Thursday 22 January 2009

Shortcut pieced letters

I've been making letters again, using a strip-pieced method to get the letters more uniform. I like wonky letters too, but sometimes I want them all to be more or less the same size. Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting is the one who invented this letter method, and I'm just tweaking it a bit here. You may have to read her letter tutorials first if you've never made letters before.

I'm going to show you how to make a lower case a, then e and d. The same method can be used for ones with similar shapes: p, b, q, g, u and o.

Step 1: Cut narrow strips of letter and background fabric and sew together lengthwise. Do the same for wide strips. I'm using 3/4 inch for the narrow and 1 1/2 inches for the wide. Cut extra background and letter strips in each size (not shown.) In my case, red is the colour of the letters, and white is the background.



Step 2. We're making lower case a. Cut 1 1/2 inch chunk off the wide strip set.
Step. 2: Sew a narrow red strip on left side of strip set, log cabin style. (Many of these letters are built log cabin style, starting from the middle.)

Step 3: Sew another narrow red strip on the top, log cabin style. You've now made a lower case C, the beginnings of a d or g or Q, or with one more strip on the right side, an O. Cut a piece of the narrow strip set to fit the width of the letter for the top of the lower case a and sew it on the top.

Step. 4 Cut a piece of the wide red strip to complete the a.
Step. 6: Sew the strip. Trim the edges if necessary. Congratulations, you've now made an a!

Step. 7: Here's the same sort of method using a strip set to make lower case e and D.


Step. 8: Keep going until you've made all the letters you need. Here you can see I used the large strip set in the B, e, d and a, and the smaller one in the top of the B, e, and a. The n and r use a different method. Check with Tonya on that one.
Step. 9: This is my first tutorial. Let me know what's clear and what's not. Thanks for staying with me this far.

18 comments:

Brenda said...

It is so neat to see your own name done up in this way!!! Great lesson!! thanks Brenda!! From, you guessed it - Brenda!!

And thanks for the links 'Lazy Gal Quilting' and her tutorial. I have made links to them both. I love what you have done with the letters, so maybe, just maybe, I might try this...... It's such a neat look!!

Stay warm!! We are having a cold few days this week - coming from having the windows open and me being outside in sandals a couple days ago!! If you are getting this cold too - stay inside and sew!!

PrairiePeasant said...

Thanks Brenda! I'll bookmark this for when I'm ready to start making letters.

Donna said...

using hte same size strips for different areas of the letter gives you a very planned font look. beautiful.

Joyce said...

I think the tutorial is very clear and I like the wide strips on the bottom.

Tonya Ricucci said...

This is such a fun way to work. Thank you for posting this tutorial - I've learned something. I'll have to play with it myself.

YankeeQuilter said...

Nice job on your first tutorial! I use strip piecing alot...lazy or smart? Could be either!

Julie in the Barn said...

Great Tutorial. I haven't tried the letters yet but I have tried the wonky houses. Such fun. I'm definitely going to make some letters now that I have your great instructions. Thank you.

em's scrapbag said...

Thanks for the tutorial. I really want to make some of these to use in a quilt. Have a great weekend! Em

Sharon said...

Thanks for this tutorial, Brenda...it's just in time for me to work on my letters for my Witch's Pantry project. This will be a HUGE help. And I really like how this gives a more planned look to the font. Your tutorial was great, by the way. Very clear and lots of good pictures. Perfect!

Amy said...

Oh I think I can!!! the tutorial was fine.thanks again for sharing. Amy

Cher said...

terrific job on your strip style to free piecing!

jovaliquilts said...

Brilliant! Very clever way to make the process faster. Thank you!

Valerie said...

Just wanted to let you know I used your tutorial to create a set of letters this weekend. They're blogged at http://quiltmessingaround.blogspot.com/2009/02/wonky-letters.html

I really appreciated your tutorial. Very clear and made it easy to get started.

Janet said...

I was just about to add the word Princess to my current project in a traditional applique method. This technique will be fun and more in keeping with the rest of this quilt. Thanks for the tutorial.

Browndirtcottage said...

This was a wonderful tutorial Brenda.....I just recently did some of these e's and a's....would have liked your tut when I was doing mine!!

Lynda said...

This is one of those 'why didn't I think of that!' posts! I've done quite a few words, but always start each letter from scratch. Why didn't I plan the elements first! Thank you for that!

Anonymous said...
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susan said...

great tute, very easy to understand. i have been wanting to do letters for ages and just have never gotten up the courage
thanks

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