Halloween?

I just heard from Carmen that my Traveling Page for October has arrived.  Her theme was "Castles".

Can you tell I was influenced by the Halloween hooplah?  LOL!

I did not start out to do anything dark . . . my usual color selections are bright and clear!   But during my research I saw some castle pictures with a full moon and I kind of liked that idea.  As I worked with ideas the moon grew larger, and the castle got darker!

I started with a photo of the Castle Neuschwanstein. Using my photo software, I darkened the photo and printed it onto printable fabric. After fusing the castle cut-out to the background (already prepared with a nice bright moon) I used free motion embroidery to enhance highlights and shadows.

Here's what the back side looked like after the stitching.

But the piece needed something more. I tried various bat silhouettes, but that seemed too conventional. Never let anyone call me conventional!

Finally, I settled on a dragon shape, which I fused and then stitched over.

For the back side, I had some fairy tale fabric in my stash. I thought the Sleeping Beauty castle would add the right touch.

I enjoyed working with this piece.  It is full of my favorite things!  Free motion stitching, dragons, and a touch of beadwork (for stars)!  I hope Carmen enjoys it, too.

Now to get to work on another September page - the first one appears to have gone walk-about.  Sigh.