Grandma’s Sunbonnet Sue

During our time in Idaho over the summer we were able to “help” out while Ben’s mom and grandma readied their homes to go on the market. And I do say “help” with full quotations because with two little ones running around we really only offered the teeniest little sliver of assistance on all that needed to be done (can you put negative slices on the pie chart? Because now that I’m thinking about, I think we may have just-read:definitely- added to the load).

Anyway, Grandma’s property consisted of plenty of land, two houses and several out-buildings which she and Grandpa built over 40 years ago. As you can imagine, this added up to quite a lot of stuff to go through, much of which, I suspect, hadn’t seen the light of day for years and years and years.

One such box was peeked in and sent my way because the contents of the box appeared to be mostly fabric. Happy to add to my fabric stash, I started digging through the box to see what I could glean.

I had no idea what a treasure I would find in that box. Among yards of fabric I found these:

A neat little pile of Sunbonnet Sues, appliqued with a steady hand, wearing an assortment of colors and prints.

I asked my mother-in-law who had sewn these and she confirmed with Grandma that it had most likely been sewn by Grandma’s mother, Great Grandma Dutch.

I’m excited to add these little Sunbonnet Sue blocks to my stash and hopefully I can get the quilt finished that Grandma Dutch started.

Here’s a picture of Grandma and Grandpa Dutch. I never had the chance to meet them, but I hope that I can learn more about them as I work on this project. Family history is cool!