Elephant applique adds a modern twist to this baby quilt

Yesterday on QUILTsocial, I talked about my six favorite features of the Brother NQ900 sewing machine. Really, I could have gone on longer. The more I use this machine, the more features I find that I LOVE. But, I have a project that I want to share with you, a fun and easy baby quilt. So let’s get going!

We have a family member who’s pregnant, so I wanted to make a baby quilt for her new little bundle of joy. Northcott has a bunch of new kids and baby fabric lines, so I contacted Elaine and asked if she could send me some fabrics to play with. Here is Northcott’s Bundle of Love fabrics, which is just perfect for a new baby boy!

I really wanted to try out the decorative stitches on the NQ900, so I decided to do a machine appliqued design in the center of the quilt. Since the Bundle of Love fabrics feature elephants, I decided to use one of them as my design inspiration. I’ve attached a PDF with the applique design for your use, if you’d like to make your own version.

Elephant baby quilt – finished size 33″ x 40″

materials:

• ½yd white fabric for background
• ½yd gray fabric for borders
• ½yd gray print fabric for applique, borders, and binding
• ¼yd each of five other prints for applique, borders, and binding
• 1yd backing fabric
• batting 40″ x 45″

Tracing the applique shapes

When using fusible web, trace your applique shape onto the paper side of the product. Since the elephant is such a large applique shape, I decided to cut away the center part of the fusible web so that it was only stuck around the edges of the elephant. This results in a “softer” feel to the finished applique. In order to not waste that piece of fusible web, I traced the heart and ear shapes inside of the elephant shape.

Cut all of your traced applique shapes loosely from the fusible web, and then iron each to the back of your chosen fabrics. Follow the manufacturer’s directions for your chosen fusible web product. Next, cut each of these shapes along the drawn line. As you can see in the photo below, the center of my elephant shape does not have any fusible web stuck to it. Next, peel off the paper backing.

Cut your background fabric to 18″ x 24″. Arrange the applique shapes with the fusible side down onto the background, and then fuse into place.

Here’s the background with the applique shapes fused in place. I can’t wait to get started stitching with the NQ900!!

I found three different WonderFil threads in my stash that will work beautifully with the fabrics.

Now that the applique shapes are fused and I’ve picked some threads for the elephant baby quilt, I’m ready to get stitching! There are so many amazing decorative stitches on the Brother NQ900 that I’m sure I’m going to have lots of fun doing my machine applique tomorrow!