My grandmother and Aunts would make Sunbonnets all the time. They had a cousin who worked in a sheet factory years ago who would send them several 50 pound boxes of sheeting scraps every year. And they would make applique quilts. Sunbonnet Sues and Overall Bills using coloring books to embroidery interesting backgrounds.

They would also do the gingham dog and calico kitten poem, with appliqued dogs and cats romping around the poem.

30 years ago, they were selling their queen size quilts for several hundred dollars. Baby quilts were $50. Of course it was mostly hand done, the only machine sewing was joining the blocks. The applique, quilting and binding was all done by hand.

I wonder what they would be worth now? I wonder if any of them are around. They were funny about quilts. they wouldn't give a quilt to any of us kids growing up. If we wanted one, we'd have to pay for it like all the rest of the people.

I made this Sunbonnet a few years ago for QFK's.
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...04868067eCngTm

I remember them carefully tracing out pattern pieces with a pencil and cardboard template and cutting with scissors each piece, using each little scrap of fabric for something. I wonder if they would have embraced the rotary cutting way of quilting or would have fainted at the waste?

Just thinking....

What are your old memories of family quilters? What patterns did they make the most?

Sarah

That is one beautifil quilt, no wonder you were sad to see it go. When I was a kid one of my dad's friends brought his girlfriend to our house. We had a quilt on the frame and were all working on it. She wanted to join in so mom gave her a needle and thimble. When she was ready to leave she made a comment about how hard it had been to keep the needle from going all the way through the quilt. She had worked for a couple of hours hand quilting just the top and batting without including the back.

My earliest memory of quilting is also of Sunbonnet Sue or Dutch Girl, as my grandmother and aunts called the pattern. I remember, as a young girl, sitting beneath the quilting frame which was let down from the ceiling as all the ladies sat around quilting and gabbing!
M.Elizabeth

My brother taught me to tie my shoes under a quilt frame. When I was older the only quilts that were done were for my Grandmothers, grandchildren when they got married. Mine is worn and tattered and folded on the shelf after 46 faithful years:)