Birthe,s truly stunning elephant was a joy to quilt.

I studied photos of elephants in the wild before I started and found they had lots of detail suitable for quilting.

First I ordered lots of orange, gold, red and grey thread, I used Isacord thread on the elephant as it has a lovely sheen and Superiour Thread on the background.

I wanted a soft organic feel to the quilting to reflect the wrinkles and spots I saw in the photos but also wanted to reflect the magnificence of the wonderful animal.

I added wrinkles around the eyes and ragged bits to the ears.

For fun I quilted stripsof designs on the front legs but kept the back legs and toes nice and wrinkled like the real thing.

Some hearts, drops and lots more wrinkles to the trunk.

A crown design to the forehead and lots of curly swirls to the ears.

I wanted the background to look as thought the elephant was walking throught the trees and grass towards you, I added lots of featheres for added detail.

What a wonderful quilt to have the privilege of quilting, it was so much fun, thank you Birthe!