Working on the Magical Side of Life

Well if you are on Flickr, then you’ve already seen this. But I figured I should get it up on the blog pretty quickly before these pictures are already old. LOL. I’ve worked some more on my precious doll quilt. Let me tell you, there better not be a doll sleeping under this quilt at any point! LOL. I didn’t design it for that.

Anyway, I spent a great deal of time putting together the magical side of the quilt yesterday. I had tackled the rainbow which had been worrying me for quite a while. And I was ready to move onto the tree. I thought that I had that all figured out, no problem. Oh wait. Nothing is that simple. Let’s remind you of my original sketch.

Doll quilt

I keep referring to this because it helps keep me focused on what I wanted to accomplish. But notice how the tree stretched over the entire left side of the quilt? Well that was in a sketch which I did without owning the castle peeps fabric yet. So I did not know the scale of the fabric and how much space the “Emerald City” was going to take. As it turns out, as you can see from this picture, that city is quite large.

Doll quilt

So I had a tree design all picked out and painstakingly cut it out and laid it on top of the quilt only to discover that it was drastically smaller than I originally intended. In fact, it looked nothing like what I thought I had wanted. So I went back to the drawing board. I didn’t take pictures, but let me tell you there were many tree auditions and I went back and forth quite a bit.

But the reality is that it no longer made sense to have the tree that large in the quilt. It sort of kills me because I really wanted the top of the tree to be near the rainbow, but the tree just looked ridiculous that large. So I compromised and made the tree come to the bottom of the green kingdom. That just made more sense proportion wise. The “leaves” are still to come!

Doll quilt

But then the trick was figuring out what to do with the first tree that I had already made…why not add it?! LOL…so I did. And then what to with the bottom of the main tree? Well I had already decided to add another mermaid from one of other colorways and when I cut her out I just knew that she had to be resting at the base of the tree. Very a la Peter Pan. So she had to have something to sit on and course some mushrooms growing nearby!

Doll quilt

So I added the other tree “farther” back and knew that I needed a field worker. I’ve been planning on using something from the castle peeps collection ever since I saw them months ago. But it wasn’t until yesterday that I knew which one. I need a man at work! No kings or queens down by the pool. Nope. A man laboring in the fields. A perfect contrast to the whimsy and freedom of the mermaids. I love it!

Doll quilt

Quick eyes might also catch the little seahorse that I cut out. Let me tell you that one was not fun! Teeny tiny and lots of little curves. I’m surprised that it turned out!

Doll quilt

So it’s definitely getting closer to being finished…oh except for the fact that this actually needs to be made into a quilt! Doh! That’s a whole bunch of work and thought too. I’m already trying to figure out what kind of quilting to do where and what will just add the perfect touch. Thankfully I have my binding figured out and I’m developing a plan for the back and label. Oh and I think I’m supposed to send little extras…got to figure that out…

I’m just dying to a gnome though and I don’t have one. Debating whether to make a quick fat quarter purchase to get one. But it will have to be shipped so it’s got to come from someone who will do it quickly! Oh the drama! 😉

14 thoughts on “Working on the Magical Side of Life”

  1. Oh that is just so lovely, it so deserves the title "magical" So amazing doing all that tiny piecing. Well done you on seeing through your design. I can't wait to see the finished piece.

  2. Thanks for sharing your process! I've admired your quilt over on flickr, but I loved reading the steps and thought process into creating it. It is absolutely stunning.

  3. um, first off…no one would blame you if you totally decided to keep this piece of you for yourself!!! seriously, how on earth will you manage to send this out into the wide world??!
    second, you absolutely do *not* need to send anything extra with *this* quilt!! whoever is the lucky duck to open this package may just need someone near her (or him) to catch the swiflty collapsing body!
    oh, and i see that you already have offers, but i can get a piece of gnome fabric in the mail to you today, and you would have it by tomorrow! let me know…
    xoxo

  4. This is one of the most wonderful, magical quilts I've ever laid eyes on! Someone is going to be very surprised and very lucky when she finds this in her mailbox!!!

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