In 1907, the Webb Publishing Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, created The Farmer's Wife Pony Club. Children who joined competed for prizes by selling subscriptions to The Farmer's Wife magazine. Some of the prizes included bicycles, talking machines, and rifles, but it can only be imagined that most children were working for the grand prize, a Shetland pony with a saddle and often a carriage. To satisfy skeptics who doubted a child would, indeed, receive a pony, they asked the winners to send photographs of themselves with their ponies. Thankfully, many of the children also sent in letters along with their photographs. These endearing, poignant, and sometimes hilarious letters provide a unique window into the lives of children and their families in America in the early 1900s.The Pony Club Quilt has 90-eight inch blocks and measures 96" x 105."
The enclosed 400+ page CD has something for every quilter
A complete set of templates for each of the 90 blocks
Foundation patterns when applicable
Rotary cutting measurements when applicable
Full-size line drawing of each block
Quilt assembly diagrams for lap, twin, queen and king sizes
Favorite Excerpts
There isn't a store in town where "Larry" hasn't been in. He goes in the drug store and the druggist knows he wants ice cream and he bows enough to say, "Yes." He gives him a cone of ice cream and "Larry" will eat every bit of it and then looks for more. Then he will drink pop and root beer right out of a glass in the drug store. Then the druggist gives him some gum and he will chew the gum and I am on his back all the time. (Wilford Schaffer, Grant County, Minnesota)
When I received your good letter telling me I had won "Winkle," I just leaped for joy and clapped my hands. I ran to the telephone and told my aunt I had won "Winkle" and his outfit and she was so overjoyed she ran about one half mile across a cornfield to break the news to grandpa about my success. Aunt is a large fleshy woman and just imagine how funny she looked running across the cornfield to break the news to grandpa. (Myrtle Pearl Holbrook, Wilkes County, North Carolina)
I must tell you some of the cute things my pony "Sweetheart" does. One day mamma was picking cherries and "Sweetheart" was around the tree so he knocked the ladder down and mamma had to stay up in the tree for some time until someone came and put the ladder up for her. She scolded "Sweetheart" and told him to go and amuse himself somewhere else, so he chased the chickens until he caught one by the tail. Then he trotted back under the tree mamma was in and held the hen in his mouth and looked up at mamma as much as to say, "This is something new." He does so many cute things. (Lillias. E. T. Howe, Nevada County, California)
I am not going to drive "Ray" any this summer or ride him, just let him enjoy life. He is just too cute for anything. I am going to teach him to say his prayers and then I am going to take him to Sunday School with me. Everyone is just wild over him. (Irene Brooks, about 5 years old, Cheshire County, New Hampshire)
"Hector" rides on the automobile sometimes and that makes him feel like he is the biggest horse in the country, but when he is down again, he sees that he is only a little Shetland Pony. (Verna Beerbohm; Cuming, Nebraska)
