In my previous two posts, I outlined that I am creating and posting one block a day of the fabulous That Town And Country Quilt by the lovely Susan Claire. Today is day three of that project!

A quilt block on a green background depicting townhouses and a tree. The tree is in the corner, while the townhouses are both vertical and horizontal as if built on a corner.

This is the first “corner block” in town. This quilt is laid out in rounds, similar to a monopoly board. How she dealt with all the corners in this quilt is so clever.

The first thing that crossed my mind as I did this square was the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. It’s a book that most of us read sometime in our lives. The tree in the book is an Ailanthus tree, also known as the Tree of Heaven.

I imagined these were urban apartments set right downtown, close together with fire escapes in the back where people climb out of windows to watch the stars. On the corner is a tiny patch of grass with an Ailanthus tree that’s big enough for little boys and girls to climb and dream. This experience is not something I have first-hand knowledge of, as I grew up on a little ranch where the wind blew all the time, and we didn’t have even a tiny tree.

I now live on a larger farm where we raise grass-fed cows, pigs, chickens, and eggs. I have now grown aspen trees that are big enough for my young grandchildren to climb.

Happy Dreaming!