In 1979, a group of quilters in Lawrence, Kansas called the Seamsters Union Local #500 gathered with one mission: to kill Sunbonnet Sue.
They tied her to railway tracks, fed her to a snake, and had her hit by lightning. They went with some very 70s methods of poisoned Kool-Aid, 3 Mile Island contamination, and a JAWS attack.
Titled "The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue", the quilt is a playful rejection of traditional views of quilts and quilters. The Seamsters "gave into their desires to eliminate the 'goody two-shoes' in their pasts". You can check out the original quilt here.
Eighteen years after "The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue" Lawrence quilters made a sequel: "Death Becomes Her", where Sue is eliminated by an elephant, a tornado, attacked by bees, and crushed by a schoolhouse quilt block.
It was exhibited at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, where it was removed for being offensive. What a buzzkill! You can check out Death Becomes Her here.
Personally, I've always found Sunbonnet Sue a drag. She embodies what many people imagine when they think of quilting: a cute, pastel, sweet little girly design. Meanwhile, I know that quilters are artists creating incredible, feast-for-the-eyes works. Sunbonnet Sue makes it too easy to dismiss our craft.
It makes sense that subverting the Sunbonnet Sue archetype gives us such pleasure! Sunbonnet Sue is dead, long live the sardonic quilter!
Tell me - how do you feel about Sue? Love her, loathe her, have a Sue tattoo??