History of my Sun Bonnet Sue Quilt

The picture above is a newly completed project that took several decades to finish. Below, you will find the words of its history written by my Mother.
My Mom, Edith Hazel (Chastain) Wilson was the person that pieced the Sun Bonnet Sues. Mother had put these dolls together over a long period of time - the in between times of her other crafting, crocheting, sewing, and quilting. I got the “Sues” at her death in 1992. After several years, I gave them to my oldest daughter, Kathryn. A few more years passed before she finished the blocks and she finished putting the blocks into a quilt.
Back to Hazel: she never belonged to a quilting club and purchased few of her materials. Being married at fifteen, in 1929, quilting was done from necessity. This being the time of a depression of the economy, there was little money to buy quilting fabric. All of her piecing was done by hand, using scraps from garments she made, or scraps given to her. Many times she used the better parts of worn out garments and even printed feed sacks. In later years, she did machine piece a few quilts from scraps of knits. A lot of us can remember when knits were “in”! Remember? You did not have to iron this material. Oh, what a revolution when women were freed from part of the time spent at the ironing board.
You have to know that these hard times found her also using old blankets instead of cotton for batting. And once again the old feed sacks, the plain and the printed, served as linings, when four or more of them were sewed together. Where did they come from? The feed for her beloved chickens, our milk cow, and our pigs often came in feed sacks that were usable; and she did not throw away much. The chickens gave us our eggs; the cow our milk and butter; and the pigs got butchered in the winter to give us meat. Sunday dinner often found a chicken that was not laying eggs, on our dinner table. Some of the bounty was sold to neighbors, which in turn gave her money for other groceries.
Quilting time! I remember getting excited when she and my Grandma Chastain started talking about “putting in” a quilt. The quilting frames always hung, and never came down, until they were ready to be used, from the ceiling at Grandma’s house in Pelly, Texas. When not in use, they were “wound up”, out of the way. First the lining was hand sewn with very heavy thread, more like twine, and long stitches to the canvas cloth that covered the side pieces of the 1 by 4 pieces of wood. These were held together at the four corners with “C” clamps. After the lining was sewn in, then the batting or old blankets, maybe even another quilt that was worn and frayed, was laid over the lining and smoothed out. Then came the quilt top. I do not remember patterns of any kind, only blocks. Some quilts were small blocks, some were larger. If fabric was available, a quilt might have strips putting the “blocks of blocks” together. These quilts were practical, not so much for “pretty”. The quilt top was pinned ever so often to keep it straight. The “marking” for quilting was done quite often with chalk and a piece of string to keep it uniform. Most of the time these markings looked to me like quarter moons, nothing like today’s fancy patterns.
Now it was time to pull up a chair and get started. The beans were probably on the stove cooking for supper, or maybe the water was in the wash pot outside, with a fire to get it boiling. When the water got hot, they stopped and did the washing for our family of five, and Grandma and Grandpa. The clothes were rubbed on a rub board in soapy water, wrung out, then put through two tubs of rinse water. One of those tubs had “bluing” in it to help keep our clothes white and bright. All of this was hard on the hands that wanted to get back inside and get on to that quilt. Once in a while they would listen to a “soap opera” while they quilted, or maybe the “Chuck Wagon Gang” on the radio. That was about all the entertainment they had.
My job was to pick up whatever they dropped and play under the quilt until I was called. I was never, never to bump the frame or stand up under the quilt, which made them stick their fingers. Every time, one of them would tell me that they did not want blood on their quilt!
Sometimes a neighbor or friend would come along and help them for a “spell”, which was a good chance to catch up on the neighborhood gossip.
As they finished each side, they would get help and roll each side, keeping the frame and the quilt taut. Then they marked again and started the next row.
In later years, Mom had these frames up in her garage in Highlands, Texas and did some quilting there with neighbors and friends. An invite to quilt, some coffee to drink and some real friendships were made. Some of these friends were ladies from Highlands Assembly of God missionary group. They “turned out” a few quilts a year to give to the “needy”. Some of those tops were donated by Mother. Some of the tops, at church, were ones done for ladies willing to pay for the quilting. This added funds for other projects.
One summer Mom got Kathryn’s daughter, Demi, interested in the Sues. However, I never caught the bug to quilt, but in the past few years, Kathryn has and has become very talented and artful in piecing quilts with beautiful patterns and fabrics. I am enjoying a couple (quite a few) of her works. I am excited to see the Sues come to life under the hands of Kathryn and her friend, Eileen Schamel (Boonsboro Maryland), the quilter who is quilting it by hand.
Oh, I forgot to add, you had better not get Mother’s or Grandma’s scissors and cut a piece of paper with them, it would make them “dull”.
Kathryn, Grandma would be so proud of you and pleased that you are seeing that her Sun Bonnet Girls are becoming a thing of beauty.

Mother
(Billie LaJune Roeder)
April 10, 2009

I want to thank everyone who had a hand in this beautiful quilt. It truly has been a Labor of Love! Grandma, I hope you are looking down from Heaven and smiling.