Monday, May 5, 2014

Waste Not Quilt Block and the Theme of Survival as a Pioneer


Do you love to quilt AND love to read?  I invite you to join the free, online Quilters' Book Club.  Each month, we read a book, discuss it through comments on my blog posts, and then make a quilt block to represent that book.  I research several potential blocks to go with the book's themes, setting, main characters, and events.  And I find the patterns free on the internet, making it easy for everyone to access.  Each member can choose the block or blocks they'd like to make.

To join, become a follower of my blog so you won't miss any blog post.  To make it super convenient, you can also sign up for my posts to be delivered right to you via email.  It is never too late to join and begin reading and sewing along with us.     


Our book to read and discuss during May 2014 is THESE IS MY WORDS: THE DIARY OF SARAH AGNES PRINE by Nancy E. Turner.  It's historical fiction set in the Arizona Territory from 1881-1901.  The author based the book on the life of her great-grandmother.  Get the book from your local library or bookstore and join us!  It's also available on Kindle right here. 


If you would like to make a quilt block to represent the book's theme of survival as a pioneer, here are three ideas to get you started.  Clicking on each quilt block's name will lead you to the free pattern. 

Theme:  Survival as a Pioneer

Hard Times Quilt Block


Waste Not Quilt Block shown above



Do you have any pioneers in your family's past?  Inquiring minds want to know! 

You might also enjoy reading my previous blog post Christian Cross Quilt Block and a Song for Sunday.

10 comments:

  1. My mom's relatives crossed the Appalachian Mountains into Ohio (before it was Ohio) in an ox drawn wagon but I think my father's grandfather was a pioneer too as he set out from the Bohemia-Moravia border for a far away place called Minnesota.

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  2. No pioneers that I know of. I find it humbling to read stories of these incredible people who set off to new places and new countries and somehow survived to make new lives for themselves and their families. The strength of body and of mind that pioneers had puts us softies to shame. As I read "These is my words" I imagine which character I might be in Sarah's story - not one of the survivors I think!

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  3. I enjoyed reading this month's selection several months ago. It really shows the hardship and tenacity of our pioneer relatives. My 3x great grandfather went to the Dakota territory with his second wife, youngest son and daughter. He and his son were the first whites killed at the beginning of the Sioux uprising. His wife lost the homestead, partly because they had to evacuate the area for over a year. Her letter "back home" was heart wrenching.

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  4. My father's great grandparents went to the Dakotas where they lost a twin boy and the other boy lost his hearing due to childhood disease. I don't remember which one.

    My mother moved to Michigan from New Jersey and her mother's family thought they were really moving West and wanted to know about the Indians. Of course Michigan was quite settled by the early 1900s.

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  5. My Irish Grandfather Lynch sailed from Ireland to America in 1846 at the age of 12. He led an adventurous life, fighting for the Union in the Civil War, heading West to homestead in Lyon County, Kansas. My Swedish Great Grandfather Swenson emigrated to America, homesteading in Riley Co, Kansas. Pioneers, especially the women, had to be strong to survive all the many difficulties.

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  6. My grandmother came to this country from Sweden.

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  7. we live in my husbands home place , have a tax receipt from 1855 that his g-g-gs paid, are redoing the house that stood here then

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  8. No pioneers that I know of. They stuck close to the middle of the country.

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  9. My great grandpa came over from Germany in mid 1800's. Love the blocks this time. I have to pick up my book from library.

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  10. I had several pioneers that came west with the wagon trains. I had a couple families sail over from England. One was married on the ship.

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