Sunbonnet Sue & Overall Sam

I know I should have cropped the picture a little closer, but how about a little credit for my quilt holder / painting holder / whatever project holder.  You never see him in the pictures of my paintings, but he's usually behind them... literally. 😉

Surprise!! I made a quilt.  No... I am not a quilter, but I did make a quilt. I saw the description of a six-week class that promised completing a project. Since I'm still trying to figure out exactly who I am as a retired person, thought I'd give that a try. 

Both of my grandmothers made quilts, and I loved the stories behind them... who wore the dress that this scrap came from... what shirt  got ripped so it got cut up and used for this square... who helped stitch this one together...

I see quilts on other blogs that are simply works of art, the way they put colors,values, and geometric shapes together to create their stories. Fascinating.

My imagination was flipping through intricate quilt patterns of small pieces of fabric sewn in perfect alignment.  My common sense was reminding me that I was pretty close to a beginner.                          I chose to do an applique pattern of Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam because it reminded me of a quilt my mother had that she called her Dutch doll quilt.

There were a lot of fond memories that came to the surface as I chose fabric scraps to use.  The navy background was from the my son's first set of big-boy sheets. The top Sue's dress came from scraps of Raggedy Ann dresses I made for my daughter and me 25 years ago.  The bottom Sue's dress came from the Raggedy that I made 30 years ago and eventually used for a painting 6 years ago.  The white backgrounds are from a sheet that came from my mother's linen closet and had "Powell" written in black magic marker across the edge; probably one of my brothers took it to camp or college 40 years ago. The middle Sam is wearing a hat and shoes from one of Ron's work shirts that got a rip in it.   The pockets of a pair of Ron's former dress pants became the shirt of that Sam.  The top Sam is wearing overalls that were once a pair of his shorts. And on and on... All of the other pieces came from the fabric scraps I inherited when I cleaned our my mother's stash.  She'd never throw a perfectly good piece of fabric away.  You just never knew when it might be the exact thing you'd need. 

Each lady in my class had a story... "Already gave mine to my grandson..." "From the blocks my grandmother made..."  "For my granddaughter..."  Precious, precious, precious!  What a pleasure to meet, get to know, and work alongside these ladies.

I said above that I had made a quilt but that I was not a quilter.  Many of these ladies were quilters. They knew the quilting lingo... had the tools... knew the tricks... and... Oh, my goodness!  They could sew straight lines that perfectly intersected other straight lines.  They were quilters.

That could be the end of this quilt's story, but oh, no. That was the history part.  Now about the process... sigh... It has a happy ending... but like every good story, there's a twist.

SCENE 1

The process started like it should. I chose my pattern and learned about how to use a product called Wonder-Under to keep the pieces from fraying. I gathered my fabrics, selected those that I thought would go together, cut, ironed on the Wonder-Under, and tried to attach the dolls to the background.  Hmmm... I thought it was supposed to stick. It didn't.  I gave up and tried to use some Stitch Witchery. Ugh. That didn't work too well on the paper backing.  Well, old fashioned pins were okay, but it was hard with the paper.  Anyway... it worked. Next came putting the blocks together then adding the batting and backing. I used a tight zigzag around every little papery-feeling piece (Let me just give huge respect to quilters who manage to sew on those huge projects!  OMG! I'm glad mine wasn't any bigger!) 

SCENE 2

When I headed back to the next class I was ready to do some stitching in the ditch on all the seams (Do not enlarge my photo and look closely.  I more or less did stitch in the ditch, beside the ditch, close to the ditch, make the corners look like they meet stitching.)  As I was happily sewing at the machines with my quilter friends... the mood changed...

ME: I know y'all like it, but I am not a fan of the Wonder Under.

FRIEND 1: Why?

ME: I hate how it makes it feel all papery and crunchy."

FRIEND 2: What do you mean?

FRIEND 1: Didn't you take the backing off?

FRIEND 2: You know, to make it stick?

ME: What? Mine didn't stick?

FRIEND 1: You have to peel off the back.

FRIEND 2: I wondered what that crinkly sound was.

ME: What are you talking about? I had to use pins to keep it on.

FRIEND 1: Let me show you on a little piece how it works.

FRIEND 2: Can we help you rip the whole thing out?

ME: ... wanting to put the quilt over my head and cry right then and there but am determined to learn how to do the binding and leave as fast as I can before I break down and sob in front of everyone.

SCENE 3

Filled with disappointment, I listened to an audio book and did the last part of the binding by hand. 

My quilt was finished.  It was cute. But I wasn't really proud of it because I felt so stupid for doing it wrong.

SCENE 4

I spent some time holding my new little grandson.  He had this little toy that crinkled and jingled and rattled depending on where you held onto it. Hmmmmm...

I ordered some "dog toy replacements" that came Amazon Prime delivered the next day. I had some blue scraps in the stash that hadn't been used yet.  I had plenty of the backing left.  And, now I knew (sort of) what I was doing.  One more Sunbonnet Sue and one more Overall Sam.  She has squeakers sewn inside her bonnet and dress.  He has rattlers sewn inside his hat and overalls.  

The blanket crinkles, one pillow squeaks, the other pillow rattles.

Perfect!!  

One might even think I planned it that way!

I'm proud of it.