In touch with my redneck roots...

Howdy!  Let's face it...we can't outrun our roots, our up-bringing, our heritage.  It's a part of us no matter how far away from home we roam.  Check out my redneck clothesline.

Some has been stitched, some is waiting to be stitched.  It's going to be in the front yard of my hick house, which I have added to "All Around the Town," a vintage BOM by Sue Garmon.  I've adapted one of the last blocks to reflect my Alabama roots, complete with some scrabbly pine trees.  I'm sure Sue is much too fine a person to stoop to such depths of design, so I just had to! 

Many people have asked about this pattern (without my perverse changes and additions, of course).  It was a BOM offered by Quakertown Quilts in Houston, TX a few years ago.  It is still commercially available from their site here in a set for $60.00.  Due to the interest, I've decided to do a give-away of the pattern when I finish with it in February (thanks for the idea, Meredith!).  So stay tuned!

There is still more work to do on this block (like embroider that poor chicken some legs), but I just had to share the progress.  Now, certainly I did not grow up with my undies flappin' and dryin' in the breeze in the front yard of our house and we had indoor plumbing (and no old, broken-down pickup truck on blocks in the front yard), but I have to admit that you do see this from time to time when driving through the lovely state of Alabama.  To be fair, I've seen this sort of thing in every state I've driven through in this country, including Michigan, where I reside now.  Redneck is not just a southern affliction.

I looked up redneck in the dictionary.  Most definitions use words like narrow, reactionary, rural, bigoted, working class, conservative, unsophisticated, prejudiced, white, uneducated and farm laborer.  Jeff Foxworthy certainly elevated (?) rednecks with his "You know you're a redneck if..." jokes (...if you go to a family reunion looking for a date...).  Redneck, more literally, refers to someone repeatedly laboring in the hot sun without proper sunscreen and/or neck coverage.

I've always associated rednecks with a certain swagger, a good-ole-boy (or girl!) with a beer in one hand, chewing on a toothpick, and a Marlboro hanging from the bottom lip.  They are usually good-natured and would give you the undershirt off their back if you needed it.  It is in that spirit that I decided a redneck house needed to be settled right next to one of the other blocks I'm working on...this nice, neat, pious little church.  Ooooo...I bet the tongues will be wagging after Sunday services ("just look at the state of that house" and "well, I never..."), all in good fun with a sense of community and brotherly love, of course.  Just like I heard once, "if you don't have anything nice to say, come sit by me..."

This block still needs a few things and definitely some sheep in the neighboring pastures (and a cross on the steeple!).  Maybe the church needs one of those church signs with a clever saying or name of the upcoming sermon on it (any ideas??).

I am guest posting again on Stash Manicure today, Saturday, January 22.  Check it out!  I did a purge of some of my quilting pattern files and came up with the following five unused patterns.  I'm also including a short stack of new Halverson light chocolate fat quarters, a bottle of Roxanne's Glue Baste (which is what I use instead of pins in my applique...dot-dot-not-a-lot!), and a tube of my favorite Jeanna Kimball straw needles (thanks for turning me on to these, MaryLiz!). 

Leave a comment here at Fabric Therapy or on my Saturday post at Stash Management before 9:00 AM, Monday, January 24 to be entered in the drawing.  These patterns are lovely and you may find them to be just what you needed.  

In stitches,

Teresa   :o)