corps de ballet

I feel as if I have been let out of jail tonight. After a week of shutdown glueing and cutting out little dancers, I finally have the borders of my "Dancing Dollies " quilt ready for a centre and a year or so of applique,  My husband asked me if it needed to be appliqued, and I said glue is good but I dont think it lasts a lifetime.

Not very often am I overwhelmed by something I am making, but this quilt is unbelievable. I have such admiration for the woman who made the original, and now I am planning my pilgrimage to Ayers House. When I saw clips of it over the years I just adored it and I think I have bought every pattern that has a dancing dollies border associated with it, so when Annette Gero published her book "The Fabric of Society"I was so excited to see it included. ( I was actually just so excited to have the book, it is stunning and so many beautiful quilts I want to make). However the pattern for this quilt included in the book is quite different to the original, so I have drafted my own borders and will make my own centre.  I am not a fan of broderie perse, so I will do something different. That is for tomorrow to think about!

Douglas, our no1 dog, isnt happy at all the quilt doesnt have a centre as that is where he likes to position himself, so you can see him sulking on the tv guide. He was having a bad day all round really, as the other two dogs went to work with me this morning and then to have their vaccinations and he was left home alone.
Christine and Bob said farewell to Charlotte, Isabella and Cameron this morning and made a quick dash back from Melbourne to Wodonga. Christine thinks she will have some free time this week now they have returned to Dubai. I said I will ask her at the end of the week if she was right.
I have to clean up from all my mess of getting this quilt together. Our daughter is coming home in a few days and I have jobs for her, so I want a clean floor and table.

Dancing Dollies

I have been having a bad day today, I made morning tea for my husband's office staff and went to put the little tea cakes in the oven and discovered the element or something has died as the oven was stone cold. Fortunately I have two ovens, so I quickly had to turn the second oven on and proceeded to burn my finger on the element of that oven. I hope the repair man can come before Christmas!

But I have finished the glueing of border 1 of my dancing dollies quilt for summer school. It has been a relief to know my maths worked out and all the pieces fitted where I thought they should. I love this quilt and I am loving enjoying the journey of the woman who made it.  Three borders and the center to go!

I decided tonight when I have finished appliqueing all of the 1200+ pieces of this quilt I am taking a trip to Ayers House in SA. In fact I think it should be a Dancing Dollies Tour.

hexagons, circles and quilts

I do not have time to leave the house until summer school, but I guess here and there I will have to make a few trips to the shop, do some shopping and one trip to Melbourne. I have still not done one of the quilts for summer school! My friend Joy suggested to me on Thursday that it might be a good idea to start, just so that I might have a few pieces done to give the girls a hint of what they were making. With that in mind, I have been busy cutting out last night and I will do some glueing this afternoon.
I have made the hexagons.

Earlier in the year we had visitors staying from France, so while I was sitting and talking ( in a very limited way as Monique's English was as good as my French), I made hexagons. I found them very therapeutic and addictive. When I make hexagons I like a little larger seam allowance than the standard 1/4". It is much easier to turn over and hold, and helps eliminate sore wrists and thumb joints. I was making 3/4" hexagons and searched for a "fussy cutting " template. After buying a few here and there , none were really what I wanted so last week finally we received stock of a custom made template. I love it!

Although I have not made the last quilt I have been busy sewing and during the week I finished our little summer school quilt "Little Miss Cupcake". Christine became addicted to appliqueing circles after last year's summer school quilt, so she can graduate to this quilt. Bridgette, one of our gorgeous Monday night girls, has the job of packing the patterns and all will be ready with that little task.

The other job I finished yesterday was the applique on the quilt "the Five Sister's quilt". I love the colours of this quilt, they are the colours of my kitchen/family room and this is where this quilt will live. I cut one the blocks wrong so it is a bit off centre, but I decided not to change them and leave it like a "real" antique quilt. I had the quilt with me in Qld in August and my mother was horrified I could leave it. But no doubt the quilt will get rough wear, the dogs will be on it, the sun will fade it and one crooked block will make no difference to its longevity.