My Farm Quilt Revisited Part 8

 Today's episode starts off with another inspirational post card. I knew I couldn't make an old timey farm without an outhouse. I have so many memories of humble outhouses in my childhood. From ones on our home places to those built by the Civilian Conservation Corp, (CCC), in parks all over this country. They came in every size and description. Before indoor plumbing and roadside rest stops, there were outhouses. So here is my homage to the lowly privy.

 

This goofy card is another from my collection. There is something about the humor and artistry of these things I have always found appealing, so have picked them up over the years at different antique shops and 2nd hand stores. I never thought at the time I would be using any of them this way, but this one was too good to pass up. 

It took no time at all to modify this for my purposes. I didn't want to have to draw one from scratch and this outhouse was very close to what I wanted, so I soon had it sized and ready for cutting.

Once again I got so caught up I forgot to take pictures of all the steps, so I will just say that I did it much the same way I did the lady. Whenever I can't trace a thing, and as I don't have any ink-backed carbon paper, I just print off a couple of copies of the picture in the size I want, and cut it to pieces. Tracing around each piece I rebuild the image onto the fabric. This method worked really well for this one, because it was on heavy linen that wouldn't work with the window method. Comparing the two pictures you can clearly see the changes I made. 

This small scrap of linen holds special meaning to me. It was a small scrap left over from a handmade, entirely sewn by hand, linen caped coat that I made for a friend for his re-enactment's at Fort Boonesboro, Ky and Martin's Station, Va. I thought it the perfect scrap to use on my quilt and I'm sure he would have approved my using it. The hoops you have seen me using are also very special, as this same friend gave them to me. They are very old and belonged to his grandmother. It was through her that he was the fourth great grandson of Daniel Boone. 

After the complexity of the lady, it was really nice to just do a simple embroidery piece. I just used several shades of brown embroidery floss from my stash, and black French knots for the nails on the door. A bit of permanent fabric ink for the moon vent hole and the seat hole and the outhouse was done. I decided it could use a bit of greenery at its base so free handed a bit of grass and weeds. I used brown ink to age up the boards a bit and it was finished. The sweetest little loo you ever did see!

 

When the privy was done, I got to thinking, where are the kids that had their clothes on the line? I had the one kid on the runaway horse of course, but he didn't seem enough. I took another look at the old "Dern" card and thought I could use the kids from it.

I soon had them in photoshop to see if I could improve them. One thing I knew is that I didn't want them paired up like that. They reminded me a bit too much of, "children of the corn!" Maybe it is the pose, or maybe it is their eyes? I don't know, but they struck me as being just a smidge too creepy.

 

I redrew their faces and I think they look so much better. I gave him a Sears catalog and her a little pocket. Had I known just how much of a challenge these two would be, I might have chickened out and done something else. They are only three inches tall, and mistakes were made, that nearly ruined them, but hey it's all part of the learning experience isn't it!? Not knowing I soldiered on.

Here is an example of what I mean by cutting out all the pieces. The picture of course doesn't show his shirt under his overalls, so I had to cut one out of the picture and then cut another out for the overalls. In the end it worked out very well. The fun one was figuring out how to get the layers right. His left hand has to go over the catalog and the catalog has to lay over his overalls. This was a real pain, working with things so small.

 

Here he is tho. I even managed to write SEARS and CO on the catalog. It just made me laugh to see it. Everything was looking really good, but then I decided to put a tiny dot of blue ink to color his eyes. For some crazy reason, this color just decided to bleed, so now he looks like he has eye-shadow on his right eye. I needed to black out the trim edge with black ink and it too decided to bleed. I think the thin white cotton was to blame. So he now he had black smudges on his face. At this point I was nearly in tears, but decided to just go with it. I used some of my brown ink to blotch his overalls up. This way he looks actually like the average farm kid. Grease smudges on his cheeks from helping his grandpa with the tractor. A black eye from who knows what escapade?! Probably in a jump out of the hay loft. And stains all over his overalls from helping his dad stain the outhouse. See all can be salvaged with a bit of imagination. lol I was going to need it!

Then it was on to the little girl. If you thought the boy was difficult, she was a doozy. Stitching both of their tiny little faces was just the start!

 

I had to cut out her dress along the entire outline, then draw up her sleeves and cut them so that I could layer it over her pinafore. Oh the joy that was! I think the funnest thing on these two was doing their hair. Just random stitches in two and three colors, in the direction you thought the hair was going. It was down right soothing!

Here I've got the pinafore on and am stitching it in place. Did I say this was tiny? I don't think I've done such tiny work before in my life. I have made tiny stitches, when making lace designs, by combining lace pieces for my wedding dress making days, but this was far more difficult in my opinion. The pinafore had to be cut to lay under the sleeves and over the dress, so it took a bit of maneuvering. Then I had to be sure and not stitch down the sleeve ends until I had the hands on. I gotta say she is looking cute tho. I was so glad to find this tiny yellow floral print in my stash for her dress.
 

 

I think the thing I loved the most about this little girl, was her boots. They are made of black felt and finished off with white French knots for buttons. They sorta remind me of the old Holly Hobbie girls boots from my childhood days. She has her little checkered pocket, which I just free hand made from a tiny rectangle of the cloth I used on her grandpa's shirt. Her hair-bow is pink embroidery floss outlined with black thread. I was of two minds about that, and thought at first I would use tiny ribbon, but in the end I thought it too shiny.

Once I placed her cutout on my quilt however, I noticed that her pinafore was so white you couldn't see the details. This is were I made the grave error of thinking I could just give the sash on her waist a bit of pink ink. You would have thought I had learned from the near hazard that happened to her twin brother, but nooo, I was slow on the uptake on that one.

 

The minute I tried to use the pink ink it bled. I had even been very cautious and had tried to barely touch the cloth. It didn't matter. The ink just spread out like spilled milk. What could I do?! It was a mess! My solution was to stitch it in with matching pink embroidery thread. Making a wide waist-band to cover it and stitching more pink on her collar and around the edge of her pinafore, and pink lines up the front to match. It's not the greatest, but it looks better than what it was. And you have to admit it really stands out now doesn't it?!  Sigh...you just try making tiny pink lace-like stitches for a collar, and hope it doesn't turn into, "send in the clowns". ha ha ha

The other thing I had forgot was making drawstring cords for her pocket, so I did those too. 

 

My high school sewing teacher pounded into us, "Details details, it's all in the details, so don't forget the details." Well I hope she's satisfied now! That poor girl got detailed to the nth degree!

 

I still for the life of me don't know why the inks bled in some places on this fabric and not in others?! Or why some colors did it more than others? It's part of the challenge I guess. She wasn't what I originally envisioned, but as a farm girl she will do. What I will say here is she looks better in person. 

 

Trying to take pictures is hilarious, my lighting is so bad. It didn't help that the light-bulb in my work lamp blew out part way through this project, and all I had was a low light yellow l.e.d. bulb. This yellowed things badly, so I do apologize. Plus the nature of a quilt is lumpy, so of course my people look lumpy too. Her eyes for instance do not look so weird in real life.

I was never so happy to get this portion done. Here the twins are on their way to the outhouse. Their mother Etta has sent them there to replace the Sears catalog. The little girl is not keen on the chore and so has left it to her brother. She does not like anything dirty or smelly. He doesn't mind, as the farm is full of smells, tho some better than others. 

I was so happy to do a set of twins for my quilt. I myself am an identical twin, and I had first cousins that were a set of fraternal twins, like these two. Twins have run in my family for a long time, so I thought it only fitting that there be some on my farm. It is their clothes on the clothesline, that the goat looks about to eat. 

 

I do hope you have enjoyed this latest addition to my quilt. Tho things didn't go as planned, I still think they came out fine. It was just one more thing to solve. Sometimes the solution makes it better than the original, at least one can always hope! 

 

I hope this quilt gets your own creative juices going, and inspires you to try something new. I would never have thought going into this, that it would have become as fun and interesting as it has.

 

I pray this finds you all enjoying good health and happiness, and having a God blessed day!