Appliqueing a Menagerie

Some relatives' and friends' babies are due in the near future and I figured it best to actually get some of quilts started as gifts. Yesterday I had fun pulling fabrics from my stash to applique the following small zoo of animals:

Giraffe

Zebra

Elephant

Bear

Monkey

Lion

Tiger

In addition to the ever-nearing due dates, I was also motivated to get the blocks to this point as Jo-Ann's had a thread sale ending today and I knew I'd need to pick up at least a few spools to match these little animals (no, I don't have a lot of orange and yellow in my thread stash). Hopefully I can get the machine applique done over the course of this week, as well as the alternating nine-patch blocks. Can't wait to see how the animals come alive as the thread and eyes are applied.

Oh, and the the pattern is called 300 Parade Crib Quilt, from Kim Schaefer's book, quilts, bibs, and blankies ... oh my!