All week Joan at Moosestash Quilting has been hosting the Say What? Blog Hop where you share a quilt with a story or perhaps a word quilt. Thank you Joan for the great challenge.
OK what should we do? Let's look in the barn.
There are all of the poles to hang tobacco. The sheds had poles too. Some still remain hanging.
Should we relocate the tobacco sticks? That would be back breaking work. There is 50 sticks to a bundle. Some of the sticks are over 100 years old having been handed down to dad from older farmers long ago.
Well I bet you can guess what my quilt is all about. It is a story quilt of our farm. So pull up a hay bale and let me tell you about it.
I grew up on a tobacco farm. We grew a few acres of burley tobacco . The last crop was planted in 2005 .So I decided to create a quilt in honor of our farm crop.
This quilt is pieced from scraps, hand appliqued and hand quilted. The words " Burley Tobacco Grower" is embroidered in the strips.
As a child, my job was to help plant, pick up the sticks of tobacco once they were harvested and help hang the tobacco onto the poles in the barn.
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| I used the reverse of some of the fabrics for the leaves. I also embroidered details in the leaves. |
As an adult. I drove the tractor, and again heaved those staked tobacco sticks onto the tobacco wagon.
This is one of dad's tobacco cutters. He painted the handle yellow so he could see it for he is color blind, and it would be easy to spot in a field of tobacco.
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| The background of the fabric is small scraps of fabric pieced together. |
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| Old tobacco spears |
Did you notice that I included a water jug in the field? Mom would save milk jugs and freeze water in them. In the hot August heat , the water would melt quickly . Oh, how refreshing the ice cold water was while working in the field. . The same was done during hay season as well.
Any whoo! The staked tobacco would stay in the field until evening time so it would wilt down a bit and by dusk ,my siblings and I would be riding on the hay/ tobacco wagon as the tractor chugged down the hill to the tobacco field. Then we would begin loading the tobacco. In no time, we would have it hung from the poles in the barn and there it would stay well spaced in order to have good circulation . It would be cured and during the winter time, dad and mom would grade and bale it and have it ready for market by mid winter.
Well ya'll ,we didn't get any farm work done, but that is okay for we had such a lovely visit. I sure appreciate you taking the time to visit the farm .
There is no life like farm life - well at least in my eyes.
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| Well, hello there. We have a visitor ! |
Have a beautiful day and if you have the chance stop in and visit all of the other ladies on the blog . You know they are going to have lovely quilts, projects and stories to tell.
As always...
Happy Stitching and Quilting, ya'll
Melisa
Thank you for the sweet visit.
Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds. - Gordon Hinckley
The family farm is more than land and crops. It's our family's heritage and future.
Hugs and Stitches!!!!🤗🧵❤
Dedicated to my baby sister, Amy who was our youngest tobacco farmer. Love and miss you, Amo.
Monday April 17
Tuesday April 18
Wednesday April 19
Thursday April 20
