Sunbonnet Sue Bookmark | ||||||||||||||||
|
Several years ago I found a series of free charts on the web by designer Virginia Douglas of Douglas Designs. They were four Sunbonnet Sue charts, using a new technique that Virginia called "Stitch-N-Quilt." The idea is that you stitch a design (in this case, the classic quilt design Sunbonnet Sue), then add batting and a border. Next, you quilt around the stitchery using an evenweave ground fabric to help make the quilting stitches nice and even. I just loved the idea, and had saved these patterns since 1996. This was to be the year I stitched and quilted them as a gift for my best friend's birthday. So I gathered my materials, and stitched the first chart as directed in the chart. Ugh! I was so dissapointed in the color scheme! So I fiddled with it, adding half stitches in the light grey-green over the bright yellow-green in the dress to make it more blended and tone it down. That helped some, but not a lot. Next I added backstitching to help Sue look more defined. That helped a bit, too, but was still unacceptable. I put the piece aside for a couple days to try and figure out what to do next. I finally decided that it was not only the color choice that seemed off, but that the design area is so small that there was not enough detail to allow this little girl to "pop" off the ground cloth. At that point, I realized I would not be satisfied to give this as a gift to my best friend. I had a lemon on my hands.
So, how to make lemonade? This was an awfully small piece, so I could have just tossed it. But there was enough fabric around my Sue to convert it from a quilt block into a bookmark. So I trimmed it down, hemmed the sides and top, and added a point to the bottom. But Sue looked a little lonely standing there in the middle of the bookmark, so I decided to add some flowers for her to dance in. I chose colors already in her flower basket, and created a little motif that I repeated. The bottom flower got a stem and some leaves. This is no great work of art, but it's also not just time wasted. Instead, it's a simple bookmark that I'll give away. And for you, I leave this flower motif. If you decide to use it, why not send me a picture and show me how it was incorporated in your piece. I'm offering this design as a complementary chart. Follow this link for a printable copy of Motif #2.
|
