Mama Elephant and Elephinfant

Welcome to a new generation!  Camden Sherr was born on May 3 and is the first great-grandchild for my mother-in-law Pauline.  The new parents, Jesse and Amy, created their nursery with an elephant theme.  I wanted to do something other than  a)  paper-pieced elephants (done that too many times!), or b) some cutesy elephant fabs (done that too). So after a bit of research, I was able to find this great pattern.

 

This is a very different kind of quilt than I have made in the past.  As I said, it is not paper-pieced, nor is it a "blocks" quilt.  Rather, per the pattern, strips are cut in various lengths (from the appropriate colors), and then assembled in columns. Then the columns are joined. All straight 1/4" seams!!!!

 

For the quilting on the elephants, I did stipling, but again, unlike what I usually do. Normally, when I stiple, I just do random loopy lines (as I did here in the sky/background), but try very hard not to cross any previous line.  Here I wanted to simulate the look of elephant skin:

So I went for a cross-hatch look.

For the ears, I did straight-line shadow quilting.

The lovely lady-like eyelashes were a late addition suggested by my wife. So cute!  And if you've ever seen an elephant up close, you know they really do have long eyelashes!

PS:  also in the queue is a monkey quilt from the same pattern author. Stay tuned!