Bonnie B.

You probably know Sunbonnet Sue as well as I do. She was popular in the 1930s and then again in the late 1960s/early 1970s (there was a copycat character called Holly Hobbie around that time, too). My grandmother used to use her as motif on some of the things she made for me. 

She was once a popular character among quilters, particularly those who made crib or baby quilts. This is my first attempt at making my own Sunbonnet Sue, using scraps of fabric from my fabric stash. I made a dozen of these simplified Sunbonnet Sues and then decided to branch out a bit, to modernize her.

Does she always have to be white? Does she always have to just stand there like she's waiting in line? Why not give her a book--and some melanin--and a sense of style?

Maybe she likes to surf the 'net on her laptop.

Maybe she has a cell phone and likes to take selfies.

Maybe she's a ghost hunter.

Maybe she has a pet monster.

These are just a sample of the 19 blocks I've completed so far, all done with fabrics from my stash and a nifty product called Heat'n'Bond that allows me to bond together two pieces of fabric. So they're essentially just glued down at the moment, but they'll get stitched down soon and I'll add some details with thread and with fabric markers. Then it's the usual rigamarole of quilting, sashing, binding, etc., etc., to make a completed quilt. That's a long way off, though. I estimate that I'll need about 72 to 88 blocks to make a decent sized quilt. We'll see how long my patience--and creativity--and Heat'n'Bond hold out.

This was a side project that I started after finishing another quilt, a one-patch quilt with pink hearts blocks dispersed throughout. I had intended to work on something else entirely (the skeleton quilt, actually), but then this thing decided it wanted to be made first. 

Meanwhile, I'm hand-stitching down the facing on the wall hanging that I made with the curved pieced blocks I showed a few entries back.

What else is going on?

Not much.  We did go out to the studio very briefly yesterday, mostly to see Judi and Buzz. I want to start a new sculpture, but it's so daunting at the moment. I'm content with fabric for now.

I'm still reading, of course. I have a huge stack of books to be read and I'm slowly making my way through them.

It's springtime, so that means pollen and wildfires. The air is thick with smoke these last few days, apocalyptic.