Leapin' Lizard The True Tale

15" from front foot tip to tail tip; main body is 6" in length ;
 4" wide at belly width; 5" tall from bottom to ridge tips.
Stuffed with carded, soft wool

Here she is, my Leapin' Lizard, and she has a tale to tell.  I made this as a donation for the LaConner Quilt Museum's 2013 Fabric Challenge and fund raiser event. Leapin' Lizard is made from what was called the "Aussie Outback Challenge Kit"  which included two fat quarters from M&S Textiles. They are the two fabrics with green in them. The yellow solid was my addition. I am a big fan of Aboriginal motif textile designs.  Each of these fabrics by themselves was interesting, and as a lime-ey green lover ,one would think that these fabrics might have been right up my alley. Oh! How wrong that turned out to be!

I tried one approach which failed miserably right out of the gate leaving me with even less fabric to work with. I considered just forgetting about the entire thing. It was easy to consider just moving on to another, less troublesome, project.  My friend, Judy, who always has good ideas, suggested that I make something 3D, a stuffed animal perhaps. Initially that idea did nothing to spark my enthusiasm, but then I thought, well the fabric really does sort of look like a lizard. Hummmm... all of these 'issues' came to mind. All sorts of reasons why I should not go ahead! What sort of lizard would I make? I have no pattern. Would this work out? I'm short on fabric, and I don't want to have to hunt for or buy any more of, these two fabrics because I would not use it! Oh! What to do?
What a face!
What to do indeed. Why - make a pattern of a lizard of course.  I really winged it this time and pieced some of the two fabrics with some yellow. It was interesting to me because despite thinking that I would be able to find a lot to go with these two fabrics, nothing really worked all that well. The bottom is a solid piece of one the two designs, and it worked very well in that capacity.

The simple instructions read that "a recognizable amount of both aboriginal fabrics must be used as an integral part of the completed entry...not just the border or binding in the case of a quilt...". Of course the other requirement , and it is the most important one, is that the work "...should be a combined total of all sides no less than 18"...". Uh Oh! After my first failure I forgot about this salient requirement. DH kindly asked what the minimum size was. I have no way to calculate this 'combined' size. I bet I'm under and that they will not accept this item. I'm going to send it in anyway and, if they don't want it perhaps they will just put it in the gift shop or return it to me if they hate it!
leapin' liz in her natural environment
I had a great time adding beading and character to Leapin' Liz and I think that she came out well. It's certainly a different sort of thing for me to make. I'm sure that is not quite what the Museum had in mind, but I hope that it may be sold and bring in just a little something for them.
Good camouflage!
mid section beading
Tail and rear foot close up

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