Every quilt show I’ve ever been to had a personality, a sort of theme, a life that it just took on. It was never intentional. It just happened.

Sometimes it was a color that was popular that year or a pattern or a technique. No one discussed it ahead of time or sent out a memo. It just appeared and everyone was surprised.

You would hear people commenting, “Did you see all the______?” (You fill in the blank with whatever) “I can’t believe all the _____ this year!” “Who knew ______ was so popular!”

Well, this year at the North Texas Quilt Festival, the big surprise was elephants. Who knew?! Right? Elephants of all shapes, sizes, colors, textures and fabrics.

So many, you could almost hear them trumpeting and feel them slowly walking through the halls. It was uncanny, really.

Here are some of the gentle giants in full color.

This big purple giant won a first place ribbon. I can almost see him move.

Here he is again in another color choice and again a first place ribbon. Spectacular!

Much smaller multi-colored relative. What a cute face!

A totally purple fellow in motion. Can’t you see him running?

These two little guys were found on a much larger quilt but still they count. And there are two of them.

An unusual view from the back of the elephant. Love all the colors.

Another multi-colored one. Love it! Have you noticed how all the elephants have been facing to the right? What does that mean?

I do know that an elephant with his trunk up is a sign of good luck, so we are doing well so far. Well, kind of. Some of them are facing down. We’ll just ignore them.

 Here is a cute little one in an alphabet quilt. I think he is taking a bath.

This has a very unusual backing which gives a striped effect. I like it!

How many elephants can fit on a quilt?  I think we are about to find out!  And of course, other things, like turltles and birds and frogs. What a cute quilt this is! 

Did you count them all? How many elephants visited our quilt show? A whole herd or maybe two or three?

It sure was fun to see them all and enjoy the variety.