Happy Halloween & Giveaway time!

Good Morning to Everyone and Happy Halloween,

Now this will really scare you! Here I am on the left, my sister is on the right standing in front of the House on Edgewood Lane in the 1950's. (Don't you love my bangs!) We were so proud of our fish that we caught with our Dad.

Here is the side view of the house in one of the first snows on the season. See the snowball in my sister's hand that she was going to throw at me!

I loved this little house. So much so that it inspired me to make my first quilt pattern.

This is what I've written inside the front cover of the pattern.........

The origin of this quilt came to me when I was thinking about the first home that I remember growing up in as a child in the little community of Paradise in Northern California. My parents were tired of living in the San Francisco Bay Area and decided they needed a slower pace of life to raise their two small girls, my sister Gail and me. My father bought eight acres with a small house, chicken coop, barn and corral without my mother seeing it first. Now that is what I call trust. They packed up all of their belongings with crates of chickens tied on the back of the moving van and headed north.

When my mother saw the house for the time, her first thought was to toss in a match and start over. Back in the early 1950’s, (now I’m giving away my age) money was very tight so they proceeded to turn the little house into a little cottage. It just goes to show you no matter what your circumstances are in life, you can turn your surroundings into a little piece of heaven with elbow grease, love, determination, and of course a quilt or two.

While designing, piecing, appliquéing and quilting this quilt, memories of that home came flooding back to me just like it was yesterday instead of five decades ago. I remember the rhubarb growing by the squeaky back door. There were many happy hours picking berries down by the stream with Grandma Ross. I remember running through the sprinkler on the front lawn on a hot day. I loved visits from our “city” cousins and playing outside until dark. To light our way, we would pick daisies and put them in a mason jar which became our lantern. I remember birthday parties, getting my first doll one Christmas, my first dog named Blue, watching Howdy Dowdy on a very little black and white console Philco television. We put many a mile on the Radio Flyer wagon and then rode off into the sunset on the saw horses just like Dale Evans and Roy Rogers. It was a time of double-dog-dares from my sister and I still have the scars on my knees and elbows to prove it!

Of course I remember getting my first quilt from my berry-picking Grandmother that she made on her treadle sewing machine out of leftover scraps from clothes she made for my mother and herself. I still have the quilt, and I have the treadle machine that is in working condition.

I was seven when we left the house on Edgewood Lane in 1959 and moved into town. I have many happy memories of my first home. Most of all, I knew I was loved and was being raised in a loving family. It was where I developed my sense of place and sense of self. That is the story behind this quilt. I invite you to make your own “first” house. I double-dog dare you!

So just to see if anyone is actually reading this blog, I'm giving a pattern away for The House on Edgewood Lane. Travel down memory lane with your thoughts and really think about your "first house" and make a comment about it in the comment section. What was your favorite memory? I'll post the winning comment on Wednesday, November 4th.

I double-dog dare you!

As always,

Lynn