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Saturday, July 14, 2012

Arkansas Heritage leads me to quilting greatness...I hope

To celebrate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the state of Arkansas has created a passport program which encourages visitors to check out 23 different civil war locations throughout the state. Once you get stamps from all of the sites you can earn a special patch or coin commemorating your travels. We love history and traveling in our family so it was a no-brainer that we would try to complete the passport. Plus this is an awesome way to learn more about the state we live in. To date we have hit 18 of the sites.
We visited the McCollum-Chidester House in Camden, Arkansas last weekend as part of our passport travels. The house was built in 1847 and is filled with period furniture and family items that belonged to the Chidester family.
The McCollum-Chidester House. Photo from Arkansas Heritage Trails.
It really felt like a trip back in time, except for the two bored little boys with us. I'm not sure why they don't find furniture and stories of the "old day" fascinating...we'll have to work on that. Although days later Little Dude recounted a play scene that he heard at the house, so perhaps there is hope.
A wonderful writing desk from the McCollum-Chidester home.
Of course, the things that always catch my eye at historical locations are quilts. I'm not all that talented of a quilter, but I aspire to be. In one of the bedrooms of the home there was a beautiful hexagon quilt. I'm kicking myself for not having taken a photo, but this bedspread was the kind of quilt that made you want to be a quilter. So, I found myself online buying some fabric for my hexagon masterpiece.
I've never sewn hexagons or done this much hand quilting so we'll see how this turns out. I love that history is inspiring.

1 comment:

Jana Iverson Last said...

Looks like fun! Old historic homes are so fascinating!