In April 2004 members of the Prince Georges Historical Quilt Society, of which I am a charter member, exchanged six 6" squares of calico fabrics so each could make a challenge quilt. The quilters each chose their own design and had until the annual Christmas party to complete at least a top to be shown. There were 13 quilters so we had 78 prints with no duplicates.
The rules were simple. Each print had to be used in the quilt which could be for a bed or a wall hanging. We could add up to three solid fabrics and a background fabric.
Several years earlier I had purchased the "Ultimate Sunbonnet Sue" book and chose 20 of the 24 designs in hopes of someday making a quilt of them. This was an excellent opportunity to make that quilt and finding just the right fabric for each pattern piece would certainly be a challenge.
I used a solid white for the background of the blocks and the outside border plus a medium pink, a medium blue and peach for my three solid fabrics. The peach was used for the flesh parts of the blocks while the pink and blue became frames around my corner stones in the stripping. Oh what fun I had matching those fabrics to my pattern pieces. One fabric became a basket, a cat, a rolling pin, a table and a bed. Yes, all from one 6" square! Some became a tea set, a birdhouse and a baby carriage. The scraps from cutting these pieces plus the squares that were not used in the block became the pieced stripping. The other quilters enjoyed finding their fabrics in the blocks at the Christmas showing. I have added this quilt to my personal collection and it is a treasure.
