Sun Bonnet Suzy

When I was little, my Great-Grandma Ritchey made me a quilt. It had 12 blocks of hand-appliqued Sun Bonnet Sue, sashed and bound with pink/mauve and backed with a flowered sheet. I loved that quilt and used it until I was teenager...now that I look at some of the blocks, there are repairs that will need to be made. But I didn't want to ruin my precious quilt until I knew that I could hand applique replacement parts. So I decided to make a mini practice "Suzy" block.

I found a block that was intact on my quilt and put a sheet of computer paper over it and did a crayon rubbing to get an outline of the applique pieces. I then used plastic template material to make traceable patterns. For my mini version, I used my printer/copier to shrink the pattern to 60% and made new templates.

I wasn't incredibly happy with my first, but I made 2 more, getting more confidence each time. I have to admit that it is relaxing to have such a portable project.

I now see that I need to trim the thread from the back, but I was pretty happy with this Suzy...I think I'll do one more and make it into a dolly quilt!