Little House on the Prairie Quilt: Block 5

Finally getting back to making this quilt!  Block 5 is the last block from Farmer Boy.  It is a snowball pattern with two sled appliques.  This block reminded us of the handmade sled that Almanzo's father made him for his 9th birthday and a funny story that involved pulling the sled behind a pair of oxen calves.  Based on the book's description of how Almanzo's father made the sled, we thought the sled applique we used best resembled that description and might be very close to how it actually looked.  

One Saturday, Almanzo was working on breaking the oxen calves in getting them used to taking commands.  A pair of French boys that lived nearby came to see Almanzo, and he got the idea of rigging his birthday sled to be able to be pulled behind the two calves.  The French boys were a bit skeptical at first but then they quickly joined Almanzo on the sled.  The calves were not used to having Almanzo give them commands from behind them (usually he walked alongside them), so they got spooked and began to run really fast.  The following paragraph from the book made us laugh: "(Almanzo) went headlong into deep snow, yelling, "Haw!"  His open mouth was full of snow.  He spit it out, and wallowed, scrambled up.  Everything was still. The road was empty.  The calves were gone, the sled was gone.  Pierre and Louis were coming up out of the snow.  Louis was swearing in French, but Almanzo paid no attention to him.  Pierre sputtered and wiped the snow from his face, and said: "Sacre bleu!  I think you say you drive your calves.  They not run away, eh?"