Well… now I know how sometimes the papers missed a week. Sometimes life gets busy and things get forgotten. Here is the fifth block… finally.
I also want to mention that the text for this block may be triggering for some. I was very dismayed when reading the copy. Usually the story that accompanies the blocks is sweet, or feel good. This time there is body shaming. It was a stark reminder that the good ‘ol days were not always good. 🙁
What child was ever known that did not like the elephant? Because of this universal fondness for the beast Aunt Nancy chose the gray elephant for the fifth or E block for the alphabet quilt.
Joan squeaked with delight when she saw the pattern. “Oh, I did want an elephant, Aunt Nancy. I’m so glad you put one in.”
It must be confessed that the club members expressed their doubts about the shape and anatomy of this elephant, but Nancy told them that her creature was a modern one, low slung and somewhat shapeless. “But you will thank me for making the beast this shape when you come to applique it. I tell you it’s no fun to applique a curved and crooked piece of goods.” They agreed with her, so they withdrew their objections and started to work.
As always they the square pattern from the newspaper. This was 6 inches by 6 inches and their white blocks on which they appliqued the patterns was 6 1/2 by 6 1/2. This 1/2 inch was used in seaming, so that the finished block was really 6 inches square.
They laid the cloth block over the paper pattern with a quarter inch extension on all sides. With a sharp pencil they outlined the pattern and the letter E.
Then they pasted the paper square on a piece of light weight cardboard or tag board and laid it way to dry under pressure.
While waiting for it to dry each club member outlined the letter E. Nancy used fast color embroidery cotton in green since her strips of color in the finished quilt were green. Had she used yellow the letters would all have been worked in yellow.
For the elephant they all agreed in choosing gray. One member had two shades of fast color gray gingham in her piece bag so she made the ear a deeper shade. Most of the members used only one color. Sometimes they chose figured prints, but since the elephant is a huge animal with a hide of neutral, inconspicuous gray they felt that they could not better nature.
While they embroidered the letters they discussed women who were large and who had failed to profit from the lessons of the elephant. “Imagine,” said one of the members “what a monster the elephant would look if she was clothed in splashy pink and green or even orange.
After the paper patterns had dried the pattern was cut out. In cutting it from the cloth a quarter inch allowance was made for turning under. The whole elephant was cut first.
Then the ear was cut and later laid on top of the elephant’s body. Then the tusk was cut. Yellow was used for the tusk. The quarter inch edge was turned under on all three pieces, basted and pressed in place. Then the pieces were laid on the white block according to the penciled outline. After the body was appliqued with fine, invisible, slanting hemming stitches the ear was laid on, basted and appliqued.
Then the tusk was put in place. The eye was worked in yellow outline stitch and the tail was done in gray, fast color embroidery cotton.
In cutting the piece for the tusk, Nancy discovered that a tiny square tip at the end was easier to turn under to a point than a piece cut pointed at the start.
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Published by Lorri Carney
I am a modern person living in the future, who also yearns for the aesthetics of the past. Whether it is clothing, furniture, home, transportation or advice.
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