First Annual Bloggers Quilt Festival - my entry

More photos on Flickr.

This is my submission to the First Annual Bloggers Quilt Festival. It's called "Friendly Dragon Quilt" and designed for my godson Harrison. Harrison is an "Englishman" and being English, Saint George - of dragon-slaying fame - is his patron saint. I realised this when flipping through a colouring book I had purchased for my daughters during a summer holiday on Crete and coming across this lovely smiley dragon. Harrison is a positively smiley kid too, always on the go and full of energy! He's also my first godchild, son to my very very good friend Caroline.

I had no idea what I got myself into when I embarked on this project. I had gone back and forth on strange ideas of what Harrison's quilt was supposed to be until I found that dragon. Unfortunately, George the Dragon was missing his butt in the book so I had to add that to the design, copy and blow it up, order "Fossil Fern" fabric and went to work.

It was daunting and kept me second-guessing my plans. But at the end, I was super-pleased with the result. As we all know, 4-year-olds are a hard crowd to please but Harrison was smitten by his quilt, making me love him even more ;-)

I even got a request for a commission but until now, my quilts are one-of-a-kind. What I like about quilting in general and making this one in particular is that while working on them, I contemplate the person I will give the quilt to. I think of them, what they mean to me and this makes me feel closer to them. So as much as any one of my quilts is a present to someone, it's also a present to me.

The above photo was taken in Michigan, outside of Elk Rapids, hours before I presented the quilt. If you click on it, you can see all my posts obsessing about said project.

Now, go on, join the fun of the:

Presenting the finished Friendly Dragon Quilt

It's DONE!!! I had about four hours of sleep before leaving for Michigan because I desperately wanted to finish off my Friendly Dragon Quilt for my Cutest-Sweetest-Godson-Ever. And here it is:





And this is where it all started: July 2007. It's been a year.

Just click on either of the photos and you'll be taken to my new Flickr account that will hold all things quiltey-craftey. I've fed up with having to upload photos to my server and this way I can also join pools and groups and such without having to mix my photography photos with my crafty stuff.

Adding greenery

I'm happily quilting along, adding reed and grass around the dragon's



feet which is taking a bit more time than anticipated - when does it



ever not?

Last item on the agenda: adding a cloud in the shape of the name of the recipient ... if I can manage a design and transfer to the fabric.

Since using the label won't pull up the first post on this subject, I've gone back and did some research: It started in July 2007 - following a massive change of heart regarding theme and lay-out.

Embellishment

To ensure that the wadding doesn't start shifting and to add a bit more interest, I've started adding embellishments.



The size of the sun in my house? A dinner plate ... the sun is a "quick and dirty" rework of the sun on my recent Safari quilt.



All marked and pinned into place and ...



ready to be quilted. I must say that compared to a few years ago, my stitches are not necessarily getting smaller but at least less wonky on the back side.



And then it was time for bed ...

Dragon on the Home Stretch

The front's looking good already, I will have to add some quilting to it to keep the wadding from slipping on the inside.



There are a lot of loose threads to take care of in the back, yikes, definitely one of my least favorite jobs.



Some of the quilting in the back ...



and the label is in place as well. Four evenings to go!

Blindly stitching

In my drive to finish Harrison's Friendly Dragon Quilt, I am blind stitching about a mile worth of border.



This is also an attempt at putting off the decision about adding some additional decoration like a name or some grass ...

I shall be soooo pleased when this is finished and I can move onto other things, namely finishing off my own kid's blankie.

Adding contour and personality

It's embellishing time for the Friendly Dragon:



I've finished quilting around all the spots and paws and am now adding little details and lines to give the creature more depth. I'm making quite good progress which is good because this quilt is supposed to accompany me to the US at the end of the month.

Almost done quilting

I'm happy to report that I am almost finished quilting the dragon, now it's onto wrinkles and creases that need to be added to add more structure.



Looking at the calendar, I think I will have to interrupt this project to free up time for Paula's princess bed kit. Her birthday is later this month whereas the Dragon only needs to be finished by July 24.

Gotta love IKEA: the material mosquito netting, already dressed, bed linen and a fleece blankie



and preliminary lay-out:

Quilting coming along nicely

Nothing much to report here these days, hence the unfocussed posts.





I am still undecided what kind of quilting I want to do outside the dragon.

Stitching away ...

I'm busy quilting the creature and at times it's hard graft, having to push the needle through about six layers of fabric and one layer of fleece. Why, you ask. Because I am obsessed with fraying and have therefore foldered all the edges under before fusing ...

So far, I'm quite pleased with the results though I am finding that all that previous tacking was a waste of time because whenever I smooth down the sandwich to avoid wrinkles, the tacking is in my way and causes said wrinkles. Sigh. Maybe safety pins are the way to go, who knows?

Tacking together the different layers

I am being really good about this ...



very diligent ...



... hoping it will pay off.

You know I see all these progress shots with perfectly ironed tops and what-not and I feel really bad in my perfectionist lazyness that I don't do these things. Not doing them usually causes my headaches later ... so watch this space.

Daybeds are great for sandwiching

See my little assistant?

Instead of packing

... and much to the relief of my husband, who was fearing a week's holiday of me complaining "I wish I brought my quilt, I qish I brought my quilt", I spent the morning at my sewing machine finishing the assembly of Harrison's quilt:





The back is looking good as well. We did arrive terribly late because we also got lost after our GPS didn't know where we wanted to go. But it was the beginning to a great holiday.

Repinned, fused and partially sewn ...

With the dragon safely pinned to the wall in the previous step, I swapped needles to prep him for fusing ...



and turned my design wall into an ironing slope so that I could easily slide the little guy onto my ironing board.



Ironing with my ancient non-steam Rowenta went really well ...



leaving me time to start sewing the fused bits to the top. Hopefully, this labour of love will be used often. I wanted it to be sturdy but assumed that fusing the parts first would help me in assembling the dragon. What a learning experience but I don't think I'd change a thing - other than dial down the fretting.

All reassembled and pinned to the wall

It was like a very tricky puzzle ...



and maybe my approach of pinning it to the wall first was a bit complicated because this asked for re-pinning in the next step. But the critter is well and fully there.

Looks like I'm done, doesn't it?

I was tempted to just leave it at that ...

Prairie Points rock on ...

Getting the corners (almost) right ...



Dang ... precision is not my forte, despite my love for perfection.



Getting there ...



OK, I can live with that. My excuse for lack of perfection: at least the recipient can see that I *made* it and didn't just buy it ;-)



All points lined up. I love my multi-purpose easel.

Next on my wishlist: a new ironing board. Does anyone have any recommendations? I currenty use a *very* old one from IKEA that I bought as a student. It has been on its last leg for some time ... and with my birthday coming up, I think I can get someone to splurge. It will be a quilting-only investment because I have outsourced all my "normal" ironing.

Prairie Points rock!

As forcasted, I have been busy this weekend, checking the layout (portrait now, not landscape) and lining up my ducks, ahem prairie points:



Kristin is right: Prairie Points rock!



All I needed to do is fiddle with the corners a bit ...



but they are all lined up and will likely be assembled tonight.

Out of the slump

Whenever I finish one quilt, I fall into a quilting slump and struggle to get out of it. This time was no different but thankfully I had my knitting to tide me over.

Finishing a quilt is always a challenge for me, either because I am stitching away to meet a deadline or because I have a hard time deciding when to stop, like with my Turning Twenty which we are getting a lot of mileage from:



Today I'll spend some time on my new old project: the Friendly Dragon Quilt. I have said in the past that quilting saved my sanity when my girls were babies. The same is still true. I like seeing a result at the end of a session and creating something that others like using increases my sense of self-worth and accomplishment.

Prairie Points

Oh boy ... what a project: I decided on Prairie Points as a border for the dragon quilt because they seemed sufficiently dragon-ey. So I set out to prep my fabric, cutting squares from the left-over fabric used on the actual creature.



Now math is a difficult thing ... because I didn't get the numbers right. And now have a serious wad of squares left over. Maybe I'll make a matching cushion cover with a solid centre and more PPs ...

Then I discovered that there is another very good use for my handsome easel that my husband gave me for Christmas:



But since when does a rectangle have six sides?



I will spend a few hours on the floor again, attempting to assemble the back to fit the front. Then I will hopefully dare to assemble the front for fusing and machining. That is a vrrrry daunting prospect. But at least with all those different colours already on spools, changing colours in my sewing machine will not be quite as bad.



I wonder what I am going to do once this is complete?