I was thrilled to finally get started on the Dolly quilts. They have been slowly collecting into a program of epic proportions. I am not yet sure what I will do with the blocks or Dollies. Originally, I was thinking that they would just be dolly quilts...but I'm not sure I need dozens and dozens of dolly quilts. I'm wondering now if I can't somehow sew them into a complete quilt. I'll give it some thought as I go. This week's Dolly Quilt is called Bush Rose and is made from beautiful Aboriginal design fabrics from this company.
This little quilt is exactly my kind of thing. I love the pattern, the fabrics and I also enjoyed learning how to sew it together.
You cut rectangles and squares. The small dark squares become the design focal point. The point around which the design rotates.
At first it looked like the small dark squares formed into rows, but then the twirly pattern as well as the rows became apparent. I guess good designs can take on multiple forms as you gaze at them. I also love the way so many fabrics, colours and designs are used but yet the underlying integrity of the images on the Aboriginal fabric blend together into a new-almost-dot-painting image.
The instructions for how to sew it together had me a bit confused at first. Not because they were confusing. More because I had never done this before, so I didn't have much experience to help me visualise the process. When the instructions said to sew each small dark square to a large square, half way down the seam. I understood it but didn't understand why I would do that. I had laid out the design on the floor of my study/sewing area.
As a way of moving forward, I just started piecing the quilt top together (ignoring that particular instruction) and then after I had sewn the first 12 or so pieces together, I understood the requirement and did as instructed. In the photo below you can see in the top right that I've sewn a block together of about 12 pieces. Below them are a few of the 'two squares sewn together' and below them are the blocks laid out in the orignal pattern.
You can see in the photo below, I've sewn a large block to a small block and sewn half way down the seam. The blocks then need to go back into the design in the correct place so I needed some system to make sure it all made sense now that the two sewn together pieces no longer looked easily recognisable.
I settled on a method. I put the two squares together, one diagonal row at a time. When I finished the row I put it back down on the pattern in the correct order. Then once it came to piecing the whole top together I sort of added a horizontal row at a time. I had photographed the original design and so uploaded it to the computer.
With the image on the computer screen as reference, I placed the partially completed quilt top on the chair next to the computer - looked at the image and then selected the correct '2-squares' from the laid out design on my study floor.
It might sound a bit confusing, and it's obviously not essential that you understand this, I just felt really pleased with the little system I got going to sew it together. It helped me retain the original design and get a bit of a production line thing happening. After I did all this, and the quilt top was done, I thought maybe I should take the advice of both Material Obsessions books, other quilters and the Dolly instructions themselves and look into a design wall. So I could get up off the floor. It wasn't too hard with the dolly sized quilt to be down on the floor, and I was really thrilled how to work out a sewing method that very quickly settled into a pattern, with no mistakes, but perhaps there's an easier way.
I did a bit of reading, looking at blogs and reveiws for products and decided that the quickest solution for me, without heading out of town (either financially or physically) was to hang a flannel sheet on the back of the door. I'll look into a better long term solution later down the track. For now, voila. Two completed dolly quilt tops and miraculously they are about the same size!
