Highland Dancing Fairy

This was really easy to draw. I found a photo on the internet of a real girl doing highland dancing and traced the outline. Then I gave her a cartoon face and skinny legs and arms. Becky said it looked an illustration in a Roald Dahl book (illustrations were by Quentin Blake should that ever come up in a pub quiz). Sure enough, she looks like Matilda.

I scanned my sketch and then enlarged it on the computer and printed it out - on several sheets of A4!  It ended up a bit bigger than I had intended but maybe just as well.  I could never have done some of the detail work if it had been smaller.  The butterflies and flowers were added after I had scanned the sketch.



Here are some of the fun things I did with this quilt.

• Fairy wings made from embroidered net.

• A real pom pom on her Tam 'o Shanter.
• The hair was made using a fabric pen and just embroidering a few black lines.  That was an idea that I came up with after looking at Quentin Blake's illustrations.  Very quick and easy.
• Free motion embroidery butterfly with bead eyes.  This was copied off clip art I found on the internet but I skewed it to make him look like he is flying towards her.  The original was too upright.

• Shoes and vest laced up with cotton embroidery floss.
• Free motion embroidery flowers and more beads.  The big white and blue flowers were embroidered on stabiliser (as was the butterfly) and then appliqued on with invisible thread.  The bluebells were embroidered directly on to the quilt.

• And the most fun bit... a tutu that sticks out!!  That really was fun to do.

And you may also notice - NO tartan!  The binding was the closest I came to putting tartan in it. I have nothing against tartan but I didn't think it was right on this whimsical quilt.

And here is my niece showing off her moves and her quilt.