TEXT — QuiltCon Charity Quilt

· by · in SEAMQG. ·

The theme for this year’s QuiltCon charity quilt is TEXT in black, white and a range of greys. There must be at least one word included in the quilt.

A few months ago we put out a call for concepts and we received a few really great ideas. Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit ideas to us! We decided to go with this free-styling idea from Stephanie Satterwhite:

Everyone makes one letter, their choice. Any technique, any style… After everyone turns in the blocks, we see what words can be made from the letters we have. Make what words you can and use the extra letters as decoration.

I made a quick sketch of how this could possibly look. Don’t worry, this will not be the word we will use, nor is this a diagram of what the quilt will look like. The quilt is going to emerge out of what blocks we receive back from the guild. It’s basically a mystery quilt right now.

Fabric

  • We will be working with Kona Cottons in the colors: Black, White, Overcast, Quicksilver, and Metal.
  • Packets of fabric will be available at the September meeting. Please do not take fabric unless you can return a block by the November meeting.
  • In addition to these solids, we can add prints that include only these colors. We have included prints in some packs.
  • If you are adding a print from your own stash, please make sure that the white is not off white or cream and that the print it subtle enough to keep your letter readable. Think about looking at it from a distance.
  • If you are using a print, only use one print per letter.

Letter Construction

  • Packets are available in 3 sizes: small (under 8 inches), medium (8-12 inches), and large (over 12). If you take a large packet, please make a large letter! How large that letter can be will be dependent on your construction method. Please make sure you will have enough fabric; we do not have extra fabric.
  • You can choose to make any letter, upper or lowercase, or any of the keyboard symbols (such as @#$&*!). You can also use any font as long as it is readable from a distance.
  • Letters can be machine pieced, foundation paper pieced, English paper pieced, or turned edge appliqué. Please no raw edge appliqué.
  • There are lots of tutorials online and I have listed a selection at the end of this post.

Return Deadline

  • This quilt will hang at Quilt Con and represent our guild. I want to encourage participation, but the deadlines are tight. We need all of your letters returned by the November meeting. Please do not take a packet unless you can meet this deadline!
  • Return any sizable bits of unused fabric in the baggie along with your letter. We will need this fabric to fill in gaps between the letters.

 

A selection of letter making tutorials…

EQ (Electronic Quilter)

If you have EQ, check your block library. There should be foundation pieced alphabet blocks included.

Wayne Kollinger’s Acadia (FREE)

These letters are traditionally pieced using squares and rectangles. Once you get the hang of how this pattern uses units, you can make any size letter you want. Pretty neat!

Blank Page’s My First Alphabet ($12)

Available in 3″ or 6″; paper pieced letters are easily scalable to other sizes. Great looking letters and she has lots of tutorial online if you need help. I find these letters to be a bit too detailed at their smallest size, but you can easily leave out some of the bits.

 

Blank Page’s “LOVE” (FREE)

If you don’t want to splurge and purchase My First Alphabet, you can get a paper piecing pattern for these 4 letters for free here.

Whole Circle Studio’s Typecast Alphabet ($9.95)

9″ English Paper Pieced letters

Quirky Letters (FREE)

Paper-pieced. I haven’t tried these, so let me know what you think if you do.

Improv Letters

Make up your own letters, or if you need inspiration…

Look at the work of Tonya Ricucci and her wonderful book Word Play Quilts.

Appliqué

This can be a simple as printing out a letter in font of your choice (tile pages for larger letters), add your desired allowance for turning the edges under, and cutting it out to use as a template. There are many turned appliqué tutorials online, so take your pick. Remember, all appliqué must have turned edges, no raw edge appliqué.

I think that’s it! I am posting this early so you can read it over and have questions at the meeting. As always, if you make a block and later find out that you didn’t meet one of the requirements — turn it in any way. Have fun!! I can’t wait to see how this turns out.