BI-CENTENNIAL QUILT

 

 

1976 Found me and my BFF, Twyanna Wallace, thinking about how we would celebrate the Bi-Centennial of the USA.  We got together at least once a week in the evenings and did hand sewing while the husbands played checkers. 

 

I decided to make a Bi-Centennial quilt.  A decision had to be made as to what pattern I would use for the red, white and blue dedication.  Although a little weird, I picked the Sun Bonnet Sue.  Somewhere in the back shadows of my mind I remembered going to my grandparent's home every summer and picking out a quilt to make a pallet on the floor along with my two brothers.  Every year I picked the Sunbonnet Sue quilt from the quilt box to sleep on.  We didn't need anything but a quilt for the floor as it was always so hot in the middle of Texas in July and you didn't need any cover.

 

Well, I started the quilt in 1976 but didn't finish until 1978 according to the date I embroidered on the corner of the quilt.  The only fabric I had to buy was for the background.  At that time unbleached domestic was real chap at the TG&Y, maybe 30 cents per yard, so that is what I used.  For all the patches I used scraps from my sewing piles left over from making little girl's dresses.  Just about every piece of scrap was left over from my daughter's little dresses.  I made all of her clothes so there was a good supply of left overs to use.  Each patch is made from different fabrics just like any scrap quilt. 

 

Intentions were to get the quilt made before July 4, 1976 but I had a husband, four kids and a father-in-law to take care of every day.  Anyway, I did finally get the project finished sometime in 1978.

 

The quilt got stored after a few uses and showings as my décor never was too much on the red colors.  I mostly have used pastels so it never fit in. 

 

For some reason, I remembered that quilt this year on the Fourth of July.  After searching a few hours I found it tucked away underneath a mammoth stack of  quilts in a closet that has so many quilts it is hard to get the door closed.  But I did finally found it and sat for a few moments remembering matching all the sunbonnets and dresses for the dolls in the patches and wondering if my grandmother would be pleased with my choices.  

 

A decision had to be made as to what to do with the quilt.  This year we were invited to our daughter's to celebrate the 4th.  I took the quilt with me as well as a gallon of homemade vanilla ice cream and gave the Sunbonnet quilt to my daughter.  Believe it or not, she remembered some of the fabrics from her dresses that I had used.   

 

Some things are worth keeping and this was one of them.