Quiltpixie here... my castle now is as complete as it gets until I add word borders.

Thanks for all the great ideas re the dragon. For some reason my mind was stuck on needing a novelty print of a dragon. Duh, just build one! As you can see I took the suggestion to be somewhat subtle about it and only show his/her snout...

I changed the front door of the castle too -- the other was just too small -- this one is fused on top...

When I went to put on the thin borders I decided it would be wise to measure the edges as well as through the middle to ensure I was getting the piece nice and square.... Come to find out it was a dang good thing... the top edge was a whole inch longer then either the measurement through the centre or the measurement across the bottom! Found the spot that the seam had started to spread, and solved the problem... If only middle age spread was so easy in real life to solve :-)

I'm thinking the words might end up being "meddle not in the affairs of the dragon; for you are cunchy and taste good with ketchup" Its fun and playful which I find appealing... Other ideas are welcome....

The construction crew returned to my castle today :-) Wish the stars were out in the sky, but maybe a fused one tomorrow as its all sewn together now :-)

My castle has a little middle age pread going on towards the top, but its all squared up and works for me :-)

Its about 20X 23 inches, so not huge... I am glad I don't have to climb all the stairs that must be inside it though -- or pay the hydro bill given the number of rooms with lights on! :-)

I've been toying with a couple of ideas around this castle. One would be a fun fire breathing dragon in the sky... I'd need to find the right fabric and do a fused applique. I don't have the right fabric in my collection, so I think this idea is likely to burn up before happening.

The other idea is words -- specifically "In my Father's house there are many rooms". I'm concerned that that may be too many words for the castle size though...

I'm also thinking I may add a large fused door or two on the right hand bottom panel area -- I think the current door will get pretty swallowed up when I add more fabric on that side, and it feels a little small for a castle of this size...

quiltpixie's toil

So I've gotten started on some words... Mostly these turned out well -- I'm not crazy about the ampersand, but I can live with it :-) My problem is, having learned that I've had a misqoute running through my head all these years I don't want to make it, but the correct quotation doesn't do it for me either :-( I think I'm abandoning these words to the pile 'cause my only other thought was adding a few dollar signs around them and making a journal quilt of our current world economy...


So I've shifted gears and have a new phrase in mind, but I want to create a huge castle to go with it... so I've started on the castle components :-) I'm thinking by adding the turret roof area to pieces I'll be able to layout the various blocks I'll make in a variety of ways, make just a few more "finishers" at the end, and have a castle that looks like its just been added to through the years :-)

how are the rest of you doing with your starts?

Quiltpixie intro

Hi folks, I'm Quiltpixie :-) I do a variety of fiber arts, focusing mainly on quilting. I love the process of making a top, not so much the adding borders, backing or sandwiching... I often tie quilts of larger size because I'm slow at hand quilting, and don't like to machine quilt larger projects. I believe quilts are made to be used and loved, and enjoyed -- not carefully rolled away in cupboards or stored under bedspreads.... I'm not good at following a pattern or making multiple blocks the same -- I get bored. (To see more of what I generally do, you can check out my blog quiltpixie)

I've made pieced letters and done liberated quilting off and on for some time... I struggle to get pieced letters together into a smallish size and into words -- often having way to many seams to be useful as I "forget" to leave them as blocks and try to space them too close together... I also think nothing of adding a little here and a little there to the background to get the "right angle", only to have a real mess of seams when I position the next letter. I'm hoping by joining this blog and group to stay focused enough to work through this stumbling block. To that end I'm planning on a word/phrase quilt. It'll likely be a wallhanging size, but whatever, quilts have a way of developing as I make them...

I do have a set of words in mind, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough to try them all -- "bubble bubble, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble" from Hamlet -- and may opt for others. I'm starting making individual letters and will see as they progress what they turn into :-)