Alta Fenume

What does Alta Fenume mean?  BIG DRAGON of course!

The Alta Fenume (elvish of course) quilt was an applique challenge that I imposed upon myself.  The dragon itself is over 3 feet tall (36 inches).

The fabrics I used came from my stash except for the inner wings and body.  I didn’t quite have enough on hand of the colors I liked.  I really love using my stash when I can!

Here are links to other Applique themed posts:

How I applique

Applique banner

How to Applique an Enormous Dragon – Alta Fenume.

The process for creating the dragon was pretty straight-forward.  I created the enlarged image by piecing together regular pages, but you can also take your image to a Kinko’s or other similar business and they can print it in one sheet for you.

Please excuse my attire – it was Christmas in July at our guild 🙂

After printing out the image, it was time to break it apart into the individual elements that would make up the dragon.

To make this work, I used butcher paper and traced all the different elements.  I also numbered and lettered the pieces so it would be easier to know what went where.  This is probably the largest challenge.  I made sure to mark both the original drawing and the smaller pieces.

Yes, this can be very much like a puzzle.

Construction

Constructing the quilt was fun and challenging. Alta Fenume was a big boy, so I concentrated on separate elements then put them together.

Here is a sampling of how the layers were approached.  Each element had fusible attached and was cut out and ready to go.

Tips for success

• Take lots of pictures
  • By taking images each time you layer your pieces, you can re-assemble them on the quilt itself in the same order.
• Print out your image in reverse if you are using iron-on fusible backing
  • You can see that the original image and final quilt are in two different orientations.  Make sure your images face the direction you want!

One of the best tools I have when quilting is my camera.  I am not only taking pictures for posterity and blogging, I also take pictures to document the stages of my project so when I am ready, I can reproduce the results.

The border was created by using the remaining fabrics.  There wasn’t a specific idea at the beginning, but ultimately I felt that a floating boarder would compliment my floating dragon.

Not quite the end

I was originally going to document this quilt in one post, but I have decided to follow-up with the quilting in an upcoming post.

How do you applique?