Hello everyone!  This is Kim Lapacek from Persimon Dreams!  I’m excited to share with you a new quilt that I made that features fabulous new fabric – Funanimals by Maude Asbury for Blend Fabrics.

Bean Bag Jungle Quilt

Pieced by Kim Lapacek, Poynette, WI
Machine Quilted by Kim Van Etten, Poynette, WI
There’s not a pattern for this quilt just yet but I’m going to share with you how I used Thermoweb products to add fun animal elements to this “Bean Bag Jungle” quilt.

Project Supplies

Funanimals by Maude Asbury for Blend Fabric
Coordinating Solids
HeatNBond® Lite
Classic Curves Ruler by Color Girl Quilts
Aurifil Thread, 50wt. Color 2692
Optional: Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Scissors, 6″

Bean Bag Jungle Quilt Process

When I was given the bundle of Funanimal fabric I needed to come up with an idea for a quilt.  So – I put the fabrics on my floor and started to sketch.  I had a few ideas and finally, the simplest of the fabric is what finally inspired the quilt.

I loved the pattern in the Bean Bags fabric – it comes in both black and grey.  The quarter circles reminded me of Color Girl Quilts newest ruler – Classic Curves Ruler. I used to hate sewing curves before this ruler but now this new tool has made me like doing it (I might not quite be at love yet … but I definitely don’t hate it anymore).  I knew I could use the ruler to create a really neat quilt that mimicked the Bean Bag fabric pattern.

I used the ruler to create as many quarter circle blocks with a 1/2 yard of each fabric from the Funanimal line that I could.  Then, I added in some “blank” areas so I could raw edge applique some “Fun Animals” onto the quilt!

The elephant, the sloth, the giraffe, the crocodile, the lion and the turtle

When sketching the animals I was inspired by the ones on the Funanimal line but I tweaked them slightly to mimic the half circle look on the bean bag fabric.  Here’s my elephant!

I decided to use coordinating solids for the animals.  I wanted the animals to pop out of the quilt more than using the patterned fabric would have allowed.

The first steps for the animals is to trace the main shapes of them onto HeatNBond® Lite.  Then, rough cut the shapes out and fuse them to the fabrics you want to make the animals out of.  You can see I did that here with the body of the elephant on one fabric and the ear and cheek of the elephant on another.

Once the shapes are fused, cut them out along the lines.  If you don’t have a scissors you love yet I highly recommend the  Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Scissors, 6″.  It’s sharp and small but not too small.  It makes cutting curves and details much more accurate.

Peel the backing of the fusible off and fuse the elephant to the fabric.  Once the elephant is fused machine stitch around the edges.  I used Aurifil thread in 50wt. Color 2692  to create a dramatic outline.

The same method is used to add in the sloth,

the crocodile,

the giraffe,

the lion and

the turtle.

I pieced all the bits together to come up with this quilt – Bean Bag Jungle.  I brought it to Kim Van Etten, a local long arm quilter and told her to have fun quilting it.

She did such a beautiful job!  I just love it that I have long arm quilters that understand “me” and can take my quilts and add the perfect final touch of quilting.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my creative process and remember that HeatNBond® Lite is a great tool to utilize when you want to add that pop of fun to a quilt.  It makes adding shapes to an otherwise pieced quilt easy and accurate.