In 1991, I was in my late 20's and was making quilts. I have learned a lot since then, but I want to share this quilt with you:
This quilt makes me happy and it makes me sad.
When my grandmother died, my grandfather gave me a box of fabric scraps that had belonged to her. She was a quilter, too. I made this quilt for my daughter.... she was 4 years old... and I dreamed of the day that she would grow up and it would become a part of her home.
You see, I did not even know how to make the blanket stitch for appliqueing the pieces. But I thought I had taught myself. I whipped these little sunbonnet sue girls up in no time.
I embroidered some of my favorite Bible verses on each dress, thinking that one day my daughter would look up these verses, to see what scripture had spoken to her mother.
I hand quilted this quilt on a wooden frame, that sat in the living room until the quilt was finished. My children played underneath the frame while I quilted away. I look at my quilting stitches now and am amazed that I had such small neat stitches 'back in the day'. My stitches no longer look that nice.
When I finished quilting the quilt and turned the edges over for binding (I did not know how to make binding or how to bind a quilt in 1991) I promptly washed the quilt.
To my horror, when I pulled it out of the washer, all of my blanket stitches that I used to hold the sun bonnet girls on with, had shifted.... pulled away and were distorted. It's a wonder there were any Sue's hanging on at all!
So, it was at that moment, that I decided my little girl could not 'use' the quilt at all while she was a little girl, as I knew it would get dirty and not be able to withstand frequent washings. I folded it away and put inside a plastic container and there it has sat for years!
My little girl is 27 years old now and has a house of her own. I still have not parted with the quilt, because I know what will happen when she washes it.
I've been thinking of putting the quilt on my sewing machine and machine stitching the Sunbonnet Sues in place and calling it ok. I will then send it to my daughter and she can decide if she will display it, use it, or keep it in plastic its entire life.
Any suggestions? Man! I wish I could still quilt like that!
