going dotty

Its been so long since I wrote a post! My father was in Melbourne in hospital for a month, he came home and then two weeks ago had a stroke. He is quite good now, getting better daily and we also had my mother's 80th birthday last weekend. In  between I have written the fabric club newsletter, sewn the next applique block for fabric club and tried to keep up with all the other work. I have a few more urgent things to do by the end of next week and all should be smooth sailing from there!

I have lots to post. I love quilts with lots of dots so I am always searching out the best way for me to make those horrid little circles. I can applique a circle the size of a 20c piece or larger quite well, as long as I have a good template to begin with to mark the circle well. If its a small circle I need to make it over a template. I punch out cardboard circles sometimes, but usually now use the mylar circles we have at the shop. I gather up the fabric over the template, starch the circle, press, let it dry and then remove the mylar. There are about 4 circles each size so its not too tiresome getting up and down from the ironing board. It means I dont need to cut the quilt from behind and as the plastic is so thin you can get a great finish.

These are two of my favourite quilts with lots of dots. This quilt is a reproduction of a quilt made by Salina Browne in the late 1800's. A friend owns the original antique quilt and he gave me permission to reproduce it and sell the pattern.
The second quilt I made a few years ago, and my pattern is one of many versions of this quilt. I think the original may have been a red/green quilt. Ours is called Dorothy Dumpling.

there were lots of dots in both quilts, but the end result makes all those little dots worthwhile.

Tomorrow I will post the updates !