McHenry Crazy Quilt Block 7 - The Mill Pond

With my husband's cancer treatment going on, I haven't been able to focus on stitching too much lately.  I've been very tired but I did finish up on Block #7 of my McHenry Crazy Quilt.

If you're new to my blog, this quilt is a traditional style crazy quilt featuring old photos of special sites in my little town of McHenry Illinois.  When I complete this quilt, I will be donating it to the McHenry Public Library.

Block #7 is devoted to the Mill Pond:

And here is the photo that I used:

The building in the background is Landmark School which will be my next block.  The school is still there and still used as a grade school today.

This is a screenshot from Google Earth of the same spot today.  Actually, it's as close as I can get to the same area where the old photo was taken:

Since you can't see the school in the above photo, here is a screenshot that's slightly to the east:

And here's a photo of Boone Creek:

Again, this is slightly east of the top photo.

The above photo is a map of McHenry from 1872 showing the mill pond and the Owen Bros. Mill:
Okay, so unless you live in McHenry, you might not be interested in the visual information.  For me it's fun to know where things were back in the day!

If you live near a mill pond, they're not a body of water created by God.  They're man made for the purpose of running a grist mill with water power.  They're usually created by causing a creek to dam which floods the area causing water pressure to run the big wheel on the mill.

In the case of McHenry, the Boone Creek was dammed to create the mill pond.  Boone Creek was named after the Boone brothers, a couple of McHenry's early settlers.  Boone Creek runs off the Fox River and is pretty much all over McHenry!  We really can't go anywhere around here without crossing over it. 

In the winter months, the mill ponds would freez and ice houses on the pond would cut ice from them for refrigeration.

Once electricity took over, water power was no longer relied on for power.  In some cases, the old mill ponds were drained and that was the case here in McHenry.  Our mill pond was created in 1851 and was drained in 1929.

Okay, I hope I didn't bore you with all this.  I just love the history of McHenry!

I'll get on with some closeup photos of my stitching:

As I mentioned above, Block #8 will be of Landmark School.  I'll get started on that as soon as I can.  For now, I'm too focused on my husband's cancer treatment which is going well but it's tiring for both of us.

McHenry Historical Crazy Quilt - Block #5 Complete

I was wide awake at 1:30 this morning so I just got up, made coffee and stitched.  I finished up on Block #5 of my McHenry Historical Crazy Quilt:

As a reminder, this building is called the North Western Hotel.  It was built in 1901 and sits on our Main St. next to the Train Station.

Here are a couple of closeups:

I haven't decided yet what photo I'll working on next.  Maybe by the end of the day....

McHenry Crazy Quilt - A H Hanley House

I'm working on Block #4 of my McHenry Crazy Quilt.  There is a particular early settler that I'm rather fond of.  Why?  I have no clue!  I've just been compelled to read everything about this man that I could find.

Perhaps it's because he owned such a huge piece of property in McHenry, close to where my parents live.

The man's name is Alexander Hamilton Hanley and this block represents his house:

This is the oldest photo I have been able to find of the Hanley house.  Sadly, this was taken long after it was abandoned.  The house was actually destroyed by fire in 1975 by (supposedly) vandals.  There are those of us who aren't so sure of that verdict.  Anyway, the house is long gone now and a bank now sits on the location where this house once sat.

Anyway, the house was built in the 1860's.  I'm trying to find the exact year to embroider on this quilt.  It had 14 rooms and a full basement.

Alexander Hanley was born in 1816 and died in 1891.  He was born in New York and came to Illinois when he was around 20. 

Here is a the 1872 McHenry map:

Most of you probably don't care but for references purposes (because there will be other blocks devoted to Hanley), he owned the land in the red area.  If you click on the map image, you can see the red dot where this house was located.

My parents live in the green area at the bottom of the map and I live in the green area up  north near the lake.

I will tell you more about AH Hanley in future posts.  For now, here are some closeups of the block:

This little bluebird doesn't show up well on the block but I'm not going for perfection with this quilt.  I'm trying to keep it traditional and Victorian looking.

Any lace that I use on this quilt is antique.  This piece is from the late 1800's.  I'm highlighting the lace pieces on this quilt with some stitching.  I don't want to hand-paint any of it.  They didn't do that in the old days! 

And this piece too is from the late 1800's:

I'm not sure that I care for the way this piece looks on the block but I'm not going to take it out.  Again, this isn't about visual balance or perfection.  It's about tradition and keeping the style within the time frame of the history that I'm trying to share.

I still have to add the little button spider and then the text.  I hope to have an answer on the actual year that this house was built by tomorrow.

McHenry Crazy Quilt Block 3 - The Train Depot Complete

I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas!  I haven't been online for a few days but I did do some stitching and finished up block #3 of my McHenry Crazy Quilt:

I also started on Block #4 but I'll save sharing that one with until tomorrow.

McHenry Crazy Quilt Block 3 The Train Depot

I haven't been sleeping well lately so I find myself getting up at 2 am and stitching.  I get a lot of stitching done in the early morning hours!  Here's where I am on Block #3 of my McHenry Crazy Quilt:

I still have a few things to add like the spider and the text.  Remember, this is a traditional Victorian style crazy quilt, not the heavily embellished blocks that I usually do.

I did over stitch the large piece of Victorian lace in the bottom right-hand corner:

I didn't want to cover up the lace but I wanted to add some color using thread rather than hand-dying it.

I'll post the completed block in my next update.

McHenry Crazy Quilt Block 3 Update

Today I have an update on Block 3 of my McHenry Crazy Quilt:

And here's closeups of some of the embroidery:

Thanks to our McHenry historian, Patrick Wirtz, I learned that new brick Train Station replaced the old wooden depot somewhere around 1922.

For reference purposes, here is a map of McHenry Illinois from the 1872 McHenry County Atlas:

McHenry Illinois is located way up north, about 50 miles north of Chicago.  We're on the Wisconsin border.

Tomorrow, I'll use the map to show ya'll where all these historic buildings are.

McHenry Crazy Quilt Block #3

I pieced Block #3 of my McHenry Crazy Quilt this morning:

This is the McHenry Train Depot.  The Railroad came to McHenry, Illinois in 1854 thanks to a man named George Gage.  He owned much of land on the West side of McHenry.  Back then it was called Gagetown. 

The original Train Depot, according to my research, was built in 1856.

In 1908, the worst train wreck to ever happen in McHenry County Illinois happened on March 30th.  There is a curve just south of the depot.  The train hit the curve to fast and jumped the tracks.  The wooden platform was destroyed but the depot didn't suffer any major damage.  The trains fireman was killed by scalding hot water but everyone else was okay.

This photo is courtesy of the McHenry Public Library. Click here if you're interested in reading more about the McHenry Train Wreck of 1908.

This is our train station today:

I don't know how much if any of the original depot is still there.  I haven't done enough research yet to find out but once I find the info, I'll let ya'll know.

So that's the story behind this block.  One more photo for you:

This is a very old piece of lace.  I've been saving it for something special and I believe this quilt will be very special.  Why?  I've pretty decided, upon it's completion to donate it to our McHenry Public Library where everyone can enjoy it. 

I started this project to take my mind off of worrying so much about my husband and his cancer treatment.  I already feel that it belongs to the city of McHenry.  But first, I have to finish it and that's going to take awhile!

McHenry Crazy Quilt Block 1 Complete

Well I must tell you, working in the traditional Victorian style is quite fun!!!  I love focusing on the stitching rather than sewing all the beads and do-dads on!

Block 1 of my McHenry Crazy Quilt is all done now:

Tell me ladies, does it look traditional?  Does it look old?  That's the look I'm going for so please let me know what you think!

Here's a closeup of the little roses at the bottom:

I've already pieced Block #2.  I started last night and woke up at 3 am this morning.  Couldn't go back to sleep so I worked on it some more and now it's ready for stitching.  I'll post photos and tell you the story about the building tomorrow.