Sunbonnet Sue Spent Her Summer Vacation at My Quilt Care Spa

Hello, Sunbonnet Sue!  It was great to spend part of my August with this little girl, all decked out in her summer frocks and bonnets.

Most of her problems were with the embroidery thread giving out.  The fabrics by and large are hanging in there, although a few are starting to get weak.

Her spa treatment included restitching the loose appliqués, replacing a couple of missing sleeves, and re-embroidering the ribbon bows hanging down from her bonnet.  It's always fun to see a well-loved pattern like this with an extra little flair like those ribbon bows.

The loose appliqués on this little Sue created a great example of how old fabrics have faded over time.  We get so used to thinking of old quilts as subtly colored and kind of misty, but really they were often quite bright when they were first sewn.

The fun thing was that the fading showed me exactly where to replace the running stitches around the appliqués!

Another fun thing is the addition of a few more great conversation prints to my collection.  I am imagining a grandma totally enjoying making this quilt for her very lucky granddaughter.  I can tell that grandma had a fine time picking conversation prints with an eye towards entertaining her granddaughter!

Here's the dish, the spoon, and the cow jumping over the moon.  (I intensified the colors in this photo so the print shows a bit better.)

Here are some circus clowns.

I particularly like this fellow who's balancing a couple of plates on his nose!

And some children at play, with hoops and jump ropes.

And cute little lambkins in a faded yellow meadow.

I like these abstracted flowers and dots.

And here are a couple of floral prints, very much in the style and feel of the 1930s.  One is in the lovely peach of the era, and one girl is wearing a clear purple print dress with green hat and shoes - I include her here just because I always love a green/purple combo. 

The quilting is very well done, and none too easy.  Both the sashing and the white background squares are quilted with lovely cable stitching.

Little Sue is now on her way back home after her spa treatment.  She was a very polite guest!