On the 8th Day.......

God said: "Let's Dance!" This is the name of one of my favorite small quilted wall-hangings. Made as part of a challenge project for the guild I belong to---Berea Mill Stream Quilt Guild, in Berea, Ohio.

The challenge fabric was the multi-colored dots on a black background surrounding the entire border and the dancing figures. As soon as I saw it, I knew what I would do with it! To me it represented chains of DNA or molecules. So I knew it had to be some kind of a figure involved in the final project.

Because one of my granddaughters takes ballet lessons, it was almost her birthday, the quilt took on a life of its own when I decided to use the dancers as the figures.

Here is how I made this: I went to a program which I use a lot to make my own birthday cards and searched for a graphic of "dancer" and found this one. Just an outline of a ballet dancer. I printed it out in several different sizes; used them for the figures and just played. Later that day I was wrapping a gift and noticed the silver ribbon among my possibility of tying up that package. When I took the ribbon out, it fell off the spool in swirls and seemed to be just what I needed to link the figures together!

Now I needed something to start this process....and some silver satin backed crepe from my stash made itself known to me! So that became the cornerstone. It seems that whenever I look for something specific I never find it, but when I am just browsing all the components leap out at me! The rays coming from the left and right were a scrap of silver, dotted & shiny fabric I found about the same time.

I tried to make this a very festive active picture. You will note that the characters are jumping and playing as though skipping through space and having fun. They are all linked with the ribbon to the DNA or whatever they are made from up to the beginning of their life. The large SUN! or GOD!

After this was all done I drew around the cut-outs I had made and used them in different sizes for the quilting done between the actual figures. The back is a composite of silly things--- a dog, a tree, and a flower along with the leftover figures dancing and playing!

The quilting was all done with invisible thread on the back so it doesn't detract from the characters. Then I went back to my greeting card program to create the label. I scanned in the background from a scrap of sky fabric, printed out the label and it was done. Whenever I make a label this way, I try to always have a component of the quilt included in the information.

It was great fun to work on and I hang it proudly in my workroom. I hope you enjoy seeing it!