Week 36 - Sunbonnet Sue

Oh that Sunbonnet Sue! It seems you either love her or you hate her!!

Our block pattern this week was very similar to the one in this quilt, made for Norris' mother by her grandmother, when she was a baby -

This is definitely a 1930's era quilt with the bright pink and 21 Sues!  I had the quilt for a time because it had been put away, suffering from too much love and use.  

One thing these Sues have that most do not is the detail of embroidered hands, and a bow on the back of the bonnet in black floss. The floss was also used for the applique, and unfortunately, it did was not up for that job long term.  Several years ago, I repaired the binding, applique, and quilting on these Sunbonnet Babies and, after a good vacuuming for dust and a soak in an special quilt-restoring bath, they all look good as new.

Barbara Brackman explained why she chose this block, "Is she a baby or a faceless woman? The ubiquitous doll can remind us of all the girls who've rebelled against becoming 'an entirely ornamental young lady.'"

So I decided to make my Sue the faceless woman, and chose an older looking, hard-working Sue for Dana's quilt.

I put the block on point so she will stand upright in the quilt.  Her arm and parts of the watering can don't stand out very well in the photo, which is just a little washed out. If it's not just the lighting, they'll get help from my quilting.  When I've looked at this in other light, I may also decide to outline the arm and watering can in darker thread, much as the black thread was used to decorate the 1930's Sues.

Week 8 Cotton Boll

This block is made of four of the same units as make up the Kansas Dugout. I made the Kansas Dugout units for the border of the Great Bend quilt (seen here) by cutting squares, placing smaller squares in the opposite corners, and seaming corner to corner.


This time, I decided to use a fabric with a lengthwise stripe centered in each quarter of the block. This would result in bias edges on the corners, so I used EQ to print four paper piecing units.

No worrying about measurements, and now the block is basted to paper, where it will remain for this next year while the rest of the blocks are being made. The paper will keep the bias on the outside edges from stretching the many times this block will be moved and handled.

Kansas Troubles

This week's block is Kansas Troubles - I made mine in pretty roses because they remind me of Norris' mother, Ella.


I made this block once before, in a small sampler quilt I made for Ella using all the blocks that were used in the Great Bend Kansas "Quilt Walk" - where quilt blocks were created in the sidewalks surrounding the Barton County Courthouse. The quilt featured the blocks Kansas Dugout (I used it to form the pieced border), Rocky Road to Kansas, Kansas, Windmill, Farmer's Daughter, Kansas Star and Kansas Troubles. I made it for her when she sold her house there to move to N. Georgia after living in Great Bend for almost all her life.


My Kansas Troubles block in Ella's quilt used a different distribution of lights and darks than we are using following the Block of the Week model. I based the colors in this one on the color distribution of the Great Bend sidewalk blocks.

It is an interesting coincidence that Barbara Brackman's Civil War Block of the Week was Kansas Troubles, so close behind Kason's quilt that featured the KU Jayhawk. Jayhawk is a term coined prior to the Civil War that was used to describe the Free State faction in Kansas. The Jayhawkers were part of the violence described in this week's edition of the Civil War Quilts blog.