I have been making letters/words/phrases to use in the borders of my quilt. I haven't made enough trees to fill the middle yet....so I'm going about this backwards, I know! ;-) The word "forest" will 'read' vertically along the side border. The letters are skinnier than I want the border to be, so I will need to add fabric on each side of the letters.
Should I add extensions to each individual letter? The block backgrounds are scrappy, so I would make each extension from a different print to maintain that scrappy look.
OR.... Should I sew the letters together and add long strips to the sides of the word to bring it up to the correct width? This would be easier (maybe...my letters are not uniform in size) but would it look as good?
Another question-- I am going to have large spaces occurring between my phrases. Is it generally better to use background fabric (in my case, beiges and creams...too light?) or to fill in the empty space with blocks (in this case, trees)?
5 comments:
I "fill" each letter out separately and if it needs chopping later then so be it and, yes, keep the scrappy look. As you are going vertical and no horizontal I wouldn't put too much between each letter, but then again I don't know how big this is going to be.
Re the blocks. Wait and see what happens when you start putting it all together.
My letter quilts are never "planned" as such. They come together on their own, or are ripped and I start again (sigh).
Thanks for your input, Clare. I don't know where my quilt is going either. I have a firm picture in my head of the borders, so that's where I'm starting. I'll fill in with more trees later.
ooh, looking fun so far. I love the idea of starting with teh border first. I would add fabric to the sides of each letter to make them the same (or nearly so) width. then add bits in between them.
My instinct was the same as Clare and Tonya's: bring each block up to the necessary width, maintain the scrappy look, and trim off what's extra at the end. Don't forget the bit between the letters themselves; it will make the word easier to read. I would wait until I had all the words done before worrying about the corners or other gaps. The answer may present itself when you get there.
The letters look great by the way!
I liked the teacups interspersed with the words so I'm thinking I'd like trees rather than space between your words.
Post a Comment