Here we are once again continuing on the farm quilt journey. It has been a really new experience for me and has been a good challenge. As I go along, I sometimes find it seems to have taken on a life of its own, but it has opened my thoughts to new creative idea's, and that always brings me joy. I think back on all my days as a farm kid, and all the good memories of things our family did there, and it makes me want to capture some of the fun that farm life gave us.
These first two pictures I want to share are of a silly wooden cow that I have sitting on the top of my refrigerator. When I was trying to think of a cow for my farm quilt, I looked up and saw my cow up there and thought, how funny is that?! I think one like it will do. I did not make this cow, it was made by someone back in the 1980's or 90's, when these wooden cows were all the rage. It was just purchased by me from a 2nd hand store back in 2019, but I thought it made for great inspiration. So decided I would just sketch up something like it.
Here is my sketch of not only the cow, but also a sheep. As you might notice the cow hasn't any horns and is taking a nap. She has eaten her fill at the haystack and is ruminating. As to the cow, sans horns, any farm kid knows, milk cows on farms do not have horns. It's not because they weren't born with them, it's because they were removed when they were young calves. You can't get a cows head into a milk stanchion if they have horns, so they are removed. Also they will injure each other.
I wanted at least three sheep and after I drew up the one, I just fooled with it in photoshop to resize it, to get the lambs I wanted. Handy program that. The haystack in the picture wound up somewhere else entirely, but that will appear on a later blog.
Meanwhile, I thought I would start on the cow, so got it traced onto some thin white fabric, which is just an old twin sized bed sheet. I traced it using the old tape the picture and cloth to the window method, and hoping for sunlight. I wish I had a light table, but don't have the space, and sunlight is so much cheaper. lol I cut out the white tracing and stitched it down to some black sheeting, after which I colorized the parts of the cow with some fine tipped indelible markers. This gives me a good guide for thread color choices later. I first thought that I would just use regular thread as I had done on the farmers hair, but didn't like how it looked, so moved on to the sheep.
Here is the ewe all traced and cut out ready to be stitched down on my roll up embroidery frame.
After I got her all squared away, I did the same with the lambs. I wanted the sheep to be a bit more three dimensional so decided on black felt for their ears, face, and hooves. My drawing of the eyes didn't work for how I wanted them to be, so I used tiny little white felt balls for eyes for them, which I stitched down through the centers with black thread. You don't know how hard I laughed when I first saw their silly eyes. They must have been happy too, because they got such silly grins on their faces afterwards.
Then in a moment, I can only say of abject insanity, I decided what they needed was truly a stitch that would look like real sheep wool. So that is how I hit upon French knots, using cotton crewel thread. I did what seemed like thousands upon thousands of French knots, 'til my fingers were sore, my eyes were crossed, and I wore out two needles. What a slog and a half! ...Because of her larger size I chose to do the ewe's eyes a bit different from the lambs. I backed the tiny black felt balls with a small white piece of felt. This accented them better and sized them up correctly. Also like her lambs, her face, ears, and feet are black felt too. Whew! I thought the sheep would never end! But they did, and look so cute!
Here is a picture of all of them on my embroidery frame. This is a handy type frame to have if you don't have a big enough hoop.
The closeup view shows them all, just after I completed the sheep. You will see at the top left where I cut out one of the chickens. This was not a good idea, as it made it harder to keep the frame tight for doing the sheep and cow. I learned later how to tighten the frame from the sides. When I bought this frame it didn't come with any instructions, and as I am not a person who grew up embroidering in this way, it has been a learning experience. I didn't know the trick of pinning flat hem tape to the sides of the fabric and wrapping it around the side of the frame to tighten the sides of the fabric. This would have made things so much easier.
Here is a close up of my finished lambs. I was afraid of running out of white crewel thread, as I still had the cow to do, so decided pink and lavender would be just the thing. I think it made them so cute. They look like cotton candy. Maybe I should call them Pinky and Lavender?! And their mother, Ewenice. lol
Now that I had the sheep all squared away, I could get on with the cow. Cotton crewel thread, with fill in stitches, was just the ticket. I liked it so much better than the plain sewing thread, plus it went together quicker and made for better texture. She looks just like the umpteen Holstein cows I milked for the dairy farmer I worked for, those many years ago. Doesn't she just look so docile?! I can tell you, never trust a cow that looks like it is sleeping tho, some of them are not asleep, they're just ruminating on their next piece of mischief. I remember one cow I had to milk that stood just like that through the whole milking, but just when you had finished, she would put one of her back legs into the milk-pail or try to kick it over. Another loved to lay down in the barnyard muck and get her tail all covered in poo, and then swat you in the side of the head with it as you were milking.
As a kid I used to think all cows should be made into hamburger. Of course that was usually right after milking time. They weren't all bad, stupid, or aggravating. Some were quite gentle, like our Jersey cow named Mollie. She was a sweet gentle red cow that gave lots of cream, and was a dream to milk. But Holsteins are a different breed entirely, and as a whole I found them infuriating. Then again maybe it was just the ones this farmer had?!So why, you might ask, would I make a Holstein for my quilt?! Well I have many memories of them, good and bad, and it is to remind myself what a blessing it is I don't have to milk them anymore. lol
Here they all are, up close, and waiting to be put on the quilt. Sorry for the bright red. I put them on my red tablecloth to take pictures and didn't realize how crazy bright it would look. My lighting isn't all that great in my dining room where I sew, but I do the best I can.
Here is the cow and lambs stitched to the quilt. I thought the cow would be fun placed among the tree's, because cow like, she enjoys nothing better than to make Freddie hunt for her at milking time. Plus its cooler in the shade. The lambs love to follow the cow around for some reason, so I placed them on the far left side of the quilt. This makes their mother rather frantic, as she is on the other side of the quilt wondering for the bajillionth time where they have gotten off to?!
Here is the ewe not far from Freddie, because she likes to snatch corn kernels from his feed pail whenever he is not looking. This makes the chickens get in a snit and is why the lambs were able to get away. Freddie has shewed her away for the umpteenth time, as she can get rather rambunctious, and likes to head-butt the pail out of his hands. Doesn't she just stand there looking sheepish now tho?! Now unlike the mean sheep I grew up with as a small child, my sheep are much cleaner and far better behaved. Freddie would never keep mean animals on his farm, but he will permit a bit of mischief.
Thus ends this segment of the Freddie Finklemeyer Farm saga. I hope you have enjoyed it and it gives you inspirational idea's for your own projects. I never realized when I began this all that it would be so much fun. Quilts were not a medium I have really done a lot of before, and hitting upon the idea of story quilts has been truly a journey in creative problem solving and imagination. What else will be next on this funny farm adventure?!
I hope you have all enjoyed this episode, and also that you have a God blessed day!
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