Wednesday, June 21, 2017

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.




24 comments:

  1. This is absolutely beautiful. You did an awesome job and thank you for the tutorial on how to make it. ♥

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  2. This is amazing! And it is so generous for you to share these directions. I can't wait to try and make this!! Thank you so much!

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  3. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I also have fallen in love and puzzled over the how-to's​ quite often.

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  4. Thanks very much. Your quilt is awesome

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  5. Thank you for this post. I think I'm ready to try it. I purchased a 6'ft table just to begin Art quilting.

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  6. Thank you!!! Going to make this my first project to finish when I retire next year. Actually I love it so much I just might get it done sooner than that!!

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  7. Thank you for posting this. Your quilt is beautiful.

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  8. Thanks SO much for the pictures and directions. I've searched all over the web as well. My daughter-in-law is crazy over elephants. This will make her a spectacular Christmas present - or if I don't finish it, her birthday is Valentine's Day. I should be finished by then! :)

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  9. Bonsoir, je suis Française et je ne parle pas Anglais...
    Mais je voulais vous feliciter pour cet ouvrage splendide, je ne sais pas comment faire ce magnifique éléphant.
    Bien cordialement et excellente année 2019 Arlette ANDRE

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  10. I love this elephant, but I am having trouble when I download the picture to BlockPoster it is real blurry. What do I have to do to have a good clear picture?

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    1. Any updates on how to get a clear print?

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    2. I found a way to get a clear print. Please read the most recent comment.

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  11. Thank you so much for the picture and the help!!!! I really look forward to trying this!!!!!! My mom really wants a hummingbird quilt maybe if I am lucky I will be able to find something similar!! God Bless and thaoyou for the wonderful info!!!!!

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  12. Hi, if you happen to have MS Visio, you can paste the picture into there and simply enlarge it to the size you want (no limits).

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    1. Thanks for the info. BlockPoster can enlarge to any size but it comes out very blurry. Do you know if that is also the case with MS Viaio?

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  13. I think I found a way to get this to work correctly for BlockPoster. I first clicked on the line drawing to bring it up to a larger size before saving it to my computer. When I uploaded it to BlockPoster the resulting poster has cleaner lines. I did a test in both 4 pages wide per this blog and 5 pages wide for comparison. Both are usable. Just be sure to first left click on the line drawing to enlarge it before a right click to save it to your computer. That worked for me.

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    1. Thank you - I was having the same issue!! :)

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    2. You're welcome. Hope this works for you. It's a great looking quilt pattern to try.

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  14. I have a very good friend who is Hindu and she would adore an elephant quilt. I have searched for one that is 'just right' and this is it! I am only a beginner quilter and paper piecing is so new to me, but iam determined to try Thank you

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  15. Hallo ich möchte deinen Elefanten nach nähen. Den Schnitt habe ich auch schon in klein und original Größe ausgedruckt. Nun zur haubtfrage,wie hast du ihn genäht. Denn ich komme irgendwie nicht klar. Es wäre nett, wenn du mir über meine Email regie_58@yahoo.de einige Tips geben könntest. LG Renate

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  16. Beautiful quilt! How big is the centre panel?

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  17. I plan to make a version of this as a part of quilt guild entry into a quilt show. I hope you don't mind. Who do give credit for the design. Email me

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