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.