"Immature Dragon Frolics in the Sea" JQC2006

Wed. -I finished my journal quilt (again). Realized that I had not done any sewing or fiddling or creative all day, and decided to put the binding on and call it done. At least this one is the right size.
Thurs. - Pictures are now uploaded to Picasa, and I'm ready to put this entry together.














Notes

1. Used gold tissue paper for the dragon, who is a bit too glittery, and I'll try to tone him down. Background is blue tissue on lime green felt, and highlighted with gold ink, white ink, and some metallic powders. Fabric pieces of waves are fussy cut and all is applied with some dabs of fabric glue for the nonce. Can use blue bamboo fabric for binding; gold metallic thread for quilting.
















2. Used Golden gel medium on him after giving him more distinct features with a fabric pen. The gel medium will protect the ink and dulls him down a bit. Maybe one more coat...This fellow came from an embroidered Mandarin Dragon robe; I had seen him somewhere else as a detail, then last night, found another picture and realized that he had been the main feature on a beautiful garment. He (well, the original, to which my dragon bears only a passing resemblance as I could not begin to include all of the detail) is known as The Rising Celestial Dragon, and the robe is from the Qing Dynasty 1796-1820. My dragon will be, oh, Immature Dragon Frolics in the Ocean, or something.












3. Used variegated metallic thread for machine quilting at the top and alternating silver and gold embroidery thread for hand quilting at bottom.
metallic gel pens help bring out features, but still not too clear.

Added two kinds of beads at top and black beads for eyes.

Decided against the blue bamboo fabric for binding and used this red instead. Fused binding
again.









Detail






















4. Back with journal details printed on fabric. It reads:

January 29 is the date of the Chinese New Year in 2006, and I wanted to use this idea in some way on the January journal page. After finding a picture of a Chinese dragon that was part of the embroidery on a Mandarin Dragon coat during the Qing dynasty, I decided to work with this image (which sadly loses all of the lovely detail of the original).

Applied fusible to a piece of felt, then crumpled blue tissue paper and ironed it onto the felt which created a nice texture. Next, I found some sheer gold foil (also "tissue paper"), traced a general outline of the dragon on the foil, and cut this out. This was the most difficult part as I could barely see the outline and cutting the detail was time consuming and hard on the eyes. In my scraps, there was some Asian fabric with blue on blue waves that I fussy cut and arranged with the dragon on the blue background. Fabric glue kept things situated until stitched on. Next, the machine quilting with variegated metallic thread, hand quilting with silver and gold thread, application of beads. Finally, creating this page, and the binding will finish things up for this month.

Since the Dragon is extremely important in Chinese Mythology, here are some random Dragon facts:

• The Dragon pre-dates Chinese written history.
• Imperial Chinese dragons have five toes/claws on each foot.
• Chinese dragons are strongly associated with water.
• Chinese dragons symbolize power, excellence, heroism, nobility, and divinity.While they can be vain, Eastern Dragons are beautiful, gregarious, and wise.

I like the association of the Dragon with Tai Chi postures such as "mature Dragon leaving the water." My Dragon, however, is "immature Dragon frolics in the sea."

Jen Mullen Bayou Quilts