Sunday Quilt Inspiration: E L E P H A N T S

This post first appeared in February of 2015, and it's still a favorite--over 12,000 views. How is that even possible? Well anyway, I thought I'd make it easy to find, again. 

Try spelling elephants with spaces between the letters....it's strange. This morning I was reading a few blogs, as I tend to do pretty often now that I've cut back on the number of quilt magazines I purchase. I ran across Sew Fresh Quilts and had to take a closer look at her darling "Elephant Parade" quilt.

See that cute little pink guy near the bottom?  That one just gets me.  I like elephants.  But baby elephants, well, they are too adorable.  They look hugable and loveable and cuddly.  I know, it's a crazy fantasy to want to hug a baby elephant that probably weighs as much as I do (and I'm not skinny!) but I can't help myself.

Recently it seems, Facebook is wrought with baby elephant videos. One in which a baby is stuck in a hole and can't get out is just heartbreaking.  Of course, the folks with the video camera help and save the day, but the struggle is real...because the little guy is not so little.  But he's cute and mom is right there in a panic unable to help.  Heart-wrenching, I tell you.  

This video shows a newborn baby being protected and helped by the entire group of elephants as he struggles to get up.  The video is a bit long (9 mins.) but let it stream and advance it so that you get to the end if you just have to see that he makes it.

Since they're so darling, I thought I'd look for a few quilts with elephants on them.  Turns out that there are more than just a few. Plus, there are elephant fabrics, softies, pincushions, and other items.  These are some of my favorites.

And this brings us back to the Sew Fresh Quilts "Elephant Parade" quilt along.  This is the quilt you'd be making if you quilt along with Lorna, but she suggests that you can make other items just by using the pattern to make the elephants, then modify the project to suit your needs.  I'm thinking pillow since I have too many other projects going right now.  

Lorna is already in week two, so maybe you should scoot on over and get started!

Happy Quilting,

AmandaJean's QAL ~~ Top Finished!

A Finish! Just last night I was whining about not getting anywhere this week and in desperation (almost) I made a little bag just to make myself feel better. 

This morning I checked on Crazy Mom Quilts to see whether AmandaJean's quilt along instructions for week four were up. I'd decided to participate a couple of weeks ago. While working on all those blue scraps, I sewed up enough for this QAL, too. (I've been eating up some blue scraps, let me tell you!) There you go--a project with a purpose!

Because I had everything already cut out, it took almost no time to get the pieces on the design wall. I have to admit that it took a couple of minutes to wrap my head around the on-point setting. Perhaps the fact that I'd somehow missed one set of triangles made a difference. (There's a block E?) Ha! I cut those out and suddenly everything fit together! 

Once I got past that niggly problem, it was off to the races. Well, race when some grandie wasn't hanging around "bored." Now you know I heard enough of that with my own kids. 

In no time all the pieces were connected to create one wow quilt top. I love it! I think it's that crazy orange, which had to be turned around at random because the print didn't match up along the edges where the quarter pieces are. No problem, I switched them around before sewing and then didn't look at it again. I really liked AmandaJean's use of two different aquas, so I did the same with the reds, but it's not terribly obvious unless you know it. 

I can't wait to load it on the long-arm. Hopefully that will be tomorrow and I'll have it quilted before leaving for vacation. I haven't measured it but it's big. Much bigger than I expected, but that's a good thing. 

Are you participating in AmandaJean's QAL?  If so, how is it going? Remember to include her hashtag: #JunequiltQAL

Linking up with

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

TGIFF (Thank Goodness it is Friday Finish)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or not Friday)

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish it up Friday)

More scrapping in blue

Tuesday 6/13/17
You'd think that after making two quilt tops (one to be posted later since it's not complete) that I'd have caught up with some of those blue scraps. Well, guess what! I decided that I need more variety in the blue strips that are already cut. Yeah. Variety. That's the ticket.

So I was down to about half a bucket of scraps when I decided to use some 2.5" strips from an abandoned project. And since I was making one project, I may as well make two. All the same I figured. 

Check it out--organized! Skinny strips for
the QAL, 2.5 strips sort of arranged by lengths.

What I didn't figure was that I'd really get into this blue phase. After finishing the first quilt and taking pictures, I thought it would be a good idea to cut a few more strips in preparation for the June Quilt Along with AmandaJean of Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Why not use blue? I like blue. I have tons of blue fabric. I want to use up some of that blue. 








Wednesday 6/14/17
I got an early start and decided that I'd continue working on the Crazy Mom QAL. AmandaJean writes really well so her directions made the project seem relatively effortless. I already had gobs of skinny strips ready to go, and I felt that I could really make some headway today. 

Everything goes to the ironing 

board to get pressed.

And I did.

I thought I'd share my process. Bear with me if you will.

First I pulled fabric, which is relatively easy since I am not very discriminating: I took out everything I don't like or was especially small and all bits I know I'll never use. Maybe I am discriminating after all. 

Isn't this a pretty picture?

The next step is to cut. I tried to cut mostly 2.5" widths and learned (the hard way) that it's a good idea to divide the strips into three piles. No numbers used here. Just put the strips into any pile it fits. Sort of. Get close. Don't stress.

As I cut 2.5" widths, I also cut a few smaller widths for the Crazy Mom QAL. Anything between one and two inches is AmandaJean's recommendation. 

I dropped some 2.5s in anyway. Can I claim it's for the sake of variety or do I have to admit to lazyiness? Ha! Believe what ever you want.

The QAL strips I also chopped into 5" lengths so that I could easily sew them, press and then cut the whole blocks into 4½" X 8½".

At first I tried to be very methodical about sewing the pieces together. Then I tried to mixed the pieces up and pick up two without looking. That drove me to the brink of insanity. 

And I realized that I didn't have enough pieces anyway. So back to the stash and the pressing and the cutting. And about that time I said, "Screw the whole thing and make a mess and get it over with." I sewed like a mad woman, which I may have been. And sewed. And sewed. 

And you know what I got for my money and time? Pairs. Not blocks, mind you. Pairs. Those have to be sewn into quads. And the quads have to be sewn in whatever makes 8½ inches. Basically it's a crap shoot because I clearly have not thought that far ahead.

I do have something else to show you, however. 

I mostly aim for the trash can. And I mostly make three pointers. I'm not so good on the foul shots, but then I never was. 

More on Jen and Jan's Blog Hop

As I've been reading the blogs of other participants in Jen and Jan's blog hop, I've been learning and having great fun seeing the mini quilts. Below is the list of all the participants, including me. I did not expect to be added to the list so quickly. What a sweet girl that Janice is!

Jen Rosin  A Dream and a Stitch
Kate Heads at Smiles From Kate
Jennifer Fulton at Inquiring Quilter
Karen Thurn at Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats

Melva Nolan at Melva Loves Scraps
Vicki at Vicki's Crafts & Quilting
Julie Stocker at Pink Doxies
Anja Clyke at Anja Quilts
Diann at Little Penguin Quilts
Jayne at Twiggy & Opal
Susan Arnold at Quilt Fabrication
Leanne Milsom at Lizzie the Quilter
Sandra Walker at Mmm! Quilts!

Janice Holton at Color Creating & Quilting

Sola at Alice Samuels Quilt Co

Jennifer Strauser at Dizzy Quilter

Amy Gerlich at Amy Scrap Spot

Sharon Denney Parcel at Yellow Cat Quilt Designs

Tami at Sew Much for Free Time

Suzy Webster at Adventurous Applique & Quilting

Tish Stemple at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Susan Gordon at Sevenoaks Street Quilts

Anne Boundy at Said With Love

Barbara Wootie at The Flashing Scissors
Jan Welander at Making Scraps

Mary Marcotte at Fleur de Lis Quilts

As I visit each blog, I've been adding the minis to my Pinterest board. Check out all the minis together here.

Jen and Jan's Mini ~~ a little finish

Shot of the mini hanging in the
wisteria. The smell is wonderful
and I could not resist! 

or what I'll call a delayed finish. I joined a quilt along earlier this month or maybe back in February...whenever the two girls said, "Hey, wanna play?" I've had plenty of time, but you know, there are things like work getting in the way. So I procrastinated. For a long time. And suddenly there it was.  

I actually started earlier in the week so that I would not be frantic on Thursday or Friday. Lot of good that did me. Thurday I got home (as Marley said) "very later" than I was supposed to. So no sewing. On Friday I started with a migraine at school. An hour later my principal refused to let me drive home but insisted that I go. One phone call to Richard and I was on my way.  But again no sewing. I woke up much later and sent an email to Jan to let her know that she needed to pull me from the list. 

"Little Pink House"

Detail of the quilt hanging on the line

Oh, the guilt. I really have a problem with broken promises. After sleeping about 19 hours I felt much better and decided to get on the mini. And this is it. Not as pink as I hoped it would be--this color is too muddy--but I've already decided that it will have to do. While I was cutting out the pieces, I kept thinking of John Mellencamp's song, "Pink Houses," (1983)which can be patriotic or not, depending on your outlook. Here's the chorus in case you want to sing along. 

Oh but ain't that America, for you and me
Ain't that America, we're something to see baby
Ain't that America, home of the free, yeah
Little pink houses for you and me, oh for you and me

Guess where the title of mini came from. Maybe the muddy pink is the right color after all. 

Jan and Jen had so many people join in the fun that they split the quilters into two days. Some posted yesterday and some today. I hope that you'll go see the sweet minis that were created.

I'm not sure that the button works, so here are the links:

Jen's blog A Dream and A Stitch

Jan's blog Color, Creating, and Quilting

Linking up with

Crazy Mom Quilts 

This is my second link for the week on Amanda Jean's linkup. 

See the first one--a tutorial of the quilted scrap baskets--here.