Farm Quilt Revisted Part 9

This is the final episode in the saga of the farm quilt. It has taken a fair bit of time, but has been a very nice project. There were  times I wanted to just quit, but something always drew me on. One of the most enjoyable parts of it, was never really knowing what would be on it next. I didn't start with a plan or a sketch, I just made it up as I went along. Also I could work at it as I chose, so some days I didn't work on it at all and did other things. But here we are at the end and I am satisfied, I gave it my best shot.

As I was finishing off the prior portion of my quilt, and digging through my stash, I came across this Christmas fabric I had used for making Christmas bags and ornaments. All along I had wanted some cats on my farm quilt, but had forgot all about it. Just when I thought I was entirely done with the quilt, I saw this, and immediately saw the possibilities of having some cats after all. These cats are just too funny for words, which is why I bought the fabric in the first place years ago. They were also just the right size for what I needed.

 

It was the simplest thing to cut them out and stitch them onto my quilt. I just cut them out a little wider than they were and inked the edge in black ink. I named this cat Brigadier, but we just call him "Brigs" for short. He's a very dignified cat. The twins have been playing dress up, so the cats are all very well dressed.

I love this big orange cat. He reminds me of the huge barn cat, that lived on the farm where I worked as a teen. It was a huge cat, because back in those days we fed the calves protein pellets that had growth hormones in it. The cat loved those pellets and would often go down into the feed troughs to eat it. Thus his enormous size. He was more like a dog than a cat. He was pretty shy and avoided people, but was really tough on rats, mice, and gophers, so was a very good barn cat. I sometimes saw him lounging up high on the stacks of hay-bales in the barn, and always marveled at his size. In honor of a cat my mother in-law had in college, I have named him Noodles.

 

Here are two playful cats, who seem to be trying to climb this tree. What on earth are they up to? The cat in the green sweater is called Doodles and the yellow cat with the green collar is called Toodles. They are up to something, I'm just not sure what?! They sure blend into the sunflowers well don't they. The better to sneak up on unwary mice, to be sure.

Here they are under the fir/apple tree. What is going on? Where is Pawdge? He is never far from Toodles or Doodles, as they are the three musketeers of mischief. Wait! Is that him I see up in the tree? What has he got himself into now?  Molly the cow seems oblivious to the fact that she could have a cat on her back if Pawdge panics and jumps down. That cat is always getting himself into coils. He's not the brightest of cats at the best of times, and Toodles and Doodles sometimes egg him on, and then he does things, without thinking of the possible outcome.

 

Yep! That's him alright! I'd recognize those beady eyes anywhere. I might have known. Freddy is going to have to go fetch a ladder, because sure as shooting, Pawdge is stuck up the tree. No wonder Toodles and Doodles were meowing up it like mad. The only surprise is, is that they weren't up there with him.

What naughty cats!

In the warm months Freddy often milks the cow out in the pasture, or in this case the woods, as he lets her free range. The cats like to follow him down from the barn, in hopes of getting squirts of milk while he is milking. This is why they have roamed so far from the barn. No doubt they would have been heading back after Freddy fed the chickens. Now he has a cat to rescue. 

Life on the farm is always full of adventures, or misadventures. It all depends on how you look at it.

I have named the lambs, aptly, Pinky & Lavender, they too are twins. I have not named the chickens at all. Freddy calls them all Chick and when he feeds them he calls, "here chick, chick, chick", and they all come running as fast as their legs will carry them. Even the rooster comes running. He is so tame he sometimes flies and lands on Freddy's arm, just to get to the corn faster.
 

It's a good thing Etta didn't see the cat fiasco, or she would have been fit to be tied. She has told Freddy there were too many cats on the farm, and thought it high time he gave some of them away. The truth is, Freddy loves his cats and doesn't want to part with them. They are endlessly funny, the kids all love them, and all are very good mousers too. Don't you agree?!

This is the bottom left-hand corner of the quilt. I think the three cats fit in well with the sheep and the cow. They like to mess about in the woods and never bother the other farm animals. They are too well fed on rodents and milk. They don't even chase birds. 

This marks the official finish of my quilt. The only other thing I added was a bit more embroidery at the base of the tree's.

 

On this bottom right-hand panel, you can just see Brigs sitting near Freddy. Even Scotty the dog knows better than to mess with Brigs. When Brigs gets angry his hair stands up and he turns into all claws and teeth! On the far right is Ewenice the Sheep. She is anxious, for her twin lambs have run off again. They do love a good wander and soon she will hear them baaing away for her and will have to go find them. Where is Bo-Peep when you need her?! Oh, that's right, she doesn't figure in this quilt does she. ha ha ha

Here is the top right-hand panel of the quilt. This is just trying to give you a closer view of things, so you can see how my layout went. The twins, Bonnie and Billy, are headed to the outhouse, through the young tree farm, not far from mischievous Bufford the goat. This part of the farm is fully fenced, which is why you see the animals all out and wandering at will. Freddy doesn't believe in penning things in, except in the winter when the weather gets cold. Then all the animals move into the barn. Etta doesn't always agree with him, especially when the goats go after her laundry or flowers.

 

Her mother in-law, who I have name Beatrice, but who prefers, "Bets", has promised to watch out for the meddling goats, so she can go off to her ladies aide meeting. However, Bets isn't really paying that much attention is she?! She is too busy hoeing her tomatoes, with her back to the goats. If it wasn't for her garden goose, "Gaffer", the chickens would soon have the garden rooted up too. To say nothing of "Nibbling" the rabbit. He is worse than Peter Rabbit of Beatrix Potter days. He isn't allowed in the garden, but has snuck in anyway. Gaffer has spotted him tho, and will be giving chase post haste! If Nibbling doesn't hot foot it out of there, Gaffer will be giving him a good pecking. Gaffer is not going to be nibbling the rabbit, that is the rabbits name. I wonder how that name occurred to me?! Because rabbits are always nibbling. Bad joke I know...oh dear...

Here is the top left-hand panel of my quilt. It has the house and barn and Buckeye the horse taking off with young Ferddy.  Well, his name would have been "Freddy, jr.", if the clerk had got it right, but the fellow was not too sharp and spelled his name on the form "Ferddy", so he was stuck with it.

Below them is Grandpa Furnish Finklemeyer, left holding the rope, but everyone just calls him, "Gramps". He is a short fellow, but for all of that he is a very good farmer. It takes a special know-how to grow sunflowers and that is their main crop. You can't imagine how many things sunflowers can be used for. Not just bird seed that's for sure!

Just below and to the right of Gramps is Penelope the nanny goat. She is already in trouble, for she is eating a patch of Etta's tulips, right under the nose of Grandma Bets. What Etta will say to her mother in-law, when she see's that, I hate to think! Maybe there will be talk of goat stew?! She would probably settle for a proper goat pen, but goats are fantastic escape artists, so trying to keep them in a pen is really a challenge. That and Freddy doesn't like pens, as I said before. I do wonder if he doesn't truly like pens or he doesn't like building them?! Now there's a question!

 

Here is the bottom center, with Briggs and Noodles, and Freddy and the biddy hens. They are all enjoying the sunshine, and the chickens the cracked corn also. Don't you just love Freddy's floppy straw hat? I think drawing up his and his wife's hats was one of the most hilarious parts of this quilt. Second only to the stalk of wheat in both his hat and the mouth of Molly the cow. Learning new stitches can put you in stitches and no mistake. I mean laughing of course, not the kind you get from a gash on your shin. Some might ask, why isn't there a pig? That is a good question, but having raised a few pigs in my day, I thought the smell of the barn was strong enough, and Etta already had her hands full of wandering animals. The amount of damage a rooting pig can do in a short amount of time, is truly amazing. So no, you will have to be content with imagining a pig lives next door or down the road or something. Just as long as you don't live down wind. 

In grade school, our bus had to pass a huge pig farm on its way to school. I can attest there is simply nothing else that smells as bad as pigs! Well, unless it's the tanning place, we had to pass in going to my older siblings high school. This was not a place where folks went to darken their skin, believe me, but a place that processed cowhides into leather. It smelled hideously bad too. I pity anyone who had to live near either of those places. Only a gas mask would spare you the miserable smell. A thing they do not give out to children on school buses.

 

Here is the top center panel, giving us a panoramic view of everything from the older barn in the center to the newer barn and  house. The big yellow house had been Gramps and Bets house back in the day. But when Freddy married Etta and moved to the farm. Gramps and Bets remodeled the small old barn into a house and moved down near the garden. They live on the bottom floor and upstairs is a large open room where Etta & Bets have their quilt frames, spinning wheels, and weaving looms set up. The new barn was soon built and life went on merrily with Freddy's and Etta's ever growing brood. Farms always need lots of work-hands, so having large families ia always a boon. A farm is one never ending chore and many hands make for lighter work, or so the old saying goes. Having grown up on farms, I can attest that the chore part it entirely true. There just never seemed to be enough hands to make the work feel lighter. 

Here we take a moment to revisit what this quilt looked like in the beginning. It started out as the center panel and grew into a quilt, 41" x 45.5" in size. Quilting this by hand was the very first time in my life I had done hand quilting. It was a good challenge, which I felt was a good thing when I was done. I set it aside and went on to make another center medallion quilt. My Cat Attack quilt, and tho it was smaller it was so much more challenging. Not being entirely satisfied with how the farm quilt looked when "finished", I decided to revisit it. Thanks to a lovely lady called, Marion, of Marion's World on youtube, and her wonderful sewing skills, I was inspired to just go for it and see what happened?! I am so glad I did.

 

Here is my farm quilt, all finished. My son was kind enough to hold it up for me to get better pictures. Such a difference from the plain simple quilt before! To me, the cats just made it all come together in the end. Now my quilt seems so lively, if a bit quirky. Which is so like me! The latter I mean. It was nice enough before but sort of ho hum. Now it is a living working farm, with no end of funny characters on it. I love it!

If I had to choose which characters I like the best, I think it would have to be the goats. Every time I look at their smirking faces it makes me laugh. The whole project brought me such joy, and you will never know just how much it helped me through this past, and sometimes difficult, year. I have put hanging pockets on the back of my quilt, and hope that I can find a place on one of my walls to hang it, so I can see it every day. It brings back so many memories of those days on the farm, when I was a kid. 

I hope this quilt has brought joy to you too. Thank you so much for tagging along on my farm quilt journey. I wish you all the best! Have a God Blessed Day!