Busy today

I have been busy today and I wanted to share what I have done. I put the letters for Merry Christmas together. I was so afraid I would discover I had spelled it wrong! I added a border around the house block. I am going to put small houses and Christmas trees up each side. I have a beautiful piece of fabric that is a winter scene. I can't decide whether to use it as a border or for the back. I am going to take the other house blocks I made and put them together for something else.

work has started...

Hi there,
I have been enjoying all the work that has been going on around here....that is a seriously awesome castle! I finished a big quilt at the beginning of October and I have been stuck in a creative lull. The silence is deafening.

SO, I turned 34 and decided that I needed to just get myself out of bed an hour earlier and start the day off right, with exercise or quilting....well, I can do the quilting. I have been working on this for a few mornings, not a lot, but I am in love with these chair quilts ,they are magic to me. I was pleased with my first attempt...but all my husband could see was houses. Back to the drawing board...

these are also my first wonky stars and I LOVE THEM...very easy and a great way to use the end scraps from binding. This all will coalesce somehow...it might be called 6am...because that is when I have been squeezing in time to work on it....maybe some letters...

JMB

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....

Thinking warm thoughts...

It is getting cold outside...
but I am inside, thinking warm thoughts...
like Hawaii warm...

like beach warm...
almost felt like I was there, until I sit in a skating rink for an hour this afternoon!!!

More warm thoughts or blocks to come...

Trees and forests

Brenda here with a forest of wonky trees. I'm quite liking these trees -- they remind me of the American Elms that form an archway along my street. I borrowed the idea of someone else in this blog. Thanks. I've made lots of pine trees, but after sewing all those triangular sky pieces to the house roofs, this was a nice change. I used a bit of curved piecing on the tree trunks, and some of the trees also have words on this, advice or otherwise.

First Houses

Robyn here - So these are my first 12 houses, (in no particular order)... I figure I'll need about 28, so I have a ways to go!! I still don't think it'll fit on the spare bed like my husband would like, but it should be a nice sized lap quilt for cuddling under and reading. I'm enjoying piecing on the fly! Very fun.... though I've had to rip out a few seams to go back and add more background fabric so I don't end up cutting rooftop corners when I do the final piecing... it should be interesting trying to get these all together!

Words of inspiration from Brenda

I've been making words for my Advice from Home quilt and this is today's word. It helps me remember that I make quilts for fun, and to enjoy playing with fabric and shapes and words.
Here's all my words of advice for my sons: