Every now and then I make a quilt just for me. This is one of those quilts. Made for my 9-year old self who loved elephants so very much. I remembering asking my parents for an elephant (a baby elephant, I certainly wouldn't be stupid enough to ask for a full-grown elephant, our house wasn't that big!) when I was 9, they rudely said no. I promised to care for it and clean up after it, again they said no. My heartbreak lasted for a very long time, maybe a full tortuous hour and then I moved on and asked for a panda bear. My parents, still exercising their favorite word, again said no. Koala? Polar Bear? A baby giraffe? They said no to everything I suggested...obviously they didn't care one bit about me!
A few years ago, elephant quilts seemed to be everywhere. A new pattern had been released, all paper-pieced I think, and it was amazing. My quilt friend Janet made one of these elephant quilts and when I saw it (pictured below) my heart skipped a beat!
In person, this quilt is even more impressive! It's huge and the details are quite incredible. I couldn't find a picture of Janet's quilt after it was quilted (or a decent one that showed the entire quilt) but I remember how beautiful the quilting was. Anyway, this quilt got me thinking, again, about elephants, and how much I wanted one!
Janet went on to make another elephant quilt! Look how exactly precise each elephants mouth, tail and trunk were cut! As you know, precision is not my thing...but I did swoon ever so slightly over this quilt. Once again, elephants were on my brain.
I've learned a few things since I was 9 years old...like the only elephant I was going to get would be a quilted one. And if I could make my own quilted elephant, then it could be any color I wanted...red elephants, walking through the red Savannah, tails and trunks locked together. That's what I came up with and they turned out to be the best red elephant friends I think, looking out for each other and all that! I used the scraps of red fabrics that I had on hand - and while I tried not to duplicate, I did - I ran out of fabrics!
The trunks overlapped the border on one side and the tails on the other. The elephants are all machine blanket-stitched, and I used an iron-on, very light-weight fusible underneath each elephant; this quilt is very soft. I love it so very much. It's now my "go-to-quilt" when it's time to plop down in front of the boob tube.
The backing fabric is called rice paddy; it seemed appropriate even though it's a batik and batiks are notorious bleeders. So I thought about pre-washing the fabric - for about 5 minutes - and then decided not to. I know, risky, but guess what?!?! Not ONE of those red fabrics, including the backing, bled. Not one! I did throw in a handful of color-catchers into the wash and they came out the color they went in - white! I almost fell over dead, not one red bled! That right there is a miracle...a quilting miracle!
This one was two years in the making...thank you Janet for being my inspiration - I'm so happy to have it done!
