Elephant Parade – Week 1 – Large Elephant
Welcome to the Elephant Parade! Beginning today, I will be showing a block each week and would like to encourage you to quilt along. You can try out as many or as few blocks as you like. Make a quilt or make a mini. Make a cushion. Make whatever your imagination leads you to make!
The original post about the inspiration for this baby quilt design can be found here.
Happily, Northcott Fabrics is as excited to see this come to life as I am, and will be sponsoring this project. Follow along and watch as these bright solids from their ColorWorks Premium Solids quilting cottons collection become shaped into these adorable animals!
It is not necessary to purchase the pattern in order to participate. But if you are wanting to make the complete quilt, as pictured above, and would prefer the convenience of using a printable pdf pattern, Elephant Parade is available for purchase and includes complete cutting instructions and a detailed guide to finishing the entire quilt. The pattern is available in my pattern store here.
For one large elephant block, as pictured below, you will need:
Snow 9000-10 (off white)
1 @ 2.5″ x 6.5″ rectangle, 1 @ 2.5″ x 4.5″ rectangle, 1 @ 2.5″ x 3.5″ rectangle, 2 @ 2.5″ squares, 4 @ 1.5″ squares.
Slate 9000-93 (dark grey)
1 @ 4.5″ x 5.5″ rectangle, 1 @ 3.5″ x 4.5″ rectangle, 1 @ 2.5″ x 4.5″ rectangle, 1 @ 1.5″ x 4.5″ rectangle, 1 @ 2.5 x 3.5″ rectangle, 1 @ 1.5″ x 2.5″ rectangle, 4 @ 1.5″ squares.
Glacier 9000-910 (light grey)
1 @ 2.5″ x 4.5″ rectangle.
If you are making the complete quilt, you will need 5 of these blocks – 3 facing left and 2 facing right.
Press all seams open and press seams as you go.
Step 1: Take the 1.5″ x 2.5″ dark grey rectangle and 2 of the 1.5″ white squares. Draw a diagonal line across the 1.5″ white squares. Place one of the white squares on the top of the dark grey rectangle and sew along the diagonal line, as shown in red. Trim a 1/4″ seam. Press the seam open. Place another one of the white squares on the bottom of the dark grey rectangle and sew along the diagonal line, as shown in red. Trim a 1/4″ seam. Press the seam open.
Sew the 1.5″ white square on top of the 1.5″ dark grey square. Sew this unit onto the right side of the first unit. Sew the 2.5″ x 6.5″ white rectangle to the top of this unit.
Step 2: Take the 3.5″ x 4.5″ dark grey rectangle and a 2.5″ white square. Draw a diagonal line across the 2.5″ white square. Place the white square on the upper left corner of the dark grey rectangle and sew along the diagonal line, as shown in red. Trim a 1/4″ seam. Press the seams open.
Take the 1.5″ x 4.5″ dark grey rectangle and a 1.5″ white square. Draw a diagonal line across the 1.5″ white square. Place the white square on the bottom of the dark grey rectangle and sew along the diagonal line, as shown in red. Trim a 1/4″ seam. Press the seams open.
Take the 2.5″ x 4.5″ white rectangle and a 1.5″ dark grey square. Draw a diagonal line across the 1.5″ dark grey square. Place the dark grey square on the upper left corner of the white rectangle and sew along the diagonal line, as shown in red. Trim a 1/4″ seam. Press the seams open.
Sew the 1.5″ x 4.5″ dark grey unit onto the left side of the 2.5″ x 4.5″ white unit. Sew this unit onto the bottom of the 3.5″ x 4.5″ dark grey unit.
Step 3: Take the 2.5″ x 4.5″ light grey rectangle and 2 of the 1.5″ dark grey squares. Draw a diagonal line across the 1.5″ dark grey squares. Place the dark grey squares on the right corners of the light grey rectangle and sew along the diagonal lines, as shown in red. Trim a 1/4″ seam. Press the seams open. Sew the 2.5″ x 4.5″ dark grey rectangle onto the bottom of this unit.
Step 4: Take the 4.5″ x 5.5″ dark grey rectangle and a 2.5″ white square. Draw a diagonal line across the 2.5″ white square. Place the white square on the upper right corner of the grey rectangle and sew along the diagonal line, as shown in red. Trim a 1/4″ seam and press the seam open. Sew the 2.5″ x 3.5″ white rectangle to the left side of the 2.5″ x 3.5″ dark grey rectangle. Sew this white and grey unit onto the bottom of the 4.5″ x 5.5″ dark grey unit.
Step 5: Arrange your units made in Step 1 to Step 4 in order. Sew the units together and press the seams open. Sew a button or embroider the eye on the completed block. I used iron on stabilizer to back the portion of the block where the eye was embroidered. I do not recommend using buttons on items intended for use by young children or babies. For the complete quilt you will need 3 blocks facing left and 2 blocks facing right.
Completed block will measure 8.5″ tall by 11.5″ wide including seam allowances
Thanks Lorna,great tutorial!Can't wait to see the elephants :-)Bente
This ist such a wonderful pattern!Thank you so much, Lorna! :-)In Germany it is about 10 and a half in the morning and I have to go to a basketball game. My son is playing 😉 But in the afternoon it's MY time of the day and I will start too with the elephant parade. :-)Snowy greetingsSabine
Yay,here we go!! So excited for this to start!! Can't wait to see everyone's fabric choices!!! Let the parade begin 😃
Hooray for the Elephant Parade! It looks great Lorna! I just bought the pattern so I can have a PDF of the whole shebang! It will make things very easy for us lagger behinders, so thank you for offering that too!
Can't wait to get started, but still need the background fabric, I'm going shopping again today and see if I can find something I like. I've already purchased the rest of the fabric and only bought what you suggested but had a idea so will there be enough fabric to make at least 1 more big elephant and a couple babies? Or should I purchase more fabric?Robin in Washington State (AZ right now)assweetaspeaches hotmail
Great, tomorrow I will be cutting my fabrics, my elephants are going to be scrappy 🙂
WOW – Thank you for this great pattern dear Lorna!It's so fun to make this cute elephants.Hugs, Deborah
Love this Lorna – so cute.
Finished my 5 large elephants today :). They are adorable!
so, SO cute! your elephant is very wonderfully proportioned for such a sweet effect. love it!
I finished my large elephants yesterday, but in spite of your incredibly fabulous directions I sewed them all going the same direction. I'll make it work because those elephants are so, so cute it won't matter what direction they are going! Thanks for this adorable quilt pattern!
My big elephants are done! Looking forward to the next ones!
5 mama elephants done!!!
Thank you so much for sharing. I just finished two of those 😉
Starting Elephant Parade finally made it to the top of my list. Better late tan never! I just finished 2 of your delightful elephants and can't wait to make more. Your directions were perfect and it was lots of fun to watch my elephants grow! Hope I'm smart enough to make them in reverse! Thanks so much for this quilt along.
Thank you.I just finished one big elephant. Your tutorial is very good and easy to follow. Last year also I quilt one elephant with your measurement. This time I double the measurement. Looking forward more tutorials.
I made one of these during your sew along and a friend just asked for a pink and gray elephant quilt, so I am looking forward to making another version with a pink background. Thanks you for still having the pattern for free!