Why I now like Sunbonnet Sue

I am helping to finish a quilt top in the Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam pattern. I had never been much of a fan of this design--I'm not the "sweet" or "cute" type, any more than I am one to wear lace.  I've changed my attitude, though: Any quilt made with love is a quilt to be admired. This is just such a quilt.

My friend Peg helped her young neighbor make Sunbonnet Sue blocks by embroidering and embellishing them. They spent many happy hours together working on the blocks. The quilt is being made for the woman's daughter.

All 42 blocks were completed, but the top did not get put together before the lovely young mother became extremely ill;  the outlook at the moment is grim. 

You know that feeling when someone is in trouble and you wish you could do something? That was me, so I jumped at the chance to help Peg, who does not do machine sewing, finish the quilt top. We laid out the blocks together, I do the cutting and sewing, Peg does the ironing--and checks to make sure I'm sewing the strips together in the right order. She has already cut a couple apart that I had inverted.

As I pass the blocks under the presser foot on my machine, I think of the many hours Peg and her young friend spent sewing together, lovingly crafting the blocks, thinking about how the little girl would like it.


Now, my thoughts and prayers are for a miracle, that this mother will be able to wrap her child in her arms, snuggled under the completed quilt.