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 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?
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