Today I continue my quest in creating and posting one block a day of the fabulous That Town And Country Quilt by the lovely Susan-Claire Mayfield. This is day three hundred and sixty of that project.

This quilt block shows a very large house against a blue background. The house is two-storied, with two peaks in the slanted roof that's coming down towards the viewer. The upper floor has six square yellow windows, each outlined by a black stitching. The lower floor has an awning coming out that's supported by white pillars. The awning and the roof are the same color dark brown. Behind the white pillars, also outlined in black, are four square yellow windows. These windows are two on each side of a round dark brown door with white stitching. It's indeed a large hosue. — Click To Enlarge

Lars and Ebba built this house to accommodate their large family.

With the intent that it would be home to Olsson’s for generations to come, and so it is three generations later that Martha’s daughter Arin and her husband Richard Olsson-Lindgren live here.

Over the years, as their family grew and the house grew, so did the landholdings of the Olsson family. Arin and Richard still work the land and care for it as Arin’s grandparents did.

They have seven children. Six strapping sons and one daughter, Lilly. The boys are a great help on the farm and, for the most part, enjoy the work.

Fortunately, two of the boys have the desire to continue the family tradition of farming. Lilly shares her mother’s love of fabrics and quilting. She works in the quilt studio with Arin, designing and quilting.

Arin has a longarm business, and Lilly is a big help to her and can, at 14, use the long arm almost as well as her mother. The Olssons have always been pretty self-sufficient. Very little of what they eat doesn’t come from the farm.

Sugar and coffee are two notable exceptions. Vegetables come from the garden, and fruits from the orchard. Flour is milled from the wheat they grow. This way of life was paramount to Lars and Ebba.

They passed the conviction to their children, who in turn have instilled it in their children. This is not an easy task in today’s world, as everyone knows. It seems, with few exceptions, to have “stuck” with almost every Olsson.

They attribute it to old-world stock, hard work, homeschooling, family love, and fierce loyalty.

Over the last three generations, the Olssons have produced a couple of doctors, three lawyers, architects, CEOs, teachers, police officers, a blacksmith, farmers, an interior designer, and a potter.

I’m sure Lars and Ebba are resting peacefully.