Project Reveal: Elsie the Elephant

 The theme for the Project Quilting challenge this week is A Happy Handful. We were to make something small, that would fit in your hand.

I tend to have a hard time keeping my projects small and simple, so I thought it would be nice to make a hanging, Something like a row of prosperity hens but maybe something else.  Since I have a bunch of elephants in the house, I figure I could just make those. The picture is a set of elephants I already own, but I wasn't planning on making anything that elaborate. And I am only making one elephant for this challenge, not the whole row.  It can be a bowl filler or a hanging, depending on how it goes with one.

So I dug up some directions and made one.  There are lots of directions; this one had a nice visible pattern that I liked so I printed the template and got to work.  Some of them, like this one, doesn't quite explain everything for someone like me who has trouble sewing straight lines and hasn't made a lot of three dimensional stuff.  I also didn't read the directions as carefully as I should have, because the tail is on the wrong side. I didn't know it at the time I took this photo, but I sewed the other side of the legs wrong.

I fixed the tail and some seams that were too small and turned it right side out.  The curves are really tight and needed to be reinforced.

I stuffed it with batting scraps.  This piece uses a lot of batting, which is a good thing.  Although the supply isn't technically unlimited, it does replenish itself pretty often.  I do have some batting that I cut up in small pieces so it wouldn't be lumpy, I decided this scrap was soft enough that I would just use as is, and it worked out just fine.  At first I didn't want a really fat elephant, so I used less, but eventually I kept adding more.  There is probably room for more, but I didn't want to overstuff it. I don't trust my seams. :)

I hand sewed the opening and since I didn't sew the legs right, I didn't wind up with four separate legs as the pattern indicated and therefore it doesn't stand on its own.

Here are some glamour shots.

The tail is from some packaging and the ribbon was in the room already so I didn't have to hunt for just the right thing.

Here are the two legs.  The extra pieces did leave little pockets that I could add stuffing to, so maybe it helped with that (?).

I thought I would make the ears fancy by using a decorative stitch on my machine, but those curves are hard to manage.

The eye was another piece of scrap fabric. It was a long rectangle so I just folded it in thirds to cover the raw edges and sewed it on. I really couldn't see since everything was underneath the presser foot so I just blindly sewed to secure the eye in place. I didn't want to do any more hand sewing than necessary on this piece.  

And here is the finished piece. I am calling it a quilt because it has a front and a back and batting in between.

It is reversible. The other side is similar. This is the last Project Quilting Project of the year.  Even though I didn't follow the pattern exactly, I am happy with this. I was debating whether to make a 2-D one and just thought I should try to make a 3-D one.

Here it is in my hand so you can see the size. The pattern had three sizes and I chose to make the largest one. I don't think I would have had much success with a smaller one. She's a handful!

Wait, there is more. There are plenty of other quilts left to see and make.

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 12

 

Besides making Elsie, I have continued to make progress on other quilts.  

I started a green Sawtooth Star quilt on Saint Patrick's Day. Ever since I wanted more green on the Lupine and Laughter Quilt , I've been wanting to make a green quilt, and a simple Sawtooth Star quilt has been on my mind. The plan was to start after L&L was turned into a top, but I couldn't wait.  So it is now crowding out the L&L quilt and maybe urging it to get finished faster.

I have three blocks done. Elsie is made from the scraps from one of them.  They look like they would fit right in with the L&L blocks, maybe with some help of some sashing.

I also worked on quilting the Dresden blocks and have started binding them.

• 15 minute days / March = 21 / 21 days
• 15 minute days / 2026 = 80 / 80 days
• Success rate = 100%

Quilt Reveal: Spread your Dreams and Soar

 

When I went to the sewing room to make the Orange Complements Blue Flower for the Project Quilting challenge, I saw a pattern I had printed out of a hot air balloon. I thought it was a great pattern to use and was hoping I could manage to find a way to make it fit whatever the upcoming theme was.  

I think it would have been great to use for the challenge, but I had already thought of the flower, and wanted to make that.  I realized with the small scraps I have, that I could cut out the zig zags out for the balloon, I could use the scraps for the flower. Then I wouldn't have to choose which quilt to make. I could make both.

So that is what I did. I managed to make both of these early in the week. I could have made them the same day, but I did make them a few minutes a day.

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to cut the zigzags perfectly to make them fit with each other.  I was afraid I would wind up with places there may be background. I thought about using a darker background, but instead of cutting zigzags of both the yellow and the blue, I cut the yellow zigzags, and made the blue into larger pieces. This gave me more peace of mind and worked well to avoid any gaps.

Quilt Reveal: Orange Complements Blue Flower

The theme for the Project Quilting challenge this week is "My Complements". We need to use complementary colors in our project. 

My last project turned out to be much bigger than could be completed in a week, I decided to make a potholder quilt, and managed to finish one "potholder" in time for the challenge, but that left three more to finish in my off week. (An off week is the week between the challenge weeks). I already had projects to work on during the off week, so this just added to the load. By the way, I consider the potholder that I finished to be successful because it was started and finished during the week, but I didn't get it posted in time, so please do go back and take a look at it. I think it turned out nicely.

To avoid that problem, I decided to make sure I chose a project that could be completed in one day, and uses only scraps from the scrap box. I found an art deco quilt that uses a rounded flower. It was a tiny part of that quilt, which is perfect for my project.  

I found a six inch square of blue, some leftover binding strip and some smaller scraps. This is from the Heart and Arrow Quilt, which if you remember, is blue and yellow.

So I made this, fusible applique. A nice quick project and completed and posted on time. I kept it simply quilted in that I didn't quilt the background. That is a look that I like but I have a hard time leaving things alone. I did add some machine embroidery stitch at the bottom, which I didn't like, so I switched to straight stitch for the rest of the quilt. I even remembered to put a label on it though.

I don't usually use a color wheel, and know that green and red are complements, and for some reason I was thinking that yellow and blue go together.  I'm sure I knew at one time, but I didn't care enough to retain that information.  Once I figured out that the complement is orange, I found another scrap and added the orange over the yellow. 

I entitled this Orange Complements Blue so that I would remember this lesson. I needed to add Flower at the end in case I wind up making another orange and blue quilt, and need to know which one is which.

 

Quilt Reveal: Year of the Fire Horse

 

The theme for the Project Quilting Challenge for this week is Year of the Horse. This quilt must be started and finished in one week. This theme made me happy because I had a lot of fun making the horse quilt last year, and the mythical creature quilt.

The rule is to find inspiration from the turn of the year, in the animal, in our hopes and desires for the near future.  I looked up some information about the Chinese zodiac, and decided that I needed to make my horse red, to ward off misfortune and invite blessings.

The Horse embodies enthusiasm, speed and fieriness, bringing a year focused on bold moves and exploration.  While the zodiac cycles every 12 years, the Fire Horse year appears just once every 60 years, making it especially rare. This year is celebrated for its dynamic energy, symbolizing passion, change, and transformation. In simple terms, think: rapid change, fresh opportunities, personal growth, and a faster pace of life.

I was originally thinking of a sold red on a solid black or vice versa, but when I saw this red fabric that I had rejected for another quilt, I knew it had to be in this quilt.  The design didn't work so well on the horse. I had made an elephant with a different patterned fabric and the pattern was perfect for the elephant, but it looked strange on the horse. 

So I just added more applique to add some more fire and dimension to the horse, and I think it looks pretty good now. The patterned fabrics add enough energy and vitality to the horse.

I chose a horse facing right so that it would face left on the finished quilt. Because of that, I didn't think about having to reverse the numbers. Of course, I did know they would go on backwards if I left them like that, and I thought about remaking them, but I noticed that it said SOS, which I think is fitting for the current mood.  Maybe Save Our Souls and our Democracy.  I'm sure years from now people will think I was lazy and didn't bother to fix something easily fixable, and I will have to explain myself. Maybe I need to do that now!

I birthed the quilt because I wanted to include the fun fringe beads that my mother recently gave me. I think it looks fabulous on this quilt, and nice to be able to use incoming things right away.

Be sure to to to the link at the top of the page to see how other people interpreted the challenge. It is a lot of fun!

15 Minutes to Stitch Week Six

I have continued to quilt every day this week.  I trimmed more of the Lupine and Laughter blocks and worked on this Year of the Fire Horse quilt.

• 15 minute days/Feb = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 38/38 days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with Kate's Life in Pieces 15 Minutes to Stitch.

Quilt Reveal: Change

 

The theme for the Project Quilting challenge this week is Plaid. That made me think about a pair of pajamas that I had relegated to the sewing room.  I thought I could make a tiny wonky (in a good way) handmade quilt, like Zak Foster and others make.

Then I came across a quote on Instagram that caught my eye:

Change is made like a quilt: piece by piece together.

I really liked it, and it is short so I decided to embroider it on my little quilt.  I really enjoyed the handwork on my last week's entry, so I wanted to do some more. I had this piece of African fabric on the table and it was the right size so I decided to embroider on it and let the flannel be the backing.  I wanted to embroider something on the flannel, maybe some flowers.

I gathered three colors of threads for this piece - cream, green and black.  They are leftovers from a weaving project that someone did when we took a weaving class. I think weaving is also a good analogy for change.

I added the quote, sandwiched, quilted,  and enclosed the quilt. When I came to the "piece by piece" part, I noticed that the two lines were merging, so I added a second "piece by" to show how the pieces join in a quilt. I think the green thread would have worked better here, but maybe it shows that some change is made quietly and in the background, while others are more visible.

Then I remembered that I needed to add the flowers on the flannel. I added some random stitches on the flannel back, making it a double sided quilt. I had to be careful not to let the stitching get on the front so as to not obscure the quote. 

I just added some french knots on two sides, but didn't want to make any more, so I added an arrow. 

I added some flowers in the corner, because I wanted the arrow to point to something, like the change moving from the messy french knots, to the flowers, using the only other color of floss I brought down, which was black.  After I was finished, I worried about pointing to black flowers because I don't want the change to happen for the worse.  I looked up the symbolism meaning of black flowers, and apparently they symbolize mystery, rebirth and farewells, representing endings, deep transformation, new beginnings. They signify strong emotions, strength, rebellion, or a fresh start after an end.  Accidentally Perfect!

Quilt Reveal: Open Space to Breathe

 The theme for the first Project Quilting challenge of the year 2026 is "A Clean Slate".  I don't remember other challenges being based on Pantone Color of the Year, but this week's challenge is inspired by Cloud Dancer. I have mixed feelings about this color. It is plain and boring and more of a background color. Also hiding our heads in the clouds doesn't seem like the right thing to do this year.

But as I read on the blog post, it says "the choice is at heart an open place to breathe and let creativity sing ... What do you notice has been whispering for you to listen?" These statements made me get a better attitude about the color of the year.

The week's theme itself is exciting to me because I was looking at some leftover strips I had cut for another quilt, and they reminded me that I had planned to make a low volume quilt way back when I bought the book that had a bunch of low volume quilts in it.

So this was a great motivation for me to do just that. To honor the promise I made, I resisted the urge to make the quilt bigger or complicated. I strip pieced some four fabrics, and subcut them into rows.  

Then I cut a couple in half, flipped them and sewed them together to keep the same fabrics from being in the center. Then I cut another couple and sewed another piece between just so it wouldn't look like a strip pieced quilt.

I added a soft fusible batting and a flannel backing. I resisted the urge to add beads or lace or anything to make it louder, but I did add  hand quilting. Hand quilting makes it more interesting without volume, and if you think about it, it is relaxing and slow, so it adds to "open place to breathe" theme.

Lots of bonuses with this quilt:

A great way to share pieces from another quilt.

This quilt is finished way before the deadline of Sunday!

I wound up with an inadvertent fussy cut with the bird in the gray fabric.

I love how the tiny strips on both the top and the bottom look like pieced binding. I birthed the quilt so it is another bonus.

Quilt Reveal: Scrappy Fish

 Once upon a time, I came across a tutorial on how to make a quilt with collage pieces. It was a llama and I really enjoyed the process of making it.

I really enjoyed the process so I made more like it.

I didn't research whether the elephant came before or after the camel, but it is not really that important. I just wanted to show you the elephant too.

When I made the camel, instead of making a collage that was just the size of the camel, I got the bright idea that I could collage the whole sheet of fusible, and that would give me some scrap collage for another project. 

 It is a gift that keeps on giving!

There were so many leftover scraps!

We got a giraffe! 

There was also a scrappy cat.

That left this fish piece.  

I finished it in January, in between the Project Quilting Challenges.  

I made a video about making it if you want to see it.

There was a tiny walrus. That piece didn't stay fused and I didn't bother to salvage it.

I'm not sure where this piece is either, but I know there are more collage quilts in my future because they are so much fun to make and use up the tiniest of scraps.

Quilt Reveal: Ruby Buttons

 I managed to make this week's Project Quilting Challenge submission early. The deadline is Sunday at noon central, but here it is, Saturday evening, and I already have the quilt done.  It is also a proper quilt with lots of pieces, so not a small coaster.

The theme of this week's challenge is to make something that is the color of your birthstone, My birthstone is ruby, so it was easy idea for me to make a quilt for my red and white quilt collection.

I wanted to make a quilt with little red squares. I sewed them together in strip sets. They remind me of fabric covered buttons.

This quilt reminds me of the small squares in the Maximum Minimum quilt.

I quilted it with some straight lines, thinking of pinstripes, but looking at it, it looks more like button placards, which makes them look like buttons even more.

Although the other quilts for this challenge were made by birthing quilts, this quilt needed a binding. In order to make it quickly, I machine stitched the binding to the back, folded it over the front, and sewed it down using a serpentine stitch.

I am really happy that I get to submit this quilt on Saturday and not have to worry about whether I will finish it before the deadline.