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African Quilt/Wallhanging


Here is the complete view of the wall hanging that was at the fair last week.  I love making these art quilts, and it is not that hard after you make a few.  I never use a pattern for my art quilts.

The first thing you have to do is see it in your mind.  I have made several using sunrise or sundown as the theme.  The most important thing is to start with some really beautiful background fabric.  Most like this will range from $10 to $14 dollars a yard.  I used less than half a yard on this one.



I had the elephant template that I had used on a baby quilt years ago.  The elephants are the same except for size.  You can do amazing things with a copy machine these days.  The giraffe came from another project, and the tree I drew freehand.  Using WonderUnder, I made the animals and tree, then ironed it to black fabric.

After the items are cut out, place on your background fabric carefully and pin them where they need to go.  It is easy to reposition them now, but once you iron them on, they are there to stay.


I machine appliqued the animals and tree on the background fabric.  After you finish this, press really well and trim the edges to make it perfectly square or rectangular.


You can use any pattern you want for the border, but I thought these hourglass blocks went well with this quilt.  See the blue border between the background fabric and the hourglass blocks?  Make it so your border blocks will fit.  This border can be as wide or narrow as you want it to be.

Add an outside border.  The top is done and ready to be quilted.  Make your quilt sandwich (top, batting, and backing) and pin together well.  I chose to machine quilt the center so it would look like the rays of the setting sun.  The borders and blocks were quilted 'in the ditch'.   When the quilting is done, use bias binding to finish the quilt.


So does that sound easy enough?  Does it sound a little challenging?  If so, this quilt is for sale.  Email me at wanrob@comcast.net.

Comments

  1. lil red henSeptember 25, 2012 at 4:11 PM

    Very nice! and you did make it sound easy enough. I'm behind on making my Oct. little quilt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Faith, Folklore, and FriendsSeptember 25, 2012 at 5:56 PM

      I need to work on one that should be done by the first of the year, and I haven't started it yet! :(

      Delete

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