Copper Dragon

The fabric suggested waves to me, And as the dragon's shape comes from a Viking artefact, it seemed right for it to be tossing its way through the waves.
The pattern the dyes had made reminded me of Japanese Wave painting, so I did a Google Search online and found these images. I used them as inspiration for the thread sketching

Here is a detail of the Free Machine Embroidery work.

It was stitched onto a rectangle about 1 inch wider and taller than the finished size. This meant I could be selective about which part I needed to trim away.

Final size 7 x 10

Actually, I like this so much, I was tempted to keep it for something else! But I really do need to get these journal quilts done, and I still have the rest of the fabric this was cut from.

Trying out the dragon

I usually decide this sort of thing and then go away and leave it. This morning when I came into my room and saw it having had time away from it, I realised it was just about what I wanted.

Then I considered how to attach it. I am still in the mood to sit and bead something and I thought the eye at least needed a sequin and bead. As I thought about it longer, I realised the beads would actually serve to protect the copper embossing from getting flattened out too much.

Here is a start... (before I got distracted by a book...well, I do need a bit of a holiday you know!)

close up

Copper beads will define the shape of the head and neck while the sky blue beads will define the curly cues on the spine. That will help the thin edges of the copper from being caught on things. I could have fused the copper on, but it would have flattened the embossing.

Tomorrow I can listen to the cricket and bead the rest. The bright copper ribbon shown near the beads will be attached to the edges of the quilt to make a border.