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Friday, April 14, 2017

Letter Making

Today I am working on some improv letters to add to my bear quilt. This project started with Lorna's quiltalong over at Sew Fresh Quilts
It will become a camping quilt to commemorate the year I saw a bear up close and personal. That experience has become a family legend, complete with a song written by my brother-in-law, and therefore this legend requires a commemorative quilt. I'd like to have it done in time to use for camping season this year.

There are many ways to sew letter blocks to add to a quilt, or to be the main focus of the quilt. I have tried many techniques over the years and have enjoyed all of them. 
Here are some of the many resources that I have consulted:

1. Letter Sew-along hosted by Lynne Tyler. She teaches how to make make letters using improv piecing. If you need inspiration, she has many creative letter quilts on her blog Patchery Menagerie. My finished quilt from the sew-along that I finished in 2013 can be seen here.


traditional patchwork letters
2) Temecula Quilts hosted a quiltalong called "Little Letters" and it made an adorable baby quilt. The free pattern is still on their blog here and is made using traditional patchwork techniques.

3) Patch and Dot is hosting a new quiltalong making ribbon letters using traditional patchwork. You can read her ideas and see the first 3 letters here.


4) My two favourite reference books for improv pieced letter blocks are Word Play Quilts and Out of the Box.
improv letters

12 comments:

  1. LOVE the bear quilt, but am very curious about "Killarney". Did you meet up with the bear in Ireland? : )
    I've never tried the piecing of letters, but I bought the Word Play book with plans to give it a go someday.

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  2. Bear paw is my all time favorite quilt pattern..this looks very difficult to do..its on my list ...beautiful work

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  3. That bear paw is great! Would love to hear this story sometime.....

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  4. No laughing matter to meet a Bear while camping. The quilt is a great mix of blocks and bear. Curious about Killarney as well. I use the Word Play Method. Lori Holt has a New book coming out called 'Spelling Bee'very soon.

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  5. Your quilt is turning out beautifully! I have the pattern and it is next on my list of quilts to make. I have even chosen the fabric I will be using - old shirts.

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  6. I am in awe of the bear quilt...super fun!!

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  7. What a great quilt for what was obviously a memorable encounter!

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  8. Beautiful bear quilt, not the best creature to meet up with on a camping holiday! Bear Paw is a lovely block, I once made a nine block small quilt but think I might just make a larger one!

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  9. So there is a song, eh? I bet that would be fun to hear!

    When I was young we had a lynx in our campsite at Killarney for two years running. Apparently they are a lot shyer now, so I feel lucky to have had the experience. :D

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  10. I seem to be seeing more words incorporated into quilts lately. Thanks for the links. What great Bear Paw blocks and how wonderful to have a good story to go with them.

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  11. Oh so fun! What a great way to celebrate a memorable family story.

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  12. Bear quilt is so much work but so worth it....love camping in Killarney too.

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