A joyful tale

Now don't we all love joyful stories and this is one that I just have to share! Some time ago I met a great bunch of girls from Canberra Quilters and one of them Jakki, sent me an email to tell me about a folk festival she had just been to. It was there that she heard the Mae Trio perform and what a fabulous sound they make. Jakki just had to tell me that they sang about William Morris!!! Click on the link above to listen to these delightful girls. And below you can find the track about William Morris by clicking on the link………

Mae trio singing William Morris

Well of course I just had to have the CD and I am not disappointed…….and even more exciting is a return email I received from one of the girls! I wrote to them to thank them for their beautiful music and one of the girls, Elsie emailed me back with the most incredible story. I asked how and why William Morris had come into their lives and this was her reply…….

Hi Michele,

Thank-you for your lovely email and apologies for the delay in reply! 

It's great to hear from a fellow William Morris fan. I came by his work through my mum's family. My great great etc... grandfather built his family house in the UK and the architect was great mates with William Morris so they got Morris and co. to do all the interiors. The house is now a national trust property which has been beautifully preserved, retaining much of the original Morris work. The house is called Standen - It is a stunning place and I was lucky enough to visit there with my family a couple of years ago. I felt a strong connection to the house and the Morris designs. I wrote the song about a year later when I was doing a tapestry of a Morris design.

Please feel free to share the song and any of this on your blog. I enjoyed having a read of your blog - very cool!

So glad you've been enjoying the album,

Best wishes,

Elsie

How incredible that Elsie's great, great something grandfather had Standen House built for his family…….I still cannot believe it! I had asked Helen of Whitecroft tours if we could add it to the May Morris tour and what a joy it will be having Elsie in my heart when we visit in a few months. Elsie was responsible for the gorgeous art work on the CD as well……

 So if you enjoy their sound support this young group of talented musicians by purchasing their CD here. The Morris lyrics are perfectly appropriate about William Morris's amazing talent. …...what joy! 
And joy is needed in this household at the moment as we have had a hiccough in the selling of our townhouse. The day before settlement we were informed that it might fall through….how the banks could do this to us when they had 6 weeks to prepare is beyond belief but we live in hope! So the Thorngrove Manor quilt continues with bits draped all over the house!…... 

The centre and first border are appliquéd with two more borders to go before the mammoth task of quilting this 106" monster! This is the largest quilt I have made so it will be interesting to see how I go. I am going to share how I attach borders and sashings and if you belong to the "quilt police" you had better shut your eyes because I do not follow rules!! To attach borders or sashings books will tell you to measure the centre, upper and lower edge of the quilt and take an average measurement to work out the length needing to be cut. Well if you are like me you can measure the same area three times and get a different measurement every time (I figure it is the stretch in the fabric??). Well this is how I do it. I join all my lengths into one and then place a strip of border/sashing across the centre of the quilt from one edge and pin, pin, pin……and then continue to the other side and trim flush to the quilt…..

 Then I pin into quarters both the border/sashing strip and the quilt and line up the pins to fit…….

The other tip that I always do is to press the seam closed before opening it - this "sets" the seam…...

 Thanks for dropping by and take care till next time x