Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Another last minute rush to finish my “Hello Dollies” challenge doll. Way back in March we were asked to decide to make a pattern which we have had for awhile and intended and wanted to make, but just didn’t get around to it. I chose a 1998 pattern by Karen Cunagin called Harlequin. I made some modifications and was generally pleased with it.  There were many more absolutely fantastic and successful challenge dolls. This magnificent dragon made by Fay using a Melinda Small Paterson pattern, was an obvious challenge winner. All of the dolls may be viewed here, in my Hello Dollies flckr set    My mother has been visiting me and each day has been very busy creating something new. My workroom has not been busier. Mum has been making more temari balls and kimekomi balls, knitting a shawl, and of course, completing a “square” to add to my 60th birthday quilt. I have quite a few squares, delivered and sent to me from friends. So many thanks – the “quilt” is going to be so f...

At last, we have the new floors finished and we are now in the throes of putting furniture back. It took much less time to move it out - how does that happen? We had quite a few delays. I think we thought that by having the job done by a timber flooring place it would have all gone smoothly with subcontractors coming to their work in sequence. It didn’t quite happen that way. It seemed that no one was really booked to do the jobs – they were phoned the day before to check if they were available and when they were not, we were told there was a problem. When the sanders came, they thought that the cork which goes in the expansion spaces would have already been fitted , but we were assured by the layers that the sanders would do that. Then there was a minor dispute about who should nail back the skirting boards. However, we are really happy with the floor and the 12 year old + floor looks fantastic, and it certainly now doesn’t look too different from the new section. We now have beaut...

I hadn’t really intended to escape from our ‘bare” house still having the timber floors finished, but we did have a couple of days in Dubbo on the weekend for the District 9670 Rotary Changeover. The days were crisp and the nights were vey cold but it was lovely to see the country look so fresh and green after the rain. And it was great to escape from the house- concrete floors and sparse furniture. We do have some progress but things still are not looking good for my mother’s arrival next Wednesday. We do now have the boards laid and nailed, but still haven’t heard from the sander and finisher.   My other escape last week was to finish a sample piece using one of Bobbi’s nostalgia kits. I am not really good at the vintage romantic look, so with a rather contemporary colour palette, I was fairly happy with the result. It was also my son’s birthday on Monday – nice way to escape the stresses of not having our floor progressing as it should. Everyone in the family enjoyed the ...