Sweet Elephant Baby Quilt Update

Wow!  It has only been a week since my last post about the Sweet Elephant Baby Quilt, and I have made loads of progress on the quilt for my friend’s expected granddaughter.

Here is where I am currently:  I finally finished stitching the elephant, flowers and hearts onto the center panel!  All were blanket stitched by hand with two strands of black embroidery floss and a really sharp little needle!  Sharon does her applique entirely on her sewing machine, so that’s why her quilts look different than mine.

Next I played around with the arrangement of the pink and yellow fabrics that I gathered, to make certain that I liked the flow of the colors.

Then, as I always do, I stood back to make certain that I was happy with the arrangement of the chosen colors, the second solid border, and the center panel before I start cutting out the strips and stitching them all together.  I have a design board in my studio, so I pin the fabrics on the wall and check back periodically to make certain I like the flow and that there isn’t a particular piece of fabric that does not belong in the grouping.  So much of quilting is making certain that the fabric choices please your eye, so take your time!

Helpful hint, if you found a piece of fabric that makes you happy, use it to help determine the other fabrics that coordinate well.  Some manufacturers include printed color keys on the selvage edge of their fabrics, so you could cut the strip off the side of your fabric to take with you to your favorite quilt fabric shop (or just take the fabric with you!).  The thing that really makes any quilt “pop” is called an odd color.  Back in the 80’s the “odd” colors most quilters used were either mustard yellow or moss green.  Figure out what your “odd” color should be and incorporate just a little of it to give your quilt some zing!  Can you see the “odd” color on this quilt top?

After several hours of quality time with my Bernina, the quilt top is finished, and it is now ready to quilt!  Just for good measure, I snapped a picture of the assembled quilt and sent it to our expectant grandmother who said “Words can’t even describe how precious that is.  I can’t wait to see it in person!”

I work outside my home full-time, so I won’t get around to quilting it until the weekend, but I’m really pleased with the progress.  I am contemplating using a pink and white variegated thread to quilt her, any thoughts about that?

If you’d like to make your own sweet elephant quilt, the pattern is available for purchase, right here!

Thanks for reading our blog.  Your comments are appreciated.

Happy Quilting,

Susan

P.S.  Spoiler alert!  I have two more baby quilts to finish by March!  I started prepping the next one over the weekend.  It combines several applique blocks from one of our classic patterns along with some new designs!