The dragon of the sky is finished!



I had so much fun making this quilt. The best part was attaching all the rhinestones:



I free-motion-quilted spirals in the background, inspired by the tail of the dragon. Free-motion quilting is not something I enjoy doing, but I do like the texture it created.



Ernst loves his dragon recreated in fabric. We might do another one together (I have found a very groovy green fabric) but first I have a few other projects to finish. Stay tuned!

Read more about the making of this quilt here, here and here.

Slowly but surely the dragon of the sky is created in fabric.



His claws are added...



And his eyes (what you thought were eyes are his nostrils!)



The 'spikes' are his wings. They move so fast that they seem to be stationary. The dragon lives high in the sky, much higher than aeroplanes go.



Ready for quilting!

This is the current state of the dragon. I found a gorgeous glittery gold fabric that looks great but is an absolutely pain to sew with!



I cut the mouth, glued it to the black background fabric and tried to stitch it in place. It kept moving and distorting... grrr! I have stitched it onto the quilt top now and will use a satin stitch in gold thread to cover the edges later.



The teeth are made from white felt, and only the base is sewn to the background, so they add a little bit of a 3D effect. Ernst loves it and I'm pretty happy with the overall picture as well. Sadly I won't have time to work on it tomorrow, but I hope to get on with it on Thursday.

To be continued!

A few days ago I saw a call for entry for a new SAQA exhibit: Wild Fabrications. I have been making a lot of traditionals quilts and quilted items for Down Under Quilts in the last six months and I really feel like starting a new art quilt project. The exhibit concept reads as follows:

'Wild Fabrications celebrates a world of animals both real and fantastical. Let your imagination run wild as you create interesting and unusual interpretations of animals using unexpected or unconventional materials and adornment, and/or unusual techniques. We are looking for whimsical and creative depictions of animals. Your animals may be common or capricious; odd or ordinary; live or imagined. The key to this call is to have fun!'

That sounds good, doesn't it? I asked my middle son Ernst (9) if he would like to design a fantastical animal for me to recreate in an art quilt. He sure would! He started drawing immediately:



He drew and drew...



... and drew...



... and drew:



(And drew some more, but I won't show you all nine dragons!) It was a very difficult choice but in the end we decided to go for 'the dragon of the sky'. Ernst re-drew it for me on a large piece of paper:



Here it is. This dragon lives in the sky and never ever comes down to the ground. When it is really tired (very rarely) it will sleep on a cloud.



I traced the drawing on tracing paper:



In my stash I found a beautiful handdyed purple fabric. I backed it with fusible webbing and cut out the tail of the dragon. I hadn't realised until after I started cutting that it was going to be the mirror image of the original drawing, but fortunately Ernst didn't mind. Here is step one of the quilt!



Now I need to go and find a yellow fabric - and some more fusible webbing.

To be continued!

PS I asked the curator if it was okay to use a drawing of my son and to post this on my blog. It was :-)