"Country Links"

Last October when I was in the states my sis and her husband took me to the fairgrounds where their insurance provider (Farm Bureau) was having a meal. In reality, it was for the members of the insurance provider to come to a meeting so they could vote on things. It is a local insurance company - not sure I completely understand it.

One of the things that they did, besides having a meal, was that they gave us tickets for various drawings.

After the meal, they had a very short business meeting, and THEN they had the drawings. This is really what everyone was looking forward to. They had chain saws, plants, and various other prizes donated by local businesses from our home town there in Dade City, FL.

Oh, by the way, there were a LOT of people there.

We saw how excited people got by winning these prizes. We thought that the chain saws were the best ones.

Incidentally, my sis told the lady nearby she would probably win something since it seemed like every year when they went that their table neighbors won - but they never won. And you know what? Sure enough - she did win something!

I asked my sis if we could donate a quilt from the Quilted Twins since we are a local company, for the next year’s drawing.

My sis said she wasn’t sure, so she dropped by the company a few days later and talked with them. They said, “Sure!’ The only requirements is that it has to be farm themed.” I thought that was fair enough. So, I brought some fabric back from FL with me to Poland and figured I’d make this quilt in the next few months.

I knew I needed to make it classic - and of course, I had to work with the fabrics that I had.

So, this is what I ended up making!

I am planning on making some throw pillows to go with it and 2 pillowcases! Then the whole set will be 1 queen size quilts, 2 throw pillows and 2 pillowcases. I think it will be a pretty nice prize! Needless to say as I’ve been working on it, I was getting some serious feelings of inferiority. We have some very good quilters in our town in Dade City, FL.

I finally decided to not worry about it and just get on with making it and quilting it.

If the quilt police want to pick it apart, well, they will do it whether or not I stress about it! I figure MOST of the people at this dinner aren’t going to be quilters. Hopefully one of them will win it.

I only write this part to show you that all of have moments of anxiety - even if you don’t think they do.

I am pleased with how it turned out - very pleased. I think it is ‘classic’ enough to appeal to most people. If a truly “modern quilt” fan gets it, well, they will just have to find a loved one to give it to, because it probably won’t appeal to him/her! but maybe they aren’t customers of something so “country” sounding as a Farm Bureau!

The fabric included were canning, farm themed fabric including tractors, chickens, sunflowers, cows - mostly from my sis, but I did add some from my own stash, plus some gardening fabrics. The fabrics vary from Rachael’s Picks to VIP to Quilting Treasures brand I believe. It’s all here!

I did a basic overall loops as the pattern and I used this old looking fabric for the backing. (It’s one of my Polish fabrics!)

I did update the pattern and put it back on the Free Patterns page. Just look for Country Links.

I’m hoping that this is something I can continue to do. We’ll see what goodies my sis can get in the store so that I can come up with something even more fun! I do know she’s got a very, very cool looking blue tractor panel coming later this year. Hmm.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

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Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

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