Looking for the Perfect Sue?

I had seen these pre-made Sunbonnet Sues on Ebay several times last year when I finally decided to buy a set of them and see if they were really as beautiful as they looked in the pictures. So I bought a set and when they came, I was so happy. There were 12 in a set; good cotton fabric of quilt quality sewn very carefully all around the edges to one-sided fusible (slit in back and turned inside-out).

I called the set I bought, Hawaiian Sue, and made a twin quilt from them which I showed in the Odessa Spring Fling quilt show this year. It was my first attempt to produce anything that could be shown. As it turned out, I actually showed the Hawaiian Sue, Green Thumb Sue, and Sunday Sue quilts.


The Hawaiian Sue set and all the other lovelies on Ebay of this sort are made by Norma Downing of the Tri-Cities area of Washington State. Her email address is downing2@verizon.net

She makes all kinds of Sues for quilts and will do custom designs as well. The Sues I received came pinned together. Each figure had five pieces and they were exquisite. I hand-stitched them to the block on point, then machine-pieced the alternating blocks to make the whole quilt top.

Susan Ryan, a wonderful professional quilter (her email address is dbltapmomma2@gmail.com), quilted it for me making huge flowers in the alternate blocks to match a lily design in one of the Sue dresses. Then, she echo-quilted the Sues. A vine quilt stitch was used in the borders. It's my favorite Sue quilt, so far and very easy to make. I'm just getting ready to release the pattern for it this next month.

Be sure to look on Ebay or Etsy for Norma Downing's Sues. They are really wonderful. And, if you want a really good quilter person who is artistic and easy to work with, send your quilts to Susan. Happy Stitching!