Dutch Babies: Finishing Grandma Dutch’s Sunbonnet Sue Quilt

This post has been entirely too long in coming because I finished it over a year ago!

Whoops!

Last spring I felt the push to make a quilt but, as often happens with me, I didn’t really want to spend money on supplies for a quilt. So I looked to my stash and remembered these completed Sunbonnet Sue squares.

The squares weren’t made by me, but by my husband’s great grandma, a woman whom everyone in the family calls “Grandma Dutch.” My husband and I had been married several years before I learned that “Dutch” was no part of her or her husband’s name, it’s just what everyone called her! She passed before I came into the picture, so I’ve never met her, but even so, I’ve been blessed several times over by her love of sewing!

For one, I’m lucky enough to currently have her sewing desk, which I’ve used for over 6 years! When the family was selling the property they’d lived in for over 40 years, I asked if I could have the sewing desk, and was met with a yes, please!

The desk in and of itself is a treasure, but I was thrilled to find that the drawers were filled with even more sewing related treasures.

After I brazenly asked to keep this family heirloom, anything sewing related was directed my way to go through and pick out whatever I wanted, which is how I became the owner of the Sunbonnet Sue squares. I took them home and they sat in my projects stash until the timing was just right-in this case, nearly 5 years later. I pulled them out and got to work!

While looking up pieced Sunbonnet Sue quilts for inspiration, I learned that the pattern was introduced in the late 1800s but became very popular during the great depression. I’ve always known the pattern to be called Sunbonnet Sue, but I was delighted to learn that another name for the little figure is “Dutch doll,” which obviously couldn’t be more appropriate.

Grandma Dutch had made nearly 30 of these squares, each doll wearing a different dress and bonnet. Some of her dolls had been machine stitched (like the blue one on the left above), while some had been carefully hand appliqued. Some still had basting stitches in place, and none of the squares had any sort of border.

For this quilt, I decided to do thick borders around the squares, using a coordinating lighter color in the corners.

Once again, my stash came to the rescue. Over a decade ago, I bought a selection of 1930s reproduction quilting cotton at an estate sale. I had intended to use it for an English paper piecing project (which we all know how quickly those go for me) but this project felt entirely too perfect to pass up. These Dutch Dolls and the 1930s fabric were meant to be used together.

Cutting the borders was more of a headache than I bargained for. I, for some reason, believed each fabric in the stack was a fat quarter and I calculated my dimensions accordingly, but, in fact, some were a fat quarter and some were less. Which meant I had to kind of hod-podge some borders together. I know the pieced borders are absolutely noticeable (there was no hope for pattern matching), but also hopefully not distracting.

With this project, I did what I commonly do which is deciding to do a project that puts me on a very short timeline. In this case, before I even started the project I decided I was going to give the finished quilt to my mother-in-law. And I was going to be seeing my mother-in-law in about 2 weeks. So I spent my evenings working on framing all the dolls and then, eventually piecing the squares together.

Currently, we drive to see mine and my husband’s families, and my in-laws are the further family. So we often stop to visit my side before continuing on our journey to see my husband’s family. This worked out incredibly well in this case because stopping at my parents’ house meant the next step in the quilting process-quilting the quilt!- could be accomplished by my mom! And actually, she also gave me the fabric for the quilt back, which is an adorable tiny red polka dot pattern on a white background.

Now, Grandma Dutch made dozens of quilts, many (if not most) of which were beautifully hand quilted, so machine quilting this probably wasn’t the most in-line with staying true to Grandma Dutch. However, I have hand quilted a couple small quilts and I know I am not very good at it. Also, we were working on a time crunch. Also, through stories as well as the contents of her sewing desk, I think it can be said that Grandma Dutch loved a good deal, so I don’t think I was totally out of line in choosing the free machine quilting option.

That said, I chose the orange peel design for the quilting because I do think it’s a more classic pattern that doesn’t detract from the Dutch dolls.

My mom squared off the quilt for me. I sewed leftover border fabric together for my binding fabric and on our drive from my parents’ to my mother-in-law’s house, I feverishly hand sewed the binding on.

The feverishness, it turned out, was unnecessary, as I finished binding two hours into our four hour drive. But I was happy to be done with it without having to stress or ask my husband to take the long way around. Ha!

And it turned out the timing of my quilt was near perfect. When I presented the quilt to my mother-in-law, she recognized her grandmother’s handiwork immediately and said, “Oh, what timing! I’ve had Grandma Dutch on my mind for a couple weeks now!”

Anyway, this quilt was an absolute treat to make. It has encouraged me to consider a more serious side to sewing, one of legacy and kinship and connecting through generations. Part of why this post was so long in coming is that I was trying figure out a way to discuss these things while presenting the finished project, but the truth is that I think it deserves a post all on its own. Maybe someday! Like I mentioned, I never got to meet Grandma Dutch, but I do feel like I’ve gotten to know her better through this shared skill and source of enjoyment, and, of course, her sewing desk.

Pattern: n/a
Size: n/a
Adjustments: n/a
Fabric: Dutch dolls from Grandma Dutch; borders/binding/backing from stash (similar 1930s reproduction quilting cotton here)
Cost: n/a (!!!)
Would I make this pattern again?: also kind of n/a, but yes! I would!