Paisley Splash Elephant Quilt

Hello scrappy quilt lovers and appliqué lovers. I made this quilt using scraps, scraps and more scraps. I started off piecing yellow fabric scraps for the background of the quilt. It sure feels good to use up even the tiniest of fabric scraps, however the reduction of scraps used is small as I end up with even more scraps after cutting the backing and the binding. Ugh! Such is the nature of sewing with scraps I suppose. But still, I do love to use scraps, especially as background as it not only looks great and adds more interest than using a plain piece of fabric, but it does feel more creative and more artsy looking too.

After I made the background, I found this free pattern, Paisley Splash, from Windham Fabrics (designed by Myiesha & Katie) that featured an appliqué elephant with his trunk held high and paisley shaped water (and circles) falling down. A purple elephant seemed to look the best on the yellow background, since yellow and purple are complimentary colors. I added touches of pink and blue for the paisley and circles, using whatever scraps I had on hand. 

I am donating this quilt to Project Linus. I belong to a PL group that meets twice a month and I prefer to do my own thing with my own fabrics. They do have kits available to sew at the group for simple quilts like strips to make rag quilts or squares to sew together. I would be bored to tears if I couldn't create what I wanted to make and choose my own colors/fabric. But it is great that others in the groups do sew those kits when we meet. It is especially great they have quilts for beginners who join us as they are easy to sew. I tried one the first time I went and completed one flannel rag quilt during that time. 

But a few of us just need to do our own thing and so it's nice I am not the only one who wants sew what I like. Then the Show & Tell is more inspiring and just might encourage others to try something of their own one day too.  We also meet across town with all the PL groups in the Albuquerque area for just Show & Tell once a month. I will be attending my first meeting for that in a week. I have this quilt and the green triangle quilt (also made with scraps) that I appliquéd a bear in flannel on the quilt to show at the meeting. I hear it's very inspiring to see all the great Show & Tell and I am looking forward to attending that meeting.

This quilt measures 33" x 30.5". I just made the background the size I wanted it to in order to fit within the PL guideline sizes. The actual pattern for this quilt measures 22.5" x 33.5". I needed this quilt to be a bit larger. Since it's appliqué, you can make the background any size you want to.

Closer look at the crumb piecing and quilting.

I have lots of PL ideas and using up all the scraps that never seem to end. A lot of those scraps come from me making the Sew Powerful Purses that I donate also, so I need some place to use up scraps! Happy piecing, appliqué & quilting my friends!
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