I made this baby quilt for my most recent grandchild. Each of his siblings received a very similar quilt when they were babies. They are all made using 1930s reproduction print cotton quilting fabric and a pattern I saw years ago in a book on making quilts using reproduction fabrics. As the quilt was tied rather than actually quilted I chose to use this method of embellishing the finished blanket.
For this quilt, as on the others, I used double sided iron-on facing for the elephants (their mom drew the elephant appliqué pattern as she did previously of a rabbit and a cat). Then I did two rounds of the back stitch around the edges, rather than using a simple blanket or machine appliqué stitch. Then I added some embroidery details using patterns from a book on crazy quilt embroidery (see source below), but you can find these stitches in other places.
The green, blue, and pink stitch pattern is a combination of the blanket stitch - up and down and the colonial knot. The green stitching between the white border piece and the half square triangle blocks is the fern leaf stitch. None of these stitches are complicated and would be easy even for someone who does not embroider.
I am pleased with the results.
Source: An Encyclopedia of Crazy Quilt Stitches and Motifs, by Linda Causee
