Little House on the Prairie Quilt: Block 18

Our second block for "These Happy Golden Years" is about the first sewing machine that Pa purchased for Ma by selling one of their cows.  As you can imagine, a sewing machine made a huge difference in how quickly an article of clothing could be made!  Ma had desired to have one for many years, but knew they couldn't afford one.  It was fun to read about her excitement in finally having one!  I had to search a little bit longer for a pattern for this block, because I knew that I wanted to applique a sewing machine on it.  This meant that I needed a pattern with squares more than triangles or stars.  I was really getting discouraged until I finally found the Farmer's Wife pattern!  Given that Caroline was a farmer's wife and it had a square center block in order to feature the sewing machine, it was exactly what I needed!  I found some cute fabric with sewing notions on it and then used coordinating colors for the rest.