer and he always told me that he didn’t know how I could pick any rocks because he had picked them all when he was a boy!! I always told him I think he missed a few.
“Monkeyface”
Some of my designs were rather easy like “Monkeyface Work Gloves.” What a thrill to ‘graduate’ to the Monkeyface gloves!! The bright yellow and red or blue cuffs!! I could hardly wait to get them dirty!! I still have an old pair on the porch, on the potato basket, that I dust off occasionally.
“The Planter”
Some squares had more detail to convey the block like, “The Planter.” When a square that had the same thing, like in “The Seed Rack,” the cut seed in the barrel, I used the same fabric to also portray the cut seed in “The Planter.” I tried to show my rows of potatoes being covered up by the discs of the planter.
My childhood dog used to follow us up and down the rows for miles. I had to include him.
“Dinner Time”
Two other farming memories that I turned into quilt squares were, “Dinner Time” and “Gingerbread for Coffee Break.” During planting season and especially harvest season, my grandmother would be busy preparing the meals for dinner and supper. We stopped for dinner at noon and could smell the delicious meal as we were coming in the house. She had Apple Franciscan dishes, so I found a piece of fabric with some apples in it to incorporate the dishes into the dinner time square.
Every once in a while my grandmother would come out to the field and bring us out an afternoon coffee break. One thing I especially remember her bringing out to the field was gingerbread cake with whipped cream. We would stop, turn a barrel upside down for a table, use other empty barrels as chairs and have our coffee break.
“Gingerbread for Coffee Break”
For these two squares I also use interfacing on my small pieces. I didn’t really know how to make people so I decided to use shadow forms and they too needed to be stabilized. I also used interfacing on the plates, the clock, the gingerbread, the whip cream, the thermos, the coffee cups and the gloves. In these squares, I incorporated some chintz in the clock and as the whipped cream using pieces of white chintz.
Each farmer had their own logo to identify the potato barrels in case they left one at the processing plant or maybe one fell off the truck and would be in the ditch between the potato house and the field. Many farmers would just paint their initials on the barrels. I think my grandfather wanted something that was consistent and easy so he made a stencil using his initials. My grandfather’s initials were GC and he designed a logo that was basically a C in a diamond, <C>. I still have the stencil which I use on my porch for my hangup plants. I used my alphabet embroidery feature to create the logo on the barrels in the farming quilt.
“The GMC”
I carried my barrel logo into the other squares that also had barrels like our GMC Potato Truck. My grandfather had a two row digger and a potato picking crew. After taking over the farm, my parents went ‘mechanical,’ investing in a one-row barrel potato harvester. It was a big move at the time. Thinking back on it, I expect they had a choice of getting the barrel harvester or a one-row harvester with a boom for a bulk truck. It’s my belief that they went with the barrel harvester because they had so many barrels from my grandfathers potato picking crews.
“The GMC” represents loading the truck during harvest nearing the headland of the field. Maple trees are on the headland in beautiful fall golden leaves. If you look closely the fabric design is actually oak leaves, however my trees are maple trees and most of them are still standing.
When I got my first teaching job we loaded up the potato truck with all my worldly possessions, and my parents helped move me into my apartment. Who needs a U-Haul when you have a potato truck?!! Probably all my new neighbors thought it was the Beverly Hillbillies arriving with a rocking chair on the old truck.
“Maples on the Headland”
Whenever it was possible when we were planting potatoes, picking rocks, or harvesting potatoes, we would stop and park under the Maples for our coffee breaks and welcome the shade. A sun safety tip that I know more about now than I did then.
The square is a farming memory for summer, so the trees I selected green leaves. For the rows of potatoes, I found the green and white stripe that I was hoping showed the rows of potatoes as still somewhat small plants as the leaves were not yet meeting in the middle of the rows.
“The Potato Blossom”
The Potato Blossom square was the first one that I did for the 50th anniversary Maine Potato Blossom Festival quilt. I knew I had to do a duplicate square for my farming memories quilt. For this square, I actually made a paper pattern for my leaves so that they would be all pretty much the same. Then used two different green fabrics to kind of show a little shadowing. I also tried to use some brown under the leaves a little to show the dirt under the leaves. I made another pattern for the blossoms and cut freehand stamens from yellow chintz.
“The Back Forty”
The Back Forty has a lot of different fabrics and a lot of memories in it. We would drive tractors, walk or ride bikes ‘down back’ all summer. Spring and Fall too as we would get to the fields to plow, harrow and spray.
Depending on the season, we would benefit from the fruit of the land. Down the lane were wild strawberries that we would probably eat more than we picked, and bring back baskets full of berries. My mother would usually make a strawberry shortcake with some of them and make some strawberry jam that we would be able to enjoy all winter.
On our rock piles were raspberry bushes that also provided a lot of berries. My mother and grandmother would make raspberry pies and freeze some for later.
We also had a few blueberry bushes. There were not very many so we didn’t get as much fruit, but when we did my mother would make fresh blueberry muffins. The strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are all from my chintz fabric.
Another product from the land we had was honey. We had bees for a while, maybe three or four years. They loved the clover and produced delicious clover honey.
When we picked rocks and went to the rock pile to dump the load, we had to go by the brook. So naturally we had to stop, cup our hands and get a drink from the fresh water. It was the best water in the world!!
Usually we raised two types of potatoes, Katahdins, or round whites, and Russets. Some years we would raise Cobblers. For fabrics to represent the fields, I tried to pick greens that showed some type of lines for the potato rows and the grass for oats or buckwheat. We also grew peas as a rotation crop. I can almost taste new Cobblers and petite peas as I write!!
“There’s a Cup on the Hook”
At the well house we had a holding tank for water to fill the sprayer to spray the potatoes for pests. There was a cup on the hook to get a nice cold drink of water from a spigot. In Spring the apple tree was full of blossoms and by Fall you could pick an apple for a snack.
”Winter Work”
For my farming memories quilt, I wanted to represent all the seasons, so where the other potato house I depicted in summer, this one I did in winter. I again used my white fabric that looked like it had wood grain in it and folded it in such a way to create clapboards for the front of the potato house.
There was a lot of work to be done at the potato house in winter. My father would haul potatoes to the plant pretty much all winter where they would be shipped out and processed into something like French fries. One load was fifty-five barrels pretty much all shoveled by hand using a potato fork.
When he wasn’t hauling potatoes, he would spend time fixing some of the potato barrels that were in need of repair. If he bought new barrels, he would stencil the logo on them, evenly spaced in thirds around the top.
By the time Spring came around, we would begin to cut seed for another season of raising potatoes.
My grandfathers men plowing, my father operating our harvester and my neighbor harvesting potatoes in the same field.
“The John Deere”
Like The H, the John Deere 3020 tractor had a lot of details. By the time I appliquéd the John Deere, you would have thought I would be better with figuring out dimensions to better show a little 3-D, but I hadn’t quite figured it out. I used my John Deere green and yellow as in “The Planter” and used the chintz for the headlights.
The tractor was like a Cadillac. Compared to The H, the John Deere had power steering and power brakes. It was also an automatic. Parallel parking was a breeze!!
“The Plow”
Sometimes I look at the plow and cry. I have it on my lawn, I guess you could call it a lawn ornament, with some daylilies and a rose bush planted near it. When I look at it I think of all the miles my grandfather walked the rows of potatoes. One row at a time, just him and his horse tilling the land, it’s sometimes hard for me to even to imagine.
2 Corinthians 9:10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
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