The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from 1920s Farm Wives and the 111 Blocks They Inspired [Paperback]

Laurie Aaron Hird (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2009

Be Inspired by the Stories

In 1922, The Farmer's Wife magazine posed this question to their readers: "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, have her marry a farmer?" The magazine at that time had 750,000 subscribers, and received over 7,000 letters. The best answers to this question are included in this book, along with the traditional quilt blocks they inspired.

Laurie Aaron Hird provides everything you need to be inspired and create your own sampler quilt:

• 111 six-inch quilt blocks, with construction diagrams for piecing the blocks and template cutting directions
• Complete instruction for making a sampler quilt in any traditional size: lap, twin, queen or king
• CD with easy-to-print, full-sized templates for all 111 blocks, and printable quilt construction diagrams
• 42 letters from the 1922 Farmer?s Wife contest to give you a priceless glimpse into our country?s past

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Laurie Aaron Hird has been quilting for over ten years and enjoys working with reproduction and 1930?s fabrics. She and her family live on six acres in the country of southwestern Wisconsin, complete with animals, gardens, woods and an orchard.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Krause Publications; Pap/Cdr edition (October 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896898288
• ISBN-13: 978-0896898288
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Family & Childhood
  • #6 in Arts, Crafts & Sewing > Needlework > Quilting
  • #49 in Books > History > Americas > United States > 20th Century

More About the Author

A self-taught quilter, Laurie enjoys hand piecing and designing sampler quilts from traditional blocks.
Laurie is an avid and knowledgeable collector of The Farmer's Wife magazine, and she owns one of the most complete collections known.
Born and raised in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, she and her family now reside in the beautiful countryside of southwest Wisconsin.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No instructions for the CD, September 15, 2009

By 

Susan - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from 1920s Farm Wives and the 111 Blocks They Inspired (Paperback)

I received this book yesterday after much anticipation and it is not what I expected. Unlike the Civil War quilt book, the patterns are not diagrammed full size and there are no measurements so it is impossible to make the blocks unless you get the templates from the CD. However, as yet I have not had any luck getting the CD to load. I cannot find any instructions on using the CD anywhere in the book. Also the paper used for the pages is not good quality in my opinion. That being said, this is a beautiful quilt and the letters are wonderful to read. I would still like to make this quilt but unless I can figure out how to load the CD, I will have to redraft every block! If anybody has any suggestions, please let me know.

Added 10-19-09
The CD is fine now thanks to suggestions from many people. It is not a program but just a file of the templates, one per page. Most of the blocks are very easy to redraft and that is what I am doing as I make the blocks. This is really a beautiful quilt and book. I do wish there was a file to print out ALL the templates on a few pages as this would save lots of paper. I also would have prefered the CD to include the full size diagrams of each block. That being said I would still highly recommend this book to any quilter.

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Overall Satisfaction, September 18, 2009

By 

Wolverine "book junkie" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from 1920s Farm Wives and the 111 Blocks They Inspired (Paperback)

Laurie's new book is delightful to look at and, the finished quilt is beautifl even though the fabrics do not reflect the era.

The biggest problem with the book no where does it state the actual size of the template pieces. All 106 templates are one to a page and therefore, you need to waste paper and ink to print these out. Laurie and the publisher should get on board with today's quilter. With effort and patience you could locate these public domain blocks in BlockBase and print from there.

I would hesitate to purchase another one of Lauie's book without seeing it in person.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what it promises, April 18, 2010

By 

Harriet Richardson (Kansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from 1920s Farm Wives and the 111 Blocks They Inspired (Paperback)

The book review says "everything you need to create.....quilt." Well, that's not true. The book itself does not contain any patterns. If you just want to read the stories it's very nice. If you want to quilt--things are lacking. In addition to the book you'll need a computer and lots of paper. For quilters who don't have or use computers, having to have the patterns printed for them at a copy store will add perhaps $l0 to $15 to the cost of the book. Some 100+ pages of patterns. As other reviewers have noted that's excessive. One little pattern piece per page. In addition, I didn't catch in the reviews that there are errors in the book. It's necessary to go to the book's website and find a list of errors and their corrections. I've done a lot of sampler quilts and most of those patterns have written and printed pattern instructions on 8 pages or so. Nice stories--otherwise big disappointment, inconvenient, and added expense to create a quilt.