A Lion's Tale...the tale of his mane
 

I did about 20 test strips to come up with this mane. It's alternating rows of cotton strips with homespun, cut on the straight of grain, ironed in half, stitched down on the fold, clipped a little to make the curve then clipped a lot to rag.
I wanted to do something to make his mane fuzzy other than fake fur and since this was a first run, I did the mane on a separate piece of fabric and then attached it to the main quilt. If I ever do it again, I'll stitch it right to the quilt and follow the curves of his face. I don't like the look of him peeking out of a fairly round hole. And I've washed it 4 times and the homespun is still shedding. Has anyone ragged homespun before? Will it always shed? Plus it took 1 whole yard of each fabric for the strips and about 8 hours to make just the mane! Yuck!
His whiskers extend into and on top of his mane and even though I used a huge zigzag, the ragging is so heavy that his whiskers disappear. :(
Anyway..... back to the drawing board. He's going to have different eyes, a fake fur mane, possibly a different shape to his head. I DO like his body and the proportion of the huge head/mane to the smaller body. And I really like his tail. Curling it around his body and feet worked nicely!
NEXT!

oh my goodness..........that is soooo cute

Really such a wonderful job, I love him!!!!

He looks pretty cute!
I remember your original post. I was wondering if you could do a chenille techique?

http://sewnatural.net/FuzzyByFoot.htm

What a great lion! When you make something again you always improve the process but this is so cute, love the tail. Is he appliqued on a gray background? Could really imagine him on a jungle print.

PaperPrincess, it basically is a chenille strip technique, but I wanted a longer strip and the homespun absolutely disintegrated when I cut it on the 45* bias! So I cut wider strips and then clipped them like a rag quilt!
Emma, he's not appliqués on a background. I pinned him to my big ottoman to block him. He's actually a Lion shaped quilt! He's about 40" x 50".

You're doing a wonderful job. He's so cute!

very cute!!!!!

he's adorable. i used a chenille technique once on a sheep. the kit came with a stiff brush to use on the fabric strips [bias, 3-4 layers] before washing. it's a lot of work, but the results were worth it.

Aw, he is so cute! As far as homespun goes, no I don't think it ever quits shedding, I have a raggy jacket & trim it every few times it gets worn. Have you considered doing the old-fashioned yarn hair to make a mane? -although not sure how safe that would be for little ones. Or even just a different colour for the main with lots of swirly quilting, maybe? That's alot of time & effort spent for a mane.

very nice...

Oh my gosh he is adorable. And his mane is just perfect!

Kat

Seriously, my husband HATES this Lion! He doesn't like the shape, he doesn't like the face, he really hates the mane. I told him I was putting the pic online and he actually groaned at me! Hahahahaha!

Go ahead ladies, hit me with some options! The next one will be fleece with fake fur. Maybe another one with cotton, double batting and curly quilting like Thimblebug6000 said. What other ideas???

Thats cute, you finally got the fuzzy look you wanted

I made a lion quilt about 42 years ago it was in the shape of a lion. I tied the mane lots and lots of ties. I was thinking just how clever I was. LOL My 47 yr. old son still has that quilt The next time we get together I will have him drag it out to see what I think of it now. Still have that pattern.

What a Great quilt. It is so cute.

Just way to cute!!!!! Someone is going to be so excited to get this.

Fantastic job!

When I made my son a lion costume for a kindergarten play I wrapped dark brown yarn around my hand to create connecting loops which I sewed in rows all around the face. Think I used scotch tape to hold the loops in place until they were stitched down. Don't remember how many rows I did or if I cut the ends of the loops as that was probably 30 years ago. Came out looking great.