Halloween 

"Nine little witches,
Nine little hats,
Nine orange pumpkins,
Three black cats."          (Leslie Schultz)

Late in 2019, I was visiting my friend, Elvin Heiberg, at his home in Parkview East. Knowing my love of textiles, he invited me to see the work of master quilter, Edna Ness, who was selling some of her creations in his building. Her work is deft, imaginative, and beautifully executed. Immediately, I fell in love with a triple trio of little witches (did anyone else read Eleanor Estes’s The Little Witch over and over as a child?). I see that this is a whimsical riff on an historic pattern, especially popular in the 1930s called variously “Sunbonnet Sue” or “Sunbonnet Babies” for children’s bed quilts.

Here is a close-up of the center witch with her pumpkin and cat, so you can see the workmanship. Each dress has a different fabric, and each print is perfectly to scale.

As my daughter knows, I have long had an irrational but powerful fear of applique work. (Why? Who knows? That something will emerge puckered or askew after hours of work, I suppose.) In recent years, I have begun to counter this, helped by a class at our local quilt shop, Reproduction Fabrics. I made a wall hanging with birds and berries for my sister a few Christmases ago, and I have more applique projects planned (perhaps even incorporating machine sewing! Another hurdle for me that has been partially cleared by the past six months of sewing masks.) For now, I will just enjoy regarding up close the work of another quilter that is on display in my own kitchen.

(For a perspective on the “Sunbonnet Sue” design, please search for an article on Bertha Corbett Melcher, the “Mother of the Sunbonnet Babies” from the Minnesota Historical Society’s website.)