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I have fond memories of all the 4-H Club experiences when I was growing up, from 6-years old until I was out of high school.  In our farming area, this was one of the main social activities for youngsters, with our leader, Mrs. Hoag (Aunt Mary) to many keeping us busy and learning new tasks.

Eventually Mrs. Thompson joined her as our cooking leader.  Aunt Mary taught sewing and most everythin else. 

What did we do?

• Sewing with preparations for the county fashion shows.  I still have a feed sack apron and skirt I made at age 6 and 7.
• Preparing demonstrations of sewing and food skills that we participated in on a county level and at the Dutchess County (NY) Fair.
• Doing leather crafting
• Raising garden vegetables and flowers and showing them at the fair.  Our parents often instructed us in this.
• Raising cattle.  I never showed them at the fair, but many youngsters did.
• Learning first aid skills
• Participating in community volunteering.

Then there were the purely fun activities:

Learning to square dance, waltz and do the polka under Aunt Mary’s tutelage.

Annual picnics in the field near her home.  This was a family event.

Attending monthly movies she showed at the local town hall.  I still remember Hopalong Cassidy and Laurel and Hardy movies.  Occasionally she’d select a mystery, but all had to be family fun and “Aunt Mary approved.”

In later years, when my daughter and her cousins were young, I conducted a 4-H Club for them and their friends for 10 years.  Our range wasn’t as extensive as Aunt Mary’s, but we did cooking, arts and crafts, gardening, a babysitting class, going to 4-H summer camp and participating in the local fair.  I wanted these youngsters to have the same experiences and memories as I had even though we didn’t live on a farm.

Without Aunt Mary, Mrs. Thompson, my mom and other mothers participating in various ways, we youngsters would never have learned these skills nor had such fun in our small town.  As a mom, I wanted this experience for the youngsters in my life.

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4-H Club Memories

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We collected leaves around our home and admired the various colors we found.  I also had the children learn about the different trees.

• We would lay colored leaves on craft paper, colored paper or oak tag of the desired size.
• They could draw around the leaves and color them.
• They might put a dab of glue under each leaf to hold it to the paper and arrange a number of them this way.
• They could cut draw around leaves on colored paper and then glue them to the backing.

Next, carefully place clear contact paper over the designs on the front.  Do it a little at a time so there won’t be bubbles or creases.  Cut to size at the edges.  Then put clear contact paper on the back.

If you desire, make designs or place leaves on front and back for reversable placemats.

What kind of leaf crafts have you done with your youngsters?

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Creating Leaf Placemats

Image: sxc.hu

Some we’ve saved and some we’ve sold at our yard sales.  However, buttons often tell a story about the clothing they’re on and occasions when it was worn.  Also, if you’re a collector, buttons are reminiscent of the places where you found them.

I remember collecting buttons when we lived in Denver.  My husband was attending airline pilots’ training, so our 2-year old daughter and I took walks around the area of our apartment for exercise and entertainment.

We made the acquaintance of the owner of a thrift store and stopped in almost daily for a chat.  Here I browsed through her buttons, and she gave me those she didn’t want.  She cut them from clothing no longer useful to her and added them to the button collection.

I did dressmaking for another button collecting friend.  Miss Iva  introduced me to the craft of sewing buttons onto fabric covered cardboard to make designs.  She then framed these and hung them on the wall.  My daughter, then 8-years old, was fascinated.  So I tried doing this with my 4-H Club girls.

What crafts do you undertake with buttons?  What stories do they tell?

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Collecting Buttons – Some Tell Stories

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The fabric came from feed sacks my aunt had given me.  There was enough to make a drawstring apron as well as a skirt with a casing and drawstring to gather it around my waist.  I was so proud of these and wore the skirt in the Dutchess County 4-H fashion show our club participated in.

In fact, I still have the skirt.  I must get it out of the box of memorabilia and compare the fabric to that in this photo.

Do you have memory fabrics from earlier quilts and clothing?

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Memory Fabrics for Quilts & Clothing

As I watched the first and second graders learning to square dance in music class, at the school where I was substitute teaching, I recalled my younger years in a farming community. Our 4-H leader taught my friends and me to square dance, waltz, and polka.

This prepared us for the monthly community square dances organized by the fire department and ladies auxiliary of firemen’s wives. Children and adults, whole families attended these social events in our town.

The ladies also served refreshments consisting of their home baked goodies. These they sold to raise money for the fire department.

 Quilting Bee Dances

This reminds me of quilting bee times when the ladies gathered at one another’s homes. Then in the evening, the menfolk and sometimes the children, joined for a meal and games or dancing.

If there was space in the hay barn, a place was cleared for square dancing. A neighbor might play his fiddle and call the moves.

It’s interesting, I find, how various memories can be connected to one’s own quilting, as well at that done in history.

Do you have any quilting bee and/or square dancing memories to share?

©2008 Mary Emma Allen

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Square Dancing & Quilting Bees