Here’s a UFO that’s been over 40 years in the making!
My mom had gathered and stitched a number of Sunbonnet Sue blocks (she calls this pattern “Dutch Girls”—not sure if that’s a regional thing or what), many of them from bits of our childhood clothing, some of which were little dresses that she’d made herself. I think that we three girls also stitched some of the blocks: the quality of the blanket stitching varies greatly!
Over time between the four of us, there were almost 60 blocks. Mom kept saying and kept saying that she was going to put them together into quilts for each of us girls, but the blocks languished in a duffel in her closet. At one point, maybe 15 years ago, I helped her divide the blocks into three piles, one for each daughter, and she put sashing on some of the blocks.
Well, fast forward to now. I’m retired now, and I reminded Mom about the Dutch Girls one day, offering to help her with the project. (Mind you, my mom did sew dresses for us when we were kids, but she’s never made a quilt and at this point has no sewing machine.) She wanted to just give the whole thing to me and let me put the quilts together, which I’m happy to do.
In that duffle she handed over to me, I found a LOT of solid fabric intended for sashing (and possibly backs, thought I went in a different direction), 58 completed Sunbonnet Sue blocks, some with sashing sewn to one side, and 1 block with the pieces pinned to the background fabric with pins long rusted with age. To get to the 60 blocks needed for 20 for each girl, I completed the pinned one and made one “new girl” from scratch.
I jumped right in with this project, as I’d like to give the quilts to my sisters for Christmas this year; I want Mom to see them completed. She’s in good health right now for her age, but still. So here we have the first one that I completed of the three.
This was a fun project. The blocks varied in quality of fabric as far as the muslin and even in the heights of the girls. I squared them all up to 11.5 x 9.5, and for cornerstones picked a fabric that this sister will like. I quilted it by machine which I guess is a bit of a sacrilege for such a quilt, but I think it’s fine.
For the back, I picked fabrics that have a secret meaning to each of us girls and did wide strips of each; I’ll use the same fabrics for the backs of all three quilts.
Now, to take a break from Sunbonnet Sue and work on #10 from my UFO list!