Stay tuned for pictures and more complete instructions.\u00a0 Steps so far:<\/p>\n
Audition fonts and choose the font (I chose one similar to Futura).<\/p>\n
Figure out the block dimensions.\u00a0 To end up with a toddler-bed quilt size I chose a finished alphabet block size of 5.25″ x 8.25″.\u00a0 I will have 30 blocks: the English alphabet plus 4 animals.<\/p>\n
Print the letters out on scratch paper so they will fit comfortably on a square.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Work out the tone scheme (light, medium, dark) in a sketch.<\/p>\n
Decide on colors: I chose green, brown, beige, purple, and some misc. floral and wacky patterns.<\/p>\n
Audition fabrics for backgrounds and narrow down selection.<\/p>\n
Match fabrics to tone groups and choose backgrounds for each quilt square.\u00a0 Wash your fabric if it hasn’t been washed before.\u00a0 I’m using only my stash (except for the borders & backing) so everything’s been washed already.<\/p>\n
Rough-cut all the backgrounds.\u00a0 I made a template out of some mat board so I could quickly determine whether a given scrap of fabric was large enough to be a square.<\/p>\n
Don’t cut precisely yet — edges may fray with too much handling, and you want enough excess fabric to fit into an embroidery hoop.\u00a0 This is a good stage to swap out backgrounds that you are unsure about.<\/p>\n
I decided not to use some of my wackier fabrics (like the large green fish on a white background); they were just a bit out of scale with the rest of my patterns, and their tones and colors didn’t blend smoothly.\u00a0 I’ll have to find some other project where they’ll work better.<\/p>\n
Choose the foreground fabric to match each background piece, following the quilt tone layout.<\/p>\n
Rough-cut each foreground fabric to the shape of the letter, and pin once to the background fabric so they don’t get separated.<\/p>\n
Now it’s time to sew!<\/p>\n
Make a sandwich of the foreground fabric (right side facing the muslin), a piece of muslin, and the paper letter (printed side up).<\/p>\n
Sew through the whole sandwich, following the printed letter outline.<\/p>\n
Note: for letters with “holes” such as Q, O, A, B, P, etc, only sew along the outer edge.<\/p>\n
Carefully rip off the paper.\u00a0 Cut away excess\u00a0 seam allowance.\u00a0 Cut a small hole in the muslin and turn the letter inside out.\u00a0 Voila!\u00a0 While you’re working on the other letters, just pin once again to your background.<\/p>\n
When they’ve all been sewn and turned, pin a letter to the center of your background and sew down.\u00a0 I sewed each letter by hand using blind stitch.<\/p>\n
Cut all the blocks to size.\u00a0 I used an Olfa rotary cutter and self-healing mat, and I made my large clear ruler into a jig.<\/p>\n
Next, draw designs for the four extra blocks — I chose a cat, fish, lizard and butterfly. I forgot how much I like drawing!\u00a0 You could also choose a heart, star, building blocks, log cabin squares, or any other applique or quilt pattern you like.<\/p>\n
Your extra blocks could fit into the same tone scheme as the rest of the quilt (I hope mine do) or you could make them stand out.<\/p>\n
That’s how far I’ve gotten so far!\u00a0 I started on February 10th and have been working pretty steadily.<\/p>\n
Next:<\/p>\n
Sew blocks together into rows<\/p>\n
Sew rows together into quilt top<\/p>\n
Add border(s) and corner blocks<\/p>\n
Trip to the fabric store for backing & to find long-arm quilting service<\/p>\n
Sign and date<\/p>\n
Finish!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stay tuned for pictures and more complete instructions.\u00a0 Steps so far: Audition fonts and choose the font (I chose one similar to Futura). Figure out the block dimensions.\u00a0 To end up with a toddler-bed quilt size I chose a finished alphabet block size of 5.25″ x 8.25″.\u00a0 I will have… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tutorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haleystudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haleystudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haleystudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haleystudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haleystudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/haleystudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221,"href":"https:\/\/haleystudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haleystudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haleystudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haleystudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}