Binding Sunbonnet Sue

The Sunbonnet Sue quilt is in the binding stage. You read about how I acquired this quilt top in this post, and now I am enjoying some quiet time with needle and thread in hand. As I said in that earlier post, I felt confident that hand-stitching the binding would be the proper way to finish this quilt, and I am glad to be doing it. I've taken the shortcut on most all my quilts, large and small, by using the machine for all my quilts this past year. The last one I did by hand was the 6-pointed stars that I took to the fair last year.

Let's look at the pretty Sunbonnet Sue quilt. I won't have her long, as I hope to deliver it tomorrow.

Quilted; no binding. Terry did a wonderful job with the quilting. It was such a delicate old quilt top, and she was very mindful of that as she quilted. Is it an outrage to take an old, hand-pieced quilt top and put long-arm stippling on it? I figure at least it is quilted, and will be more likely to be cared for in this condition than to be left as a flimsy. Purists might be outraged, but in being practical, I am certain this is fine.

Using my clippies to secure the binding.

One stretch of the top and side finished.
Sue is inspecting my workmanship.

I love these girls' print dresses and matching bonnets.

I have been absent from blog-land the last couple of days. That generally means it's book club time, and I am frantically working to finish my reading. The meeting was yesterday morning (I love our brunch meetings!), and I had to do some serious skimming to finish The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson. It was quite the enjoyable read, and I wish I'd given myself more time to soak it all in more leisurely. Here's the Goodreads link to details.

At our meeting, we planned the next year's worth of books; maybe a post listing those for you readers out there would be of interest??

Still need to finish that t-shirt quilt; what a champion procrastinator I am!! Goodness. That could have been done 10 days ago, easily. (shaking my head in shame)

I am linking up with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation/Needle and Thread Thursday (even though it's Friday).

Happy Quilting, Friends!