Tips on piecing your front and hind leg sections

Welcome to WEEK 3 of our Dragon Dreams quilt-along! 

Did you (like me 😉) only cut the background and your dragon's main and leg colours last week? If so, your first task this week will be to cut your fabrics for the belly and spikes (the wings fabric won't be used until next week). If you followed the schedule and did ALL your cutting last week, congratulations, you'll get to start sewing right away, woohoo! 🎉

Please watch my video below for this week's tips. I am covering the following topics:

1. My tips for piecing the front and hind leg sections
2. My approach to adding two little bird friends

Mentioned in the video:

• Bird pattern: Little Crow (get the PDF)
• Bird and Dragon Tutorial
• Other pattern extensions and combos: Pattern Blender
• Foundation paper piecing (FPP) Tutorial with FREE Evergreen block
• FREE Evergreen block pattern (get the PDF)

Some additional tips for WEEK 3

Precision starts with cutting!

No matter how perfectly accurate you are with sewing your pieces, your units might still be off in their dimensions if you didn't cut them precisely in the first place. My tips for precise cutting:

• Press your fabrics before you start cutting (+ starch them if desired).
• Use a sharp rotary cutter blade.
• Use the markings on your ruler rather than the markings on your cutting mat.
• Handle your pieces carefully after cutting.

All those stitch-and-flip units...

I know there are a lot of stitch-and-flip units to sew. Sew them slowly and carefully (use pins, especially larger units!) and take a moment to check them for correct dimensions. The size of your piece or unit shouldn't change by adding a square at the corner. Measure after pressing each diagonal seam and slightly trim your unit if necessary!

And lastly, some ideas to customize your dragons

Now that you made your dragon's head section… how about adding a crown or Santa hat?

1. Adding a crown

With a few minor adjustments, you can use the 6" template from my Pocket Crown FPP block pattern and turn your dragon into a king or queen. 👑 You'll need basic foundation paper piecing skills, but it's only one simple FPP unit, so hopefully not too scary, even if you're newer to this technique.
Please click on the photo above to get to the full tutorial!

1. Adding a Santa hat

Or how about making a seasonal quilt by putting a Santa hat on your dragon's head? My FREE Santa hat add-on pattern includes instructions for an FPP option as shown above and a second option using raw edge appliqué.
Please click on the photo above to get the FREE Santa hat add-on pattern!

 

Please note: I just realized that if you already completed your head section, adding the FPP Santa hat will require you to do some minor quilt surgery, sorry! But you'll only have to undo one seam (step 18 of the pattern) to prepare your dragon to receive the hat.