Hello Sue.

 As you probably know I love vintage and antique quilts and especially love to repair, replace or resurrect old treasures so they can be enjoyed for many more years. When Leah Zieber gave her weekend seminar on Petite Treasures she also had a pop-up shop at Quilts in the Barn the following weekend and she was selling orphan blocks and some sets of blocks. I bought 6 of these Sunbonnet Sue blocks with the intention of remaking the blocks as the pieces were nicely cut but they had been roughly machine stitched to the background and not all the raw edges were turned under or covered by other applique pieces.
    I am unpicking the stitching and then hand needle turning the applique pieces again. This orange one is the first I've completed. The backings are feedsacks as I can see the stitching marks left around the edges. the bonnets had two rows of machine stitching to shape the brim and I have decided to hand embroider two rows in a contrasting colour using a stem stitch.

 Some of the blocks have brown spots on them and it looks like paint as it hasn't faded with washing. The most obvious blotches are on the plain green and plain yellow dresses. I have some vintage yellow fabric from this era of 1940s and will use that to replace the spoilt yellow dress and I'm looking for a suitable green to replace the green dress.

I'm not sure you can see in this photo but the backing was caught into folds by the machine stitching when the dress was sewn to the background so I will press it flat when I remove the applique pieces and then hand stitch them down. I had thought of hand embroidering flowers over the stains but I think I will replace the fabric instead as I have suitable vintage fabric and the stained pieces can be used for another repair.
  It's a fun little project and it will be a nice little cot or doll sized quilt when I have finished.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs, Jan Mac