Since this is a Wood Dragon, I really wanted the background to look like wood.  One week of free motion quilting and 4 spools of thread later….

and I finally have the background all quilted!!  I was inspired by Angela Walters and her wood grain pattern she showed when she recently lectured at the PMQG.  She also was encouraging when it comes to dense quilting.  I LOVE how it turned out, it’s very textural and organic looking!  The only major problem I had was quilting over batiks ~ there are not many in this quilt (thank goodness) but where there were batik hexies, I had to readjust my tension, and even then I was breaking thread  often.  Also… since I do this on my Singer, the stitch lengths are not perfect ~ but the overall effect is great!

Now to start quilting the dragon proper!  I’m saving a full quilt picture for the final unveiling 😉