Week 36: Sunbonnet Sue

This week's Grandmother's Choice block is an applique block called Sunbonnet Sue.  Barbara Brackman writes 'The ubiquitous doll can remind us all the girls who've rebelled against becoming "an entirely ornamental young lady."'

My grandmother made LOTS of Sunbonnet Sue blocks, and I have all of her patterns -- both applique and quilting templates.  She kept her patterns in a dresser drawer up in the attic bedroom.  She did NOT organize any of it. I remember her rummaging around in that drawer picking out the pieces she needed, then just tossing them back in when she was done.

I now have the contents of that drawer in a large rubbermaid under-the-bed box and I rummaged through it this morning to see if I could find anything for Sunbonnet Sue.  I sure did, along with other ladies applique patterns. (couldn't seem to get it to stay rotated!)

Here are a couple quilts and a bag my grandmother made for me with Sunbonnet Sue and a Dresden Doll:

Included in the box of Grandma's patterns were some dress and hat pieces already cut, coincidentally from fabric in my color pallete!  So I will use the dress fabric my grandmother already had - I had to cut it down to fit this block. Here's my plan for the block:

I may take it with me next week on my business trip to work on.  I will include the black outline stitch and the ribbon embroidery on the hat, like Grandma did. So, although I used a "new" fabric, I have still used two fabrics I had only used once before, so my desire to include more of those "one-timer" fabrics is being met.