Julie's Quilts and Costumes: Elvira Top and Back Done!

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Elvira Top and Back Done!

Like so many quilters everywhere, the time at home trying to avoid contact with the coronavirus has meant more quilting time than usual. It's wonderful to have this creative outlet to distract me from watching too much news about things I can't control.

Because so many of us are at home for the foreseeable future, there are lots of new mystery quilts and quilt-alongs starting up. I know I could be working on my on-going projects and UFOs, but it's so much more fun to start something new! One of my latest new projects is from the Elvira quilt-along hosted by Gudrun Erla a couple weeks ago. Here is a picture of Gudrun's version of the Elvira quilt.

Elvira quilt, pattern by Gudrun Erla of GE Designs

The Elvira pattern includes instructions for several different quilt sizes. It's just a matter of making more blocks for a bigger quilt. The quilt shown above is a throw quilt, and it uses 20 fat quarters. I happened to have a FQ bundle with exactly 20 fabrics--it was meant to be! The group of fabrics is called Blast Off! from Connecting Threads, and I believe I bought the fabrics 4-5 years ago. I love the fun prints and bright colors, but have always struggled to figure out how to use them. The large pieces in the Elvira pattern seemed a good choice for these fabrics.

Gudrun's quilt-along, held on March 22nd, consisted of Facebook Live segments every two hours. She would demonstrate each next step of the pattern and answer questions that quilters had sent in. It was great fun to see the quilt come together throughout the day, although I was not able to keep going all day long. Here is my first group of blocks.

I finished making the rest of the blocks the following weekend and tried out some different layout ideas with them. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have taken any photos, but believe me, they were not an improvement on Gudrun's design. I went back to the basic layout from her pattern. My Elvira quilt top measures 63.5" x 80.5".

Elvira quilt top, 63.5" x 80.5"

It certainly is bright! My hope is that some child who really likes spaceships and planets will love it. Here is a closer shot of some of the blocks.

The really unusual part of this project was that I pieced the back for it right away after finishing the top. I had a 3-yard piece of flannel from the same line, and my goal was to feature the biggest possible piece of that fabric. The center panel is 2.5 yards long, with assorted other flannels from my stash to make the back wide enough.