April Program Recap

Words on Modern Quilts

Our April program team of Ann, Carolyn, Gerry, Jackie, Janet, and Vanessa showed us a variety of ways to incorporate words into our modern quilts, demonstrating some and providing examples of others.

Choose fabric with words. Perhaps the easiest way is to use text fabrics when you are piecing. A variety of text prints are readily available in both dark and light colors. Including fabrics like these can add a modern aspect to your work. 

Examples of text print fabrics

Use a cutting machine. Janet also showed us how she uses a basic Silhouette machine connected to her computer to cut out letters and numbers from fabric adhered to a sticky surface. She peels the cut letters away and sticks them onto a background, then sews them down.

Quilt the words into your work with free-motion stitching. Janet shared a large modern flower quilt that she made to remember her first QuiltCon experience. She machine stitched words and phrases that brought back memories, as well as the names of all her guild friends that attended the conference with her.

Janet points to words she included in the machine quilting
to commemorate the first QuiltCon.

Write your name by hand, then embroider your signature. Janet taught us a method that she learned at QuiltCon 2017 to embroider our names—or any other words—onto a single layer of fabric that can be incorporated into our quilts. Embroidery is often done before the work is sewn in, but it can also be used to add a signature after the quilt is complete. 

Janet shows members how to embroider words on quilts.

Paint words onto fabric. Jackie demonstrated how to use stencils to get letter shapes onto fabric. Jackie may use Shiva sticks or fabric paint with stencils or even stamps to write anything she wants on her quilts. 

Jackie demonstrates fabric painting.

Make a bold statement. Words on quilts can help you convey important messages, like this example Carolyn brought to the program.

Carolyn's motivational quilt top

Relief quilting. Another method to include words or letters is by matchstick quilting the negative space around the shape of the letter. The team had samples of this as well as some techniques for appliquéing letters onto fabric.

  

Create your own font. Vanessa explained how she uses improv techniques to piece letters into her work. She sketches what she wants to make onto graph paper then starts cutting the fabric and makes it work.

Use improv piecing to create your own font.

Thanks to all of you for sharing so many ideas!

Habitat Blocks

Jean and Audrey collected blocks that members made for upcoming Habitat quilts. Please keep making both kinds of blocks (bricks and paper-pieced stars) and bring them to our May meeting. We will piece tops with them during our July sew-in.

Upcoming Guild Meetings

Our May program will cover appliqué methods for modern quilting. In June, we will talk design and plan ways to cut up a quilt top and restructure it into a modern quilt based on what we learned from Mary Kerr. In July, we're planning a sew-in and will piece tops for Habitat quilts.

Show and Tell