July Monthly Mini

 

My mini this month, is reminiscent of one of the many summer jobs I had in my youth. Our neighbor, Howie Davison was a well seasoned square dance “caller” who owned and operated the historic, “Merry Barn” in Edgecomb, Maine. He held square dances every Saturday night from June through September.

 He also took his microphone on the road to teach at many of the summer camps that are so prevalent in our beautiful state of Maine. It was my job to demonstrate the dances and help keep everyone “in step”. We lived a pretty sheltered life in our rural setting so it was a great experience to meet children from various walks of life. It was definitely my favorite summer job. Of course, given that babysitting and filling bait bags for lobster traps were some of my other obligations, it seems an obvious choice. 

 The center of this mini is from one of my vintage feedsacks. It is a border print and I have it in 3 colorways. The 4 corner blocks are from another vintage feedsack and the yellow print is a c1940 fabric. After I had stitched the border on, I noticed that the poor guy in the center had a boot on top of his head!

I didn’t have enough fabric to cut another piece so I simply appliqued a semicircle over the boot. Hardly noticeable after quilting! 

The backing is also a vintage feedsack.

Obviously square dancing was a popular theme for early 20^th century fabric manufacturers.  I’ve named it, “Swing Your Partner” as that was my favorite “call” in square dancing.

 Get your toes and fingers tapping and click to see what our friends have been up to.

Quilting Babcia (Amity Quilter)

Randy (Barrister’s Block)

Cathy (Big Lake Quilter)

Cyndi (Busy Thimble) 

Grace (City Mouse Quilter)

Barb (Fun with Barb)

Gladi (Gladi’s Quilts)

Shasta (High Road Quilter)

Julie (Julie K Quilts)

Kathy (Kathy’s Quilts)

Katy (Katy Quilts)

Sandy (My Material Creations)

Angie (Quilting on the Crescent)

Barbara (Quilts, Gravestones and Elusive Ancestors)

Kyle (Timeless Reflections)

Cynthia (Wabi-Sabi Quilts)