Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Sun Bonnet Sue Design Wall

I thought I would share with you how this quilt came together.  I put these blocks on my design wall a couple years ago click and played with the blocks.  When I decided what was most important and what to eliminate the quilt came together  quite easily.  I say that now  as I forget the day I spent measuring and adding and measuring and adding some more.  The photos were all different sizes,  I measured the width, I measured the length, I grouped them by width, I measured how much I could trim,  I measured how much white to leave,  I measured how much sashing I needed to add to make it fit the row  because things fit together better if the are the same width.  I decided my intersections did not need to match up, my rows would be like clips of film.  I measured some more just to be sure.  Measure twice or three times or four times and cut once.  I remember very clearly now......all that math  my head hurt.

The photos were stitched together.  Next to figure out the sun bonnet Sues for the border.  The diagonal measurement for a 5 inch block is 7 and 1/8.  Not my favorite fraction to work with.  I decided to cut the setting triangles too large because I can always trim and I would add a border of sashing to the photos and cut it to fit.
Auditioning fabric for the setting triangles.  The outside setting triangles are cut from strips of fabrics from the many outfits I sewed for DD.

Not all the sunbonnet Sues made the front of the quilt.  The six who were left were the perfect length for the back of the quilt.
I cut the border around the photos extra large the I marked the center of each side and measured the length of each sunbonnet Sue section and marked the center.  I marked a chalk line where I thought the seam would be and hand basted the Sues to the center.  I was off by a quarter inch so I basted  again, this time the corners fit perfect.  I sewed and trimmed.  Basting is so worth it!
I need to come up with some profound words for the wide border around the photos.  --Ann--



3 comments:

Ramona said...

What a wonderful gift! The memories this quilt will bring about are priceless. Great design, too. Such a treasure.

Judy S. said...

It's fabulous!

Sharon said...

This is such a marvelous keepsake, I'm hoping you put a hanging sleeve on the back. At my house, this would hang where anyone who came in could admire it.