jzaaboo

I started quilting as a teenager and my Dad told me his mom quilted; she would make tops but never quilt them. I was 3 when my grandmother died, so I didn't remember her. I stopped quilting when my son was born, and started up again 3 years ago. I had made my Dad's sister, Aunt Joy, a quilt two years ago, and she loved it. She said she had some blocks of her mother's that she worked on when she was pregnant with her. My aunt is almost 89 years old. Joy had always intended to finish them, but never did. She said it was her Mom's plan to blanket stitch them. I was excited to get them, they were Sunbonnet Sue blocks, she called them "Dutch Girl". They were in poor condition, just hand basted, and all of them have brown age stains on them. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of SS, but I blanket stitched the one out of the 20 blocks that were facing right, the remainder are facing left. It was hard to take out basting stitches that old, I almost wanted to leave them in. I made the blocks around it with actual 20's and 30's fabric, plus some reproductions I had. I scrubbed it with a paste made out of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and Borax, and the stains came out!

I'm planning to give this block to Joy, I'll going to either make it a wall hanging or get it framed, depending on what she prefers. I'm going to fly to El Paso next week to show it to her. I'll make the other blocks into a quilt, but make wall hangings out of 4 of them to give to my brothers and sisters. I'm going to finish these so they don't go another 89 years without being completed.

RedGarnet222

Will you be putting the grandma's name on it somewhere? I think that it would be sweet for anyone seeing it to know who made it and when.

feline fanatic

Wow, what a lot of work to get the stains off. You did a good job and I am sure your Aunt Joy will be overwhelmed by having one of these finished up.

StickyN

Wow...what a great quilt to have the privilege to work on.

jzaaboo

Yes, I am going to put the history on the label, and on the full quilt will likely make an embroidered block. The full quilt will have a 12.5" square of 1.5" blocks alternating with the Sue's.

grammysharon

How nice of you to finish something so special for your Aunt!! Turned out great!!!

lynnie

great idea framing it. or a pillow. wow, 89 yrs old!

QuiltnNan

what a treasure... nicely done

francie yuhas

Have you tried a product called retro clean? It works well on mature fabrics...

sewingsuz

What a treasure this is for you to work on. No one in my family has anything that a prior grandma or aunt has made.