Green with no Grrr...

I finally have the quilt blocks ready to send for Kimberly's Mama and Keiki Whale quilt (since Aria already has the first Sunbonnet Sue that Mom & I made because it was for her).

I used freezer paper to help cut out the shapes this time. I thought this would be better to get the shape right.

You can iron around the edge of the freezer paper if you want. You'll need to clip the area between the body and the tail. I did that as I was sewing it on.

Make sure you remove the freezer paper BEFORE you applique it on the block!

I have drawn on the outline of the two whales for positioning on the block.

The Keiki (baby) whale goes to the side.

Here is the images I adapted. We decided not to do the rosy cheek on ours, but if you want to you can see where that is. Please include the mouth, eyes, blow hole, and bubbles. I noted how my marking the block for placement was a bit too big and trimmed down my pattern so it should be better and not show over your applique.

I used a coordinating embroidery floss to sew it (one of the Mom's eyes gets sort of lost though). I marked the eyes, mouth, and blow hole on the freezer paper for help in placement. I also found that the fin on the keiki whale didn't look quite right. It's probably better to clip that to make a sharper corner as you are appliqueing it on, probably just clip it on the right side. I went back and added a couple of top-stitches to make it look more like the fin. I did lazy-daisy stitch hearts for the bubbles.

What color do you want? The orange is obviously spoken for.

Abby with her Sunbonnet Sue quilt

This is how my Mom (Lorene Burton Blackham) taught me to do the Sunbonnet Sue/Overall Bill baby quilts. I started helping Mom make the quilts. This is the first applique and piecing of quilts I remember doing with Mom. I used to help Mom mark and quilt tricot quilts for weddings and babies.

Here is Aria's Sunbonnet Sue quilt.

Here is a detail of one of the Sunbonnet Sue blocks. We used folded white bias tape for the hand at the end of the sleeve.

Here is my David's Overall Bill quilt. I found the pattern and adjusted the size so it was the same as our Sunbonnet Sue pattern. Some of the quilts we made have both Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Bill. The quilts I made for my David and for Bailey just have Overall Bill.

I sent the pieces cut out with the outline drawn on in a marking pencil for placement of the pieces. The white background is 8.5" x 10.5" for a finished size of 8" x 10". Aria's is 3 x 4 blocks. It's a bigger crib size. I did David and Bailey's 3 x 3 blocks and think that's a better baby quilt size. There are a lot of methods to applique and you can do it however you want. Variety adds spice!

Put the feet and arms on first.

Place the overalls on it to check placement.

Check to make sure there is enough overlap so the pieces will be covered when you turn up the edges.

Mom taught me to roll it under as you stitch it. You can, of course fold it and iron it under before you place it. I find you can "finesse" the fit of the pieces if you turn as you go. But I haven't tried ironing it first.

I find pinning can help smooth out the rounded edges--especially on the tight turns of the feet and somewhat arms. You don't kneed to turn the edge of the feet and arms that will be covered by the overalls.

You can just slip the needle along the edge to turn it over as you hold it.

Make sure you start and end with firmly knotted thread.

This is doing the buttonhole stitch on the edge.

Completing a buttonhole stitch. Make sure you go very close to the folded edge for it to be good and secure. 11/2016 Laurel's quilt label attached itself here and I can't do anything about it.

Once you have sewn the feet and arms you put on the overalls. Notice I have 2 different blocks here. On one of them I did the buttonhole stitch on the arms and the other I did a running stitch on the arms and feet and buttonhole stitch on the rest. I noticed when I pulled out Aria and David's quits out that I had done the whole blocks on a running on the whole thing. You could machine sew it. Many options.

If any of the edges don't look very secure you can whip stitch it firmly with some white thread.

With the overalls in place you slip the needle along the edge to turn it under.

Buttonhole stitch on the overalls.

When you get to the leg you need to clip the wedge a little deeper.

Continue stitching up the inside edge of the legs.

When you get to the upper neck edge you need to clip the corners at an angle.

Turn the edges under and stitch.

After you have stitched around the overalls and neck add the hat.

Do a running stitch to give definition to the hat.

Add the pocket.

The first 10 blocks top row L to R: Melissa, Abby, Jessie, Nan, Bekah. Bottom row: Doris, Me, Aria, Alayna, Eliza. I can't get this picture to move to where I want it, it randomly popped into this spot. Here it is, whatever.

Add your initials. You can do the initials big . . .

. . or the initials can be small.

Update:

Eliza, Miriam, Nan, and Abby with the blocks they made.

Jessie with the block she made.

Alayna and the Blocks that she made...

This is the proposed layout for Baby Ethan's quilt.

Sad for the babies, I am working on a wedding now so they'll be delayed a bit.
Hopefully before the end of the summer!

Aunt Abby holding Baby Ethan's quilt as she took it for Grandma Nan to quilt.

Detail of Aria's and my blocks for Jessica and Eric's new baby's quilt. Tip on the hand . . . you fold the bias tape "hot dog and then "hamburger" and sew it in.