Ready for a Sandwich and quilting

Prepare your backing material so that it's a few inches larger than your quilt top (front). I pre-washed my backing. Often I don't pre-wash my fabric because I like that old fashioned wrinkle look that you get from shrinkage, but this quilt needs to remain as smooth as possible.


I also pre-washed my batting and cut it a few inches larger than the quilt top.


I spray basted my three layers together and used a few safety pins to keep the layers secure.


At this point I decided to add a few embroidered decorative elements.  I should have done this before I made the quilt sandwich. I added a multi-colored Mandela in one corner and the Buddist mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum" (in Sanskrit) to the upper right corner. These items will have meaning to the quilt recipient.

By now it was obvious to me that some of the decorative stitching I used on the pieces that make up the elephant didn't secure the edges as well as I wanted.  I also had to work out how to "quilt" the elephant section.  I solved both problems by zigzagging over EVERY line of decorative stitching with invisible thread.  I used a yellow bobbin thread to match my backing.  You can't see the invisible thread on the front at all. I use YLI Wonder Invisible Thread and love it. You can get it at Amazon.com. It's my go to thread when working with multi colored fabric. I use  a thread net over the spool and don't forget to drop your tension way down.



You can't even see the zigzag of invisible thread


I choose a simple curved line for the background quilting, which I did with my walking foot.



Borders

Borders: I'll list what I did for borders, but this is an area where you might want to change things up.

First border (inside) is made from a black jellyroll, so it's 2" wide when finished.


Second border is scrappy, made from 2 1/2" squares, so 2" blocks when finished.


Third boder is made from a black jellyroll, so it's 2" wide when finished.


Forth border is 5 1/2" finished. I took the panel to my local quilt store and the staff helped me pick out a material that worked well with all the colors in the quilt. 


Fifth border (outside) is made from the black jellyroll also, so 2" wide when finished.

Panel Complete

I finished the last bit of satin stitching on the panel. Next step will be to trim it down to the size I need to begin piecing the rest of the quilt top.

I plan to make the quilt top similar to the quilt that inspired this project, but without the braid sections.

Quilt Plan

Putting the Panel together

Now we come to the fun part – putting the quilt panel together. 

Secure the master poster to a worktable or the floor.  I have a vinyl cover over my dining room table, which often gets used as a work area for my quilting projects. I can use blue painters tape on the vinyl with no problems with removal.  Next secure your background fabric over the poster. Hopefully you can see the outlines of the poster through the fabric.

Now get out your glue sticks and glue each component piece to the background fabric. Keep things smooth. Let the glue dry. I also used blue tape to ensure the pieces didn’t shift during the next step – satin stitching around the component parts. You could also pin the pieces in place.

Take a look at the panel and plan out where you want to do your satin stiches. I did inside lines before working on the outside.  You might choose to use a decorative stitch in a few places. No rules here!  The end goal is to securely stitch the component pieces to the background fabric. Take your time and avoid puckers.  The last step is to remove the paper backing on the tusks and eyes and, using the poster as a visual guide, glue them in place and then iron them down. They are now ready for stitching in place.

I used a decorative stitch on the first tusk I worked on but decided it would look better with a satin stitch, so I later just satin stitched over the decorative stitch. You can also see the fabric under the right tusk. I should have added some interfacing to the back of it.   

Almost done! I just need to stich around the left tusk and the eyes.

 

Apply Decorative Stitching

Finally a project that uses all those decorative stitches on my sewing machine! If your machine doesn't have them then a simple zigzag will work.  The goal is to further secure the sections to the stabilizer and add a little bling at the same time. I used a Sulky Gold colored thread. This isn't a metallic thread but has a nice sheen and color.

Choose stitches that will secure both fabrics along their join line. If you have small gaps between the two fabrics, often times the decorative stitch will cover it. Work on one component at a time until all are done. Place them back on the master poster.

I wasn't careful to use stitches that firmly secured both fabrics at the join line.  The Heat N Bond will not keep the fabric pieces secure forever, particularly if you wash the quilt.  Later in the quilt making process I used invisible thread and zigzagged over every line of decorative stitching.



Working on the componets

Pick a component part to work on and get it's paper section that was cut from the colored poster, such as the ear shown below. 

On the other poster (now referred to as the MASTER POSTER), cover the component area you're working on with stabilizer. I secured the stabilizer in place using blue tape.

I cut each section (template) of the paper component part off one at a time just to stay organized. After picking the piece of fabric for the section, place the paper template onto the back side of the fabric UPSIDE DOWN. Trace it onto the Heat N Bond paper. Write the number of the piece on it and then cut it out. If you are fussy cutting the piece, place the template right side up on the front side of fabric, trace and cut.
 

Place each section onto the master poster in the proper place. You should be able to read the numbers through the stabilizer.

Once all sections of the component are completed, remove the paper backing on each piece (one at a time), apply glue to the fabric back (Heat N Bond), and place it back on the stabilizer.

Heat up your iron and carefully move the stabilizer piece to the ironing board and iron to adhere the pieces to the stabilizer.

Repeat this process until all components are prepared. Trim off excess stabilizer around each component and lay them back on the master poster.



Preparing the materials

Panel background fabric:  Normally white or a white-on-white fabric. I highly recommend that you prewash the 1 ½ yard of background material and then iron it smooth.  Put it aside for now.

As I mentioned earlier, I broke the elephant down into component parts and worked on it one component at a time (trunk, left ear, right ear, head, legs, etc). Cut your stabilizer into several pieces, one for each component. It should cover that component completely.

Fabric for pieces used on elephant:  Take your scraps and material you choose for the elephant and apply the Heat N Bond to the back. Leave the paper backing on.  **If you plan to add a scrappy border like I did, cut some 2 1/2 inch strips off some of our fabric before you apply Head N Bond to use in the border.

You will need to trace a few parts of the elephant onto blank sheets of paper.   Toenails, center circles on knees, center at tip of trunk, eyes, circle on top of head, part 93A on the center of the face and the tusks. In general these parts are fused onto the piece below them, not onto the stabilizer.

Take the first (uncolored) poster and find a place to lay it out.  If desired, secure it with blue painters tape to it won’t slip around. If you don’t have a work space large enough to lay it out with folding, then fold away!

Cut the second poster (colored) into the component parts.  An ear is pictured below.

Supplies Needed for Elephant Panel

It’s time to talk materials needed to make the quilt panel.  The method used is raw edge applique and there are almost 100 pieces. It sounds intimidating but is more time consuming than difficult.  Breaking the elephant down into “component” parts and using Heat N Bond Iron on adhesive to attach the pieces to some stabilizer breaks the job down into very easy to handle sections.

Back to supplies for the elephant panel only:

• 2 to 5 yards of Heat N Bond Lite Iron on adhesive (sewable). Amount needed depends on how efficiently you apply it.  I went crazy and applied it to lots of fabric pieces so I had a wide selection of fabric choices. You can get it at Jo-anne Fabric, Walmart and just about anywhere sewing supplies are sold.
• Thread for zig-zag, satin stitch and/or decorative stitches. I used a Sulky Gold (ordered at Amazon.com)
• 2 yards of Fabric stabilizer (non-adhesive).   This is the foundation that you adhere the fabric pieces too (which have Heat N Bond on the backside).  I found a lighter weight works best if you want your quilt to remain soft and drape well. If you plan to hang your quilt like a piece of art, a heavier stabilizer can be used.. 
• 2-3 fabric glue sticks
• About 1 1/2 yards of background fabric for Elephant Panel (normally white)(44” wide)
• Various scraps for the elephant parts. I didn’t use anything bigger than a fat quarter but I have a large fabric stash and had lots of fabric in many sizes to use.



Stablizer

Heat N Bond

 

I'll cover the instructions and supplies needed to turn the elephant panel into a quilt similar to the one in this photo after the center elephant panel is done.

 

How it began

We’ve all been there – browsing quilting posts on Facebook or the web and suddenly we see a quilt that we love and want to make, but frustratingly there isn't a pattern or instructions!  Sometimes we can recreate the pattern based on our experience and sometimes the quilt falls into the “too hard to do” category and ends up on our Pinterest page along with the dozens of other quilts we’ll never make.

Recently I was browsing the posts at my favorite Facebook quilt group “Quilt Along with Pat Sloan” when I ran across a post by Jeanette Silvey that included this picture of an elephant quilt and asking if anyone knew where she could find the pattern.  Group members suggested several possibilities, but none were the exact same elephant.  Finally Jeanette traced a line drawing of the elephant and used an online site to blow it up to poster size.  

My in-laws lived in India for several years when my father-in-law worked for a U.N. agency.  Their home has several elephant themed decorations. I really wanted to make this quilt for my mother in law and Jeanette’s plan sounded doable to me.

The first thing I did was clean up the line drawing a little so I had a crisp black and white image for blowing up.  Once the image was ready, I went to BlockPosters.com to turn the image into a multi-page poster.   Posters up to 5 by 5 pages are free and you download your poster as a PDF file.  I choose a 4x4 poster which produced 16 pages that measure 34 inches wide and 47 inches high once taped together, which I will later trim down to 34 inches by 40 inches.  

You have to set a few options before you print your poster. This is what I choose:

Here is the picture you need to upload at BlockPosters.com to make your poster.  Right Click on the picture and save it to your computer.

When you print the poster on your home printer, you need to adjust the printer settings to borderless printing (usually found under Properties) and print actual size.  My system for making the quilt requires that you print and tape together two copies of the poster.

I lightly color one of the posters using colored pencils (or crayons) using about 8-10 colors. It helped me to choose my fabric and not have too much of one color  in any area. This step is definitely optional but I'm glad I took the time.