I made this quilt for my 3rd son, he wanted a quilt full of African animals and he chose the animals he wanted for this quilt.  I have hand appliqued the animal squares with blanket stitch using 2 strands of embroidery thread.  I like the way it adds roundness and depth to the animals.   The elephant panel was taken from a photo my mum took of elephants drinking at a waterhole from when she lived in South Africa back in the 1960’s.

The patchwork squares around the edges were made from a Joseph’s Coat black I found, plus a block I made up (but it may exist somewhere!).

I wanted to incorporate patterns within the quilting that represented Africa, so the plain blocks have free machine quilted flowers from Africa.

This is the first quilt I’ve made that I’m proper proud of.  I t was a whole lot of work and took me a few years to finish (I do work full time also!).  I have tried to get the quilts I’ve made for my own children finished by the time they are 9.  So far so good but number 4 is a bit tight.