Applique Elephant {a finished quilt}

I needed a quilt for a friend’s baby shower, so I went to my copy of the book Quilts, Baby! for an idea.

This book has many inspirational and very original patterns in it, but I don’t recommend it to a beginner.  It’s more for an experienced quilter.

The elephant is raw-edge appliqued to the front.  After washing and drying, the edges of the elephant are softly frayed.

The background gray stars, the gray of the elephant’s body, and the pale yellow solid on the back are all Quilter’s Candy from Connecting Threads.  The brown for the eye and binding are from my stash.  And the blue plaid for the ear is from a recent trip to JoAnn’s.  It just called out to me from the fabric bolts as I was walking past.

The baby’s initials are embroidered with gray perle thread on the elephant’s neck. 

I wanted to make a matching basket for the baby’s room, using the same fabrics from the baby’s quilt.  The lining is solid yellow and the handles and bottom are linen.

I didn’t know what to put in the basket, but then I found a cute hooded towel (washcloths too) and onesies with elephants to carry on the theme and colors.

Too cute!

The finished quilt is 42” x 42”.   The batting is higher loft.

Thanks for reading!  Have a wonderful day!

Linking up with Fort Worth Fabric Studio and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Baby Elephant Dance Reprise

I had so much fun making the boy version of my elephant quilt that I just had to make it in girl colors.

I used pink and green and then added some orange because I am really digging orange lately.

The elephant print is also Kharma Baby in the girl colorway.  The other fabrics are mostly Riley Blake and DS Quilts fabric with Kona white sashing.  Of course I went with striped binding!

Don’t they look so cute together?  If only I knew someone who was having girl/boy twins!!!  Now I just need to sew labels to the backs of them. 

I’ve got some blocks made for my newest project with Summerlove that I can’t wait to share put together.  I am using linen for the sashing this time!

 

Linking this up to WIP Wednesday.

A good day

At about 1:30am yesterday morning Bea and her dad got back from a father-daughter vacation to San Francisco and Santa Barbara.  This is my favorite photo from their trip.

And today was also Bea’s first day of first grade!  It was a bittersweet moment, and I can’t wait to see her when she gets home from school.

But, only having two kids with me this morning allowed me to get the binding sewn on my newest quilt.  It is in the dryer right now.

Have a fantastic weekend!!!

Baby Elephant Dance Complete!

This quilt measures about 39” square. 

The fussy cut fabric is called Kharma Baby, most of the log cabin fabric is DS Quilts and Metro Circles, and the sashing is Kona ash. I used warm and white batting and the backing is a wonderful fabric from Connecting Threads from their Quilter’s Candy collection. It is light gray with little stars all over it.

I used a zig-zag stitch to machine bind this quilt and you can see it’s getting more and more accurate on the back as I’m sewing from the front.  It’s just taken a lot of practice.  This is probably my tenth quilt I’ve completely machine bound.

Here is a peek of the next project I’m working on.  The fabrics in this one are from the Maya collection. 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday!

Baby Elephant Dance Quilt

I just went through my stash to pick out green and blue fabrics appropriate for a boy’s quilt to make this month’s Stash Bee block.

Those fabrics became this stacked coins block.

The colors seem to be wildly popular these days, as I’ve made quite a few bee blocks in this same color scheme.

I ended up loving it so much, those fabrics became this quilt top.

And that’s where the name came from.  My mom was a flute teacher and so the song kept getting in my head every time I worked on the quilt.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!