Sunbonnet Sue Applique

I've had my Brother Ellure embroidery/sewing machine for over a decade now and have done very little embroidery with it.  Mostly I use it for piecing, quilting, and sewing knit garments.  Recently I made a list of things I would like to accomplish and one of the items on that list is learn to digitize.  When I bought my machine I also purchased Palette digitizing software, but only worked with it for a few months.  Now, I'd like to revist the process of creating emboideries and appliques; and, since it's been so long, I'm going to have to start my education all over.  

Today I worked on creating a Sunbonnet Sue applique.  That is one of the quilts on my "to do someday" list so now's as good a time as ever.  It took me a while of reviewing my instructions book and tutorials to figure out just how to make the three pieces for this design.  The design I found had extra pieces for the hand and sleeve, but I thought it best to skip that for now.  I made the shoe, dress, and hat.  I was pleased with the stitch-out, but she just didn't look complete.  Next I digitized her hand as a fill stitch and then the sleeve as a satin stitch outline.  Lastly, I chose a motif stitch for the lace on her bonnet.

Sunbonnet Sue #1

A while back a friend gave me a whole bunch of fabric bits and pieces that had been used by someone else for crafts like placemats, etc.  Most of the colors are very 80's.....country blue, taupe, orange, and green.  I haven't been able to incorporate those fabrics into any of the quilts I've made lately, but this project is perfect.

I enjoyed digging through all the fabric bits and picking out ones that would look good as the dress and then find a complimentary or contrast fabric for the bonnet.  My assortment of embroidery thread is somewhat limited so I just picked colors that I thought would go well with the fabric.  

I'm not sure I like the sleeve the way I have it.  It might look better to make it a separate piece of fabric, but I don't know that I want to have to trim that small of a piece before stitching the satin stitch outline.  Perhaps I'll do another file and play with that idea.

Sunbonnet Sue #2

The thought of having all the Sues facing the same direction led me to create a second file where I mirrored the design.  

Sunbonnet Sue #3

At this point I'm not sure how many of these Sues I will make or how I will use them in a quilt.  That will be work for another day.  

Thanks for stopping by.
Linking up to:  Design Wall at Patchwork Times and Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts.

Happy Quilting

~Diane