Going bananas over animal prints

The Elephant quilt

Two baby quilts in a row, I could get used to this. Lighter fabric, smaller size, cute prints. Not to mention the huge selection of adorable baby fabric in the stores. Finding the perfect look should have been so easy - a walk in the park.

When I was shopping for the black, white and yellow elephant quilt, all I seemed to find were warm-colored safari prints. I went nuts over a banana and monkey print combo - audibly lamenting that I was not making a monkey quilt. So when I checked out the baby registry for the second quilt, I was tickled to see the parents were going with a safari theme - a warm-colored one at that. The bananas were in! And the monkeys and elephants and giraffes. No lions and tigers or bears, but most of the major players are here. It was back to the fabric stores to find all the animals I thought got away. Of course then I saw some grey, white and yellow elephant fabric I missed the first time. Ugh! Buying all new fabric - it's a zoo out there.

Bananas and monkeys

Giraffes

Mama elephants and baby elephants

The whole collection

After I cut out all the squares and sew the Xs on them, I grab a nice clean sheet to lay them out on to choose the pattern. Even for the small baby quilts, I have to do this on the floor of the living room so I can step back over and over to see if the layout is balanced. That's why I use the sheet, to keep the quilt squares clean and fresh. After the design is set, I stack up the rows and number them for sewing. I come back to the sheet for the snipping process, keeping my quilts fresh and clean until the entire process is done.

All squared up

"Ah, fresh from the wash. Is that lavender Downy?"