Roaring to the deadline

CherryWood Fabrics held a contest.  Need I say more.  Ummm...yes - sign me up.   Of course, there was a nice lengthy time to enter before the deadline (a few months, I believe).  Per usual, I chose the work under pressure manner of creating - so in about 36 hours before the deadline - I was in.

It started like this.   It even came with a permission slip to encourage me to cut into those GORGEOUS fabrics....

And like a fearless lioness - I did just that. 

The theme was Lion King, The Musical.  If you had a chance to see any of their challenge entries from last year, based on the musical Wicked - they were amazing.  If you didn't catch it - by all means take a look.  Spectacular work.  I put the link below but you can google it and get even more things to peruse.

I was going to use the circle of life reference as my inspiration.

Finding all things circular for tracing

Lots of good choices for color

I toyed with this design but it was far too simplistic.  Didn't have enough "oomph".

So I mulled it over a night (wasted hours....) and then I got really juiced up and figured out a more complex and interesting design.  Which required...

A nice 9 degree wedge

The wedge really started working for me and I wound up with this:

 

I harnessed my super power : "working really fast under pressure" and the design began to form:

And eventually became this:

I called upon my secondary super hero power: "quilting the snot of out of a quilt".

And thus:

Mufasa is raw edge appliquéd with lots of tiny, slow quilting moves.

Totally worth the time....

Of course, what kind of sewist would I be without a little thread controversy....  Also per usual, I goofed a little (a lot) and had to do some unsewing.  Which leads me to my next tidbit to share.... I'm making seam rippers!!

I have learned how to turn these on a lathe and polish them into beautiful sewing tools.  If you've ever  held one of these in your own hand - then you know how good they feel.  If you haven't - you should absolutely take one for a test drive.  They feel luxurious.  I hardly minded unsewing while using this!!  More on this later...

So while the Mission Impossible them music played loudly - and despite the temporary slow down for unsewing, I was able to enter the contest (and I still had and hour and a half before the actual deadline!!!).

I'm pleased with my result (although those toes need some polish....) ...  What are you working on???

Wicked Challenge:Cherrywood Wicked Challenge 2015