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Sunday, March 1, 2015

#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--GUEST AUTHOR NORMA HUSS ON QUILT BARNS

A quilt barn in Harrison County, Ohio
Norma Huss, The Grandma Moses of Mystery, has written one ghost mystery (to please her grandchildren, of course) and two mysteries placed on Chesapeake Bay. Her non-fiction is her father’s true adventure. Learn more about Norma and her books at her website and blog.

Quilts and Barns

How do quilts, a handmade bedcover, and barns, a large building for cows, go together? Answer—when a barn sports a quilted decoration.

It’s a natural for the place where I live, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania—the home of Amish quilts, dairy farms, fields of hay and corn. But we are sort of a Johnny-come-lately. Quilt trails are found in 48 states and Canada. A local quilting farm woman saw her first barn quilt in Ohio which inspired the one profiled in our local newspaper.

Some 7,000 wooden or Mylar quilts were created by groups such as the Grange (a farming organization I belonged to as a teenage farm girl.) They can be found following quilt trails, and they aren’t all on barns.

Here is the article from our local newspaper. And, of course, something so popular has its own Facebook page here

I had never before heard of quilts on barns, or quilt trails. In the summer, we have corn mazes, tours of dairy farms, and the Hershey candy factory. Do you have similar activities where you live? I’d love to hear about them.

A Knucklehead in 1920s Alaska
Nineteen-year-old Bill Collins travels to Alaska in the 1920s to work and save for college. He finds adventure, misadventure, and not much money. He faces hardships, finds friends, and has experiences that change a boy into a man.
During three summers and one winter, Bill survives hunger, earthquake, stomping caribou, and icicle frost. He learns about stopes, sluice boxes, and powder smoke. He finds friends, one willing to face a bear for him, and enemies eager to knife him or smash him with a twenty-pound sledge. He has one lucky day and more than a few really bad days.

This is the story of one hot-headed young man determined to earn his own way, but in his own words, a true knucklehead.
The e-book is free for five days, starting today. Yesterday’s News, a bonus short mystery is included.

Buy Links
ebook (free today and tomorrow)

5 comments:

Angela Adams said...

Lovely quilt!

Norma Huss said...

I was amazed at the variety they show on the quilt website. Lots of lovely ones.
Thank you Lois/Anastasia for asking me to visit.

Vicki Batman, sassy writer said...

I love this idea! My friend grew up near Hershey and said she could smell chocolate in the air.

Beaj said...

Thanks for the information. What a fun adventure I had looking at all the wonderful quilts. >)

Norma Huss said...

Vicki, you definitely can smell the chocolate in Hershey. (But not, unfortunately, from my home. I have to make do with a bag of Hershey kisses.)

Beaj, I love the variety of quilts too (both barn and fabric).