Book Review: The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from 1920's Farm Wives and the 111 Blocks They Inspired

The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from 1920's Farm Wives and the 111 Blocks They Inspired.  Laurie Aaron Hird. Krause Publications (2009). 256 pages. Genre: Non-fiction.

First Line: "The year 1922 lies between two important events in American history."

Summary:  In 1922, The Farmer's Wife, a popular women's magazine, posed a question to their readers: "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, want her to marry a farmer?".  Cash prizes were offered to the best 68 answers submitted.  The best answers to the question are included in this book along with the quilt blocks they inspired.  

My thoughts:  I am not a quilter, but I do enjoy quilts.  My interest in this book was the letters written by women living in the rural areas of America in 1922.  I was first made aware of this contest when I came across this blog post. It includes one of the letters that was left out of the book.  I was so intrigued that I wanted to read more.  

Each page of this book includes pictures of two quilt blocks inspired by one of the letters along with a transcription of the letter.  The quilt blocks are beautiful and I was fascinated by the names given to them.  But, my favorite part of the book was the letters themselves.  

The magazine received over seven thousand responses from their readers and 94 percent of them stated that they would, indeed, want their daughters to marry a farmer.  

My heart and mind were filled with the daily details of life for the 1920's American family.  I was struck by how many of the letters mentioned time for reading as a benefit of the farm wife's life.  

"Her leisure (she really will have more than the city dweller might suppose) will be spent in delightful companionship with the good books and magazines her education will have taught her to appreciate."

"The average farmer's wife who plans her work can find a number of hours for reading, writing and social pleasures and in this day of autos and good roads, has time and opportunity for movies, concerts and lectures."

"I also am interested in dietetics, child-welfare books or magazine articles, good farm magazines, and, for recreation, books by good authors, poets and playwrights.  I probably read about eighty books per year, besides magazines."

Something else mentioned in many of the letters was the wholesomeness of life in the country.  The children would not spend all of their time away from home with their friends, but rather families spend time together and with other families.  Husbands would not be tempted by women who practiced vamping.  This was a new word to me, but the author provided definitions of some of the words that came up repeatedly and that would be unfamiliar to modern readers.  Vamping is "practicing seductive wiles on men." 

"On the farm my daughter's husband and her growing boys are more aloof from vicious allurements.  Instead of vaudeville and moonshine, they have box-social and friendly games of skat.  Vamping is very uncommon, and the necessity of birth control is not so apparent."

Many of the letters spoke about the difficulty of farm life, but they all said they wouldn't trade it for city life.  Most of them spoke of time spent outdoors.  One woman ended her letter this way:

"So, I want my daughter to marry a farmer and I want to see her in her own home on a good American farm with the cleanness and wholesomeness of country life lived close to nature, in daily intercourse with flowers and birds and bees, chickens, and cows and pigs, horses and autos and tractors, pianos, Victrolas and telephones, with all the joys and pleasures of an American home in God's wonderful out-of-doors."

Another benefit mentioned that I thought was interesting was not having to worry about keeping up with the latest fashion.

"On the farm, you are quite independent of fads and fashions.  Cotton stockings, sun-bonnets, bloomers and overalls are all right, and you feel happier than the walking fashion-plate."

I really enjoyed reading these letters.  If you are a quilter, the second half of the books gives directions for each quilt square and how to put them together.