My Quilting Journey 8 - Fortune Dragon Quilt

After a very long process I have finally finished this quilt for my oldest son, Kieran. While I actually started sewing the quilt in March 2010 I have been planning for it for much, much longer. Buying dragon related fabrics, or fabrics that might work, looking for the right dragon applique, design ideas, etc etc. I finally found the lovely dragon appliqued in the middle at Smee Designs http://smeedesigns.com/content/good-luck-dragon. It was quite difficult finding a dragon which wasn't too juvenile. I enlarged it to double size as this is a queen size quilt.  As the dragon is Chinese the quilt then moved onto being a Chinese themed quilt. I then did lots of research into Chinese symbols etc. During this time we had a family holiday in Bendigo and visited a Chinese museum which gave me many ideas. I also found some great fabric at Stawell which I used as background for the dragon.

I had some difficulty finding Chinese themed fabrics rather than Japanese, which most seem to be. I did find a great piece of dragon fabric from Logan Patchwork which pushed the colour scheme in a different direction away from reds and golds into a more orange palette.

It took me until June 2011 to finish the quilt top and Kieran contributed the design of the clouds around the dragon. The quilting then took me until January 2012 due to some delays caused by having to empty our entire house of furniture when we had all the floor coverings replaced. No-one was happier than me to get the binding and label on and get the quilt onto Kieran's bed!  I love the result though and so does Kieran so it was worth all the work!

Here's a photo of the label and also the meanings of the 4 symbols in the corners - not to mention the fabric I used on the back!