Castle Wall

I finally finished my sister's wall hanging.  I don't enjoy the quilting process, either by machine or by hand, but I also don't want someone else to quilt it for me.  So it can take me forever to finish a quilt.  Couldn't get a good picture because it's so sunny.  But the top two pics are very close to the real color.  The last pic was taken on my driveway in the shade.  Click on the pics to get a better idea.  Anyhow, here it is:  

Linda's Castle Wall 

The Castle Wall flimsy is done!

Whoo hoo!  I just finished sewing together the flimsy.  There will be a 1-2" border all around (and then I'll remove the remaining papers along the edges), and then the usual quilty stuff and the binding.  I don't know yet how I'll tie it all together.  Maybe a bit of outline stitches or maybe tying it or possibly even using cross stitch to hold it all together.

I took out one block that I knew wasn't going to look good.  I knew this from the get-go, but sometimes I have to convince myself.  This is the one that I removed.  I t has all the elements of a lot of the blocks, but that red spoke area just was awful with the rest of the quilt.  I'll use it for playing around with the border as well as whatever quilting method I choose.

Here's the one that replaced it.  Much better, I think.

I do love English paper piecing.  Yes, it is very time-consuming, but mindlessly working on it while listening to NPR is a delight.  Now I'm pulling fabrics together for Katja Marek's Hexagon Millefiore quilt.

First row

First row sewn together of Linda's Castle Wall wall hanging.  When I look at it here, I'm starting to notice the secondary patterns where the blocks come together.  Funny how you don't really see them until they are stitched up.  The HSTs will also come together.

Pic is not exactly accurate in color, but it's the best I can do with the light right now.

What do you think?

Here are 5 possible layouts for the Castle Wall wall hanging.  They are photographed top to bottom row.  I can't look at them any more because I've looked at them too long.  So, what do you think?  Any layout better than another?  Any blocks that should be moved?  There are slight differences in each layout.  HELP!

Possible layouts

With 2 more blocks to go, I thought I'd play around with how they are laid out.  Here are a couple of possibilities.  I'll probably change my mind many times. I can already see that in the top 2 rows, the 2 center blocks are too much alike in color.

Castle Wall blocks again

2 more of these blocks.  I cannot tell you just how much I love making them!

2 new Castle Wall blocks

I finished this one just before going to my niece's lovely wedding on Sunday.

And this one I finished right now.

Off to start another one. So far I've made 15 blocks and used approx 70 different fabrics and repeated 5 fabrics. 

And 3 more blocks

To say that making these blocks is addictive is an understatement!  I just can't stop.  My process is to select my fabrics and where I'll put them, cut out the shapes, etc, etc.  The thing is that I don't really know how they will play together until I've actually sewn them together.  I can sort of envision the end result, but not really. So the fun of it all is finishing each block and actually seeing how it looks.

Two new blocks

Here are today's blocks.  They seem to be going faster and faster.  I select the fabrics, but really don't know how they will react to each other until the entire block is sewn.  It's always an Ah ha! moment.

What I find fascinating is which part of the blocks draws my eyes to it.  In the first one on this page, it's clearly the red squares.  On this one I think it's the center, but then the little squares also find me.

More Castle Wall Blocks

Here are the next 4 blocks.  Each one takes from 3-4 days because I cannot work on them continually.  It hurts my hands and wrists if I do.  But I'm in no hurry, and neither is my sister, who will get the quilt.  She is thinking more of a wall hanging than a quilt, so whatever she wants, I'll do.

Castle Wall

I'm working on the Castle Wall block and using EPP as my sewing method. Thanks, Mickey Depre for the idea!

This is just what I like to do:  pick out 5 different fabrics for each block, figure out where I want them, and then mindlessly EPP them. With 49 planned blocks, I probably will use fabrics more than once, but not in the same places.