Tumbi: A Finished Quilt

I have a new nephew arriving before the end of March and he has an elephant themed nursery. When I heard this I thought of making a paper pieced elephant. Fresh off my success with the butterfly I made using the Take Wing pattern, I jumped in and bought the Elephant pattern from Tartan Kiwi. The pattern was not as well written as the Take Wing pattern, and thank goodness I was fresh off another paper piecing project so I could troubleshoot. I still had to pull out some seams and come up with some creative solutions, but the end result is one dapper elephant!

He is two feet by two feet (so, HUGE!) and I bordered him on either side using the free tutorial for Rectangles Squared by Film in the Fridge. My sister-in-law was not decided if she wanted navy or teal or turquoise as the accent colour along with the grey in the nursery, so I used all of them and knew it would all look good together! She has not seen this quilt or pattern, and even on Instagram I have been doing "secret sewing" so it will remain a surprise. (She doesn't read my blog). I can't wait to meet my new nephew and gift him his elephant quilt!

I named it Tumbi, a Tamil word for elephant.

This quilt is actually quite large for a baby quilt, probably more of a crib or lap quilt. I hope it gets lots of tummy time use.

All of these fabrics were from my stash. Hooray for that! The inevitable Pearl Bracelets from Lizzy House, some subtle Tula (who knew that existed?) from her Fox Field line, Cotton+Steel and some other ones that have been floating around for awhile just waiting for a project like this! The binding is Art Gallery Squared Elements in a dark grey that I had from another project. It was ideal for this quilt!

I added this organic straight-ish line quilting so it looked like the elephant was walking around on a hilly landscape. I'm not sure if that it the effect, but I like it none the less.

The back is all one print, which my husband loves but is not my favourite. I think my sister-in-law will prefer it, though, and I had lots of this print so I went for it.

I bought this on clearance some time ago and don't remember who made it, but I do know this colour is "blueberry" because I thought that was a fun name for this blue.

I also have a stack of flannel baby blankets ready for him. My sister-in-law is 38 weeks pregnant, so anytime now would be great since baby is cooked!

I hope she really loves this quilt and appreciates all the work that went into that sweet (giant) elephant!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday!
Also linking up with TGIFF over at A Quarter Inch from the Edge with my bloggy friend Jenn!