Quiltingboard Forums - Castle and Dragon baby quilt (my own design)

I came up with the idea for this quilt when I was getting ready for work a couple months ago. A friend had asked me to make a couple baby quilts for her soon-to-be nephew, and soon-to-be mystery (niece/nephew). She hadn't specified what kind of quilt she wanted yet, so I came up with this. She wasn't so sure that either brother was into castles and dragons, so I ended up making something different for her. However, I could not let my idea of a castle and dragon quilt go...

The fabric is all cotton, except for the dragon, which is minky. I couldn't find a dragon I liked, and I'm not great at drawing, but before I was ready to give up, I found photos of two different baby-dragon statues. I combined what I liked about each version, and came up with this one.

It's about 36" x 42" (each block was cut 4" x 6"). I definitely need more practice appliqueing with my machine, but I'm really happy with how my detail stitching came out. Since I couldn't iron the minky, I had to get a little creative with how I got the dragon on there--it involved Elmer's School Glue, Glue sticks (all washable), and pinning the paper to the minky to be able to follow my detail stitch lines.

I'm a little scared to wash it, crossing my fingers the minky doesn't come apart (I did about a 1/4" zigzag around the border, hoping that works).

The women in the quilting group I go to were invaluable. I wanted the quilt to be shaped like a castle, rather than being rectangular or square. I had lots of questions about the envelope/pillowcase/birthing method and how to get things to stay still for me.

I made a few little mistakes, but I'm pretty happy about how it turned out. And now I'll do better next time.

I want to make a bigger one now :)

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