Holy Moly!
The last 3 weeks have been a whirlwind of sewing and ironing and quilting. Spare time has been practically non-existent. I have been so wrapped up in this challenge, its been mind boggling. To make matters even more exciting, I got a second job, and I thought the deadline for entry was next week. Turns out its Friday. Thankfully my quilt is winging its way to Colorado as we speak on the back of a UPS truck! Guaranteed to be there on time, hurray!
I could fill your ears with all the tales of trial and error, hard work and late nights, but I am so thankful that I was able to finish on time. I could not have done it without the support of my family and friends. My husband, who barely saw me, my mom for coming for a weekend so i could work 10 in a row, and my friend Naomi who babysits for me so I can work and sew.
This years fabric was my favorite out of all the challenge fabrics to date. I knew from the moment I saw it that I would be making the Imperial Dragon Quilt. I had always wanted to make it again. There were many things I wanted to tweak, and new techniques I wanted to try. I was able to do them all.
Imperial Splendor
Imperial Splendor!
I used Shiva Paintsticks to add highlights and shading to the dragons body. The mane is an eyelash yarn that I chain stitched with a 3mm crochet needle into a long rope, careful to keep the ‘eyelashes’ all to one side. It worked out very well because the eyelashes lay directional naturally.
Highlights
I used a Hoffman 1985 Watercolors batik for the dragons body, and cut each scale out individually. Then I fused them all down. There are more than 500 scales in the whole dragon. I quilted his body with a meandering stipple in a matching color. The leg, head and tail feathers were layered and quilted using a variegated aqua to green, then a dark plum in the darkest parts of the tail and head.
Dragon tail detail
Dragon head detail
I quilted the background to mimic the tail, using the large leaves as the base for each.
Quilting Detail
For the white background I used the back side of a tone on tone white fabric, the motif was really overwhelming, but looks really good from the back, quilted with an orange peel motif.
I am so super duper happy with how this quilt turned out. I think it is my all time favorite ever!
Keep on Sewing!!
Stacey