Elephants on Parade!

I saw TiaLynn Design's adorable elephant block and jumped at the chance to design a little blanket block for her Elephants on Parade blog hop. I do love a quick and dirty little project to get me creating, and using other people's patterns in the process is a treat for sure, especially when they are so cute.

I wanted to make sure the block had a woven blanket type feel, and came up with this half square triangle laden (of course) design that looked a little to me like those "God's eye" things we used to make with sticks and yarn in the 70s.  I immediately named it "High as an Elephant's Eye" because it fit perfectly.

The block is made entirely of half square triangles with the four in the middle having an extra little stitch-and-flip element. I used four different values of blue as the main color, and I love how they show off the yellow. Don't you just love when the design in your head (or in this case, in EQ) ends up looking just like you planned once you make it in fabric?

As with all of my half square triangle patterns, I included the accordion "map" for those who might want to make the half square triangles using the Accordion Sewn HSTs™ method, but if you don't want to, no worries! There are also ample directions on how many of each fabric combo you'll need if you make them with a traditional method. If you'd like to try and are curious, I am offering the Accordion Lesson Sheet at a discounted price through the end of June. 

The full elephant block itself is 18" square, so I think I might add a few borders and set it aside for a cute baby quilt for when my young adult daughters' generation starts reproducing. Hopefully not too soon, but look at me being ready.

You can check out some of the other cute blocks from other designers at their blogs

Grunge and Grace: Gardenia Grace

Sew Joy Creations: Churn Dash

Needle and Thread Quilts: Geese Fog

And all of them, along with the two different free elephant pose blocks, are parading it up HERE.

Definitely get yourself a block or two - or all of them - and discover some lovely new designers too!

Grab the free "High as an Elephant's Eye" block pattern below