|
Click here for paper-pieced Bill and Sue block patterns.
|
|
Sunbonnet Sue
By Janet Jo Smith
For more than a century the chubby, childish form we have come to know as Sunbonnet Sue has embodied the joy of innocent childhood. From her beginnings as a character in books and magazines of the late nineteenth century, she has survived the fads of culture and remained a well-known figure to quilters. She has had some travails; she has had some adventures. And through it all, she has "emerged as a contemporary symbol; she is the everywoman of quilting," as Jean Ray Laury describes her.
Sue's beginnings are generally traced to the illustrations of English artist Kate (Catherine) Greenaway, who was known for her soft, charming style of depicting children. Between 1867 and 1900 she created countless magazine and book illustrations. During the late Victorian era when Crazy Quilts were so popular, Ms. Greenaway's figures were frequently embroidered on the patches.
Bertha Corbett was an American artist who developed a style of Sue that is more familiar to quilters. The story is told that Corbett and a friend were discussing art. The friend stated that emotion could only be expressed through facial expressions. Corbett asserted that she could convey emotion using the body, with no face showing. Shortly thereafter, Corbett illustrated The Sunbonnet Babies, a book by Eulalia Osgood Grover published in 1902. These were the original simple Sunbonnet girls, and they were a recurring theme in the rest of Corbett's career. It is believed that Corbett was influenced by the drawings of Greenaway.
The Corbett children were used not only in books and magazines, but also on postcards early in this century. Some of the more familiar images are naked babies running from the boogeyman and babies in the bath. These babies were also featured in a coloring book and on a poster.
One other illustrator is cited as a source for the faceless children. The characters of Bernhardt Wall were published around the same time as Bertha Corbett's. His girls wore a different style of bonnet, and Mr. Wall did not put aprons on them. Also, in Mr. Wall's work Sue has a companion--a boy. So it seems that Wall is the originator of the male child we know as Overall Bill.
A true Sunbonnet Sue or Bill is faceless. Instead of a head, we see a large sun hat, or on Bill, a straw hat or sombrero. The figures are proportioned like children and drawn very simply with little detail. Historically, they were shown engaged in some productive activity like doing laundry or gardening. Sets of transfers could be purchased showing the figures engaged in a different task for each day of the week.
The first quilt patterns for Sue that can be documented were offered by the Ladies Art Company, the oldest quilt-pattern business in continuous operation in the United States. Their pattern No. 7023, a Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Bill quilt, could be purchased, as stamped blocks or as a cutting pattern, from a catalog published around 1900 to 1915. The LAC Sue resembled the classic shape similar to the figure in Sunbonnet Sue with Embroidered Hands, but with a bent arm and two feet. The quilt shown above right is unique in the detail its maker put into the embroidered hands.
Many variations on Sue developed in these early decades. Marie Webster published a Sue pattern in her book Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them, first printed in 1915. McCall's published a pattern in the summer of 1921 in their Embroidery Book. In the 1930s, Sue turned up in the Kansas City Star newspaper wearing pantalettes. The designer was listed as Eveline Foland. Springtime Molly, found in Wisconsin, was made from that pattern. Molly's clothing is hand appliqued and embellished with a blanket stitch. Other well-known sources for patterns include Ruby McKim in One Hundred and One Patchwork Patterns (1931), the Sears, Roebuck and Co. (1934), and Needlecraft Magazine (1936). Sunbonnet Sue Framed by Prairie Points is a 1930s quilt with an unusual set. The unknown maker put the Sue blocks on the diagonal, surrounded by sashing, and finished the quilt's edges with prairie points. Sue from Nebraska is a late '30s variation with her short dress and two chubby legs.
After the Depression years of the '30s and World War II in the '40s, the appeal of these simple, charming children declined. Sue survived only among quilters. Nancy Cabot published a pattern in the Chicago Tribune in 1940. While quilting in general declined during the '50s and '60s, those who were making quilts and coverlets still loved Sue. Sunbonnet Sue's Flower Garden is an example of a 1950s Sue combined with hexagon borders for a summer bedcovering.
When quilting made a comeback in the 1970s, it was probably inevitable that Sue would be back, too. Quilt World, Workbasket, and Quilter's Newsletter Magazine all published new variations of the classic figure.
A major shift occurred in the 1980s. Sue was no longer just a sweet design for applique blocks. She began to appear as a symbol to express women's emotions and ideas. In 1983 the Seamster's Local #500 of Lawrence, Kansas, decided to express their strong feelings about the traditional figure by killing Sue off in as many ways as the imagination would allow. When QNM published a photo of this quilt, The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue, in issue 148, we got mail! Some readers were outraged by the violent images of Sue's demise. But others appreciated the attempt to challenge this traditionally sweet figure in an outrageous manner that reflected the cultural shifts of the early '80s.
The Seamster's quilt caused Jean Ray Laury to step back and take another look at the little lady. "I saw Sue in an entirely new way. For that group of quilters she was a symbol of limitations and stymied creativity. And paradoxically, in "doing her in" they gave her a new life. If Sue were not so familiar and popular, she could not have been parodied so successfully."
This led Jean, in the mid '80s, to the series of books she called The Adventures of Sunbonnet Sue. "I began by assuming I'd make fun of her," explains Jean. "Soon Sue seemed to be making the decisions, not me nor my pen. A strong personality emerged from that 'cute' calico figure. It was then that I realized that Sue had a lot to say." Jean's cartoons show Sue behaving like a modern quilter, for example, ordering pizza for her family so she can continue her quilting.
Odette Goodman Teel was also inspired to create a Sue for the '80s and enlisted her friends to make blocks showing Sue as a liberated woman (see QNM June 1987). Ms. Sue: Alive and Liberated has our faceless female climbing a mountain, slaying a dragon, working as a telephone lineman, and running for political office. The Pioneer Quilters of Eugene, Oregon, took out a few of their frustrations in Sunbonnet Sue Has a Bad Day. Each block depicts the bonneted figure in one dilemma after another. Check out Sue in the bathing suit marooned on an island encircled by sharks!
Quiltmaker magazine, among other sources, continued to please Sue fans by publishing updated Sue patterns.
Fancy Sue has a pieced skirt reminiscent of a Dresden Plate block;
My Best Friend is a pieced block. Both were unusual among the published patterns of the '90s for their patchwork aspect. Each of these patterns has been extremely popular with quilters, proving the staying power of this appealing girl.
The Sues of the 1980s and '90s also traveled the globe. Janet Carpenter calls her quilt Muu Muu Sue, and has her character outfitted in a variety of Hawaiian prints and sandals. Pat Parker and Jenny Williamson of South Africa paired Sue with exotic animals in Sunbonnet Sue Goes on Safari. Sue has traveled the American West, along with her companion Bill, in Dorothy McClure's quilt titled Western Sunbonnet Sue, inspired by a quilt in QNM issue 272 made by Utah quilters. Sue's New Year's Day, made by Machiko Miyatani, is a block that shows the intrepid little girl's experience in Japan.
To commemorate the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of a new millennium, Arlene Stamper wanted to look back over the decades with Sue. Each block in The Century Quilt depicts Sue engaged in some appropriate activity for that decade, beginning with the Model-T Sue. Note the Rosie-the-Riveter Sue of the '40s and the let's-get-physical Sue of the '80s.
Sunbonnet Sue has been with us, in one form or another, for 100 years. She has brought delight and dismay to many. She has been an endearing block pattern, and the vehicle for personal and political expression. Through it all, she has endured.
Will this archetype of the twentieth-century female continue into the twenty-first? "I admit that I do not know how Sue will continue to develop as a character," says Jean Ray Laury, "but I know she will carry on, and that she will be in charge. She will lead quiltmakers all over the world to their own discoveries-as self-revealing to them as mine were to me."
|
