Dragon DONE!!!!!

Yeah, clouds! So many Chinese dragons are surrounded by stylized clouds.

December 24th? ;-)

Beverly

When it isn't fun anymore, stop.

Thank you very much.

There's a really nifty product called Wonder Under. It's a fusible web with paper backing on one side. I used that on the fabric pieces. What I did was fuse the WU to the wrong side of the fabric. Then I looked at the picture and decided what colors each piece would need to be and where the breaks in the whole thing would need to be. (sort of like cutting it into a puzzle.) Then I traced each color's part on a separate piece of paper. All the red pieces here; the white pieces there; and the gold pieces on a third sheet. Then I used a piece of homemade carbon paper (printer paper with pencil rubbed all over it) to transfer the shapes to the different fabrics. The key thing to remember is to flip the pieces over so they are traced in reverse on the paper backing of the WU. Then it was just a matter of cutting very carefully on the traced lines. The webbing fused to the fabric, and the paper backing itself make that a lot easier. It stabilizes the fabric so it's not nearly as hard to cut very delicate things as you'd first think. Then just peeled the backing off and carefully fused all the fabric pieces to the backing fabric. Then stitched like a mad woman. lol

Sharon

LOL I was afraid it was gonna come to that. But I was Determined to get that puppy finished yesterday. Whew!! I decided that clouds would have put it over the top. It would have just been Too Much Going On. So I did the frame around him instead. I'm well pleased with it.

If I do another one (and yeah, I'm already planning one in my head LOL) I might do one in blues and greens. Then he could be a water dragon. That could have waves breaking in the background.

There's always another design floating in my head when I start on these appliques. They are so much fun to do, but they sort of take over. I did get a little laundry thrown in yesterday, but that's all I got done. LOL Oh well, not a bad thing every now and again I suppose. ;)

Sharon

That is gorgeous, Sharon. I have been sewing for DGD, age 9. I made her a Christmas dress and called her father to tell him it was being mailed along with the other gifts and he said, "Please, Mom, no dresses unless it is opened in the front. She hates having to ask for assistance when getting dressed; all her dresses are open in the front." "Okay," I told him, "the dress will become a skirt." I simply cut off the blouse part, added an elastic waistband. Voila! A new tiered Christmas plaid skirt. He assured me she would have a pretty red Christmas shirt to wear with it. This is fabric exactly like I made the two older DGDs Christmas jumpers when they were 8 or 9 YO. Now I can read the groups for a few days before leaving for mid-MS next weekend for our annual family get-together. It will be a sad time in a way for me; both DS & I had horrific colds and didn't get to attend last year. Now one sister is no longer with us and she will be missed.