How to quilt text on fabrics

I have made many quilts for people that wanted different texts somewhere on the quilt.   Sometimes a family has special "sayings" or nicknames they want included somewhere on their memory quilt.  There are several ways to go about doing this, but I will describe the way I have found works best for me.

What you will need for this project:

* A general knowledge of sewing, quilting, and free-motion
* A laptop or computer with access to the internet
* A good working sewing machine with a straight and zigzag stitch option
* A sandwiched and basted quilt
* Scissors, Tweezers, Seam Ripper, Cheater Needle,
* Good-quality threads - (details later)
* Darning Foot
* Tracing Paper, (or you can use a large phone book)


Start by finding a font you would like to use for your quilt.   Go to DAFONT.COM and type in the text you want to use in the "preview" box.   This allows you to preview the ACTUAL text the way it will look in your finished quilt.





For less starts and stops, choose a font that is cursive -  Please see THIS BLOG POST for more details on how to choose a font for quilting text.

Once you have chosen your font, you can either download it to your computer, and then pull it up in a word processor program or a program like MS Paint.   I prefer PAINT because you can easily resize it little-by-little until it fits perfectly into your quilt.


Lay your phonebook or tracing paper directly over your computer screen and trace the text with a dark inkpen.   Line up the bottom edge of the paper with the bottom edge of your computer screen to keep your text straight.

(if you are using white or LIGHT fabrics, you can lay your fabric directly on the computer screen before piecing it into your quilt, and use a thin pencil or erasable ink to mark your fabric)






Next you will take your marked paper and pin it directly on your sandwiched quilt with quilting pins or safety pins.

Now you are ready to quilt!
Quilt directly over the marked text just as you would if you were quilting and following a marked line.   So you don't have ugly knots, leave a thread tail when you start and stop a line of stitching, and you will go and bury those threads later.




Once you are done with a section of text, remove the quilt completely from the machine.  Carefully remove the paper and then bury your threads.  It helps if you have a Cheater Needle for this task.



Here is the video I made explaining this method:  


If you want your text to show up with just a single line of stitches, I recommedn using a thick thread such as Spaghetti by Wonderfil which is a 12wt but is able to go through your machine.   Use a 40 or 50wt thread in a matching color in the bobbin. ( I recommend Gutterman Sew-All Polyester)

If you don't have 12wt thread, you will need to go over the text several times for it really show up in the finished quilt.

Another option would be to use a satin stitch, which also gives the text a calligraphy-like effect.
See again THIS BLOG POST for examples of each of these options

And ya know, you COULD print the text out.  But I am cheap, errr I mean FRUGAL.. and cannot stand using expensive printer ink and paper. so I recommend just copying it directly onto your tracing paper or fabric from the computer screen.  The computer monitor makes an EXCELLENT lightbox!

To see the finished quilt go to THIS BLOG POST

Amelia's 1st birthday Quilt with Minkee Backing and Binding.

I wanted to give sweet baby Amelia a "Katie Quilt" for her birthday.  I used everything from my stash.  I started with this large piece of minkee fleece that I had leftover from another project.  It's super soft and BIG so I didnt' have to piece fabric together for the backing.   I have used Minkee for  backing before, but I always used batting ALSO, but this time I left out the batting.  For a large, bed-size quilt I think batting is fine, but I wanted something that she could lug around herself, so it needed to be LIGHT too.   

Double Sided Minkee is thick enough that it doesn't require batting.  Also, it gives a very nice effect when free-motion quilted.  However there is a slight downside when you omit the batting.  When there is no batting, there is nothing for the fleece to stick to.  The batting acts as a stabilizer so that your fleece doesn't shift around.  To remedy that problem I just used lots of safety pins in the basting process.  

For the quilt TOP I pieced together feminine prints of pink and grey.  Honestly, I'm not real sure what I was going for here - just scrappy I guess!!  Who knows, it was late when I came up with this design ;c)  I think a quilt looks best when you incorporate elements from the back on the front, and vice versa.  So for the front, I appliqued circles of minkee and also used the minkee as the binding.

** I have a tutorial on how to do self-binding with fleece HERE**

 And for the backing I took one of the pink floral prints and used it to applique her name.

In this last picture you can get a good look at the quilting design I used.   I always want to try these fun large-scale quilting motifs, but am always too scared.   I love the look of all-over free-hand feathers, but every time I attempt them I regret it.   I think maybe it's because I think every tiny bit of space needs to be quilted - and everything needs to be touching.   

So for my last couple projects I have been trying to use more negative space.   I think just as rainbow colors only look good with a good amount of WHITE.   . . . "fancy" quilting only look good when there is some negative space?  Maybe?   I'm working on it anyway! 

Lavender, Pale Yellow, and Grey

My friend Trenta, a lady and fellow mom who graduated with my sister, requested this quilt for a baby shower gift.  The baby's name - Emma.  

The piecing for this quilt is rather simple, but we most certainly "fancied" it up!  She had very specific colors in mind for this quilt.  And these colors must be very popular, because there were so many combinations of these colors together at the fabric shop, it was not difficult at all for me to blend them.  They even had a chevron with all the colors in it!  

Lavender, Pale yellow, Grey, and White for the pieced background.  For the appliqued name and binding, we used a teal.  I secured the "Emma" with a straight stitch using raw-edge fusible applique.  Then for the background I wanted a very feminine, flow-y motif.  I really love this floral paisley design and it worked well for this quilt I believe.  I did a few small pebbles around the applique which made it stand out a bit more.  

The icing on the cake is the backing, which is that chevron with the perfect blend of all the colors!

I've never had so many random people stop me at the fabric store to "ooh" and "ahh" over my pile of fabrics ;c)

Franki's Baby Quilt

I made this quilt for my friend Franki, who is having a baby next month:  "Mia." 

She wanted Pink and Green, so I dug through my pinnk and green scraps.  The piecing for the front and back I kept relatively simple, but I went crazy with the quilting.   my favorite part ;c)

Here is the front and back before sandwiching. 

 I divided the quilt up in diamonds and wanted a 1/2' puffy line between each quilting motif.  In the above photo I had just finished the trapunto for Mia's name, the pebbling in the 1st section, and half the feathers in the 2nd section.

Here I had just finished all the quilting.  

Before trimming and binding.  

Closeup of the quilting. 

 andddd. . front and back finished!

All of the quilting was done with NEW Aurifil polyester longarm thread.  The pastel variegated thread looked perfect against the pink and green fabrics.   . . used in the top AND bobbin.

Adoption Quilt!

Introducing:  The Adoption Quilt.
I finished this amazing project just last night.  So here's the idea - This quilt is for a lady who adopted a child (Nathanael) and whom lives in West Virginia. Her baby shower is this Saturday!    The center block, is the state of West Virginia and represents Nathanael.  
Also represented in this quilt, is her 6 other "sponsered" children.  
3 of those kids are from Indonesia:  Gilbert, Jeniati, and Jonardo.
1 is from Haiti - Augustin
1 is from Uganda - Joseph
and 1 is from Ecuador - Mavelin.

The 4 outer corners are globes.  

All of these blocks were raw-edge fusible appliqued.   I attached the pieces with a narrow zig-zag in dark brown thread.   The names of each child were machine-embroidered on each block.

 I'm mostly proud of this block:  Indonesia - The other countries were easy to applique  . but Indonesia is a series of small islands.   I marked the islands with a thin pencil, and then went over them with my machine, and a darning foot!  I put stabilizer behind the fabric, and used a free-motion embroidery technique!

 Haiti - and Augustin

 West Virginia - and Nathanael

 Indonesia - and Gilbert, Jeniati, and Jonardo

 Ecuador - and Mavelin (LOVE that name!)

 Uganda - and Joseph

 Here's a closeup of one of the corner globes.   I quilted the globe backgrounds with a heart stitch, and the "water" part of the globes with a paisley stitch.  
This quilt also was the first time trying these little squigglies for the sashing. .   This stitch has totally changed my quilting life forever!! They are so versatile easy, and fast. . and sOOO cute!!  (But I'll go more into this in another blog post )

Here's the finished back of the quilt!  I used fabrics from the front of the quilt on the back too!  
Let me know what you think!

New Crown Royal Quilt

  Sorry I haven't been updating my blog very much, but if you want to get the latest photos, and updates on my current projects - be sure to "LIKE" my facebook page!!

So here they are:  My latest Crown Royal Quilts are complete! 

This is the "block" - and because these blocks are so BIG, these quilts are not as versatile as the old crown royal quilt pattern.  https://www.craftsy.com/quilting/patterns/royal-star-/194359 These are only available in Twin-size or bigger.  

Here are the "special" crown royal quilt bags /logos that were used in this quilt.  I used these special colors and textures for the cornerstones, so that the main blocks would stay consistent. 

 Here is the center quilt pre-borders

 For the border star blocks, the lights and darks were reversed.   I've made SOOO many of them the opposite way, I screwed up a gazillion times and had to do ALOT of seam-ripping/unpicking ;c)
For the borders stars I used the gold/leather crown royal quilt.  and purple background.

 Here are the two finished tops!

 I used the leftover bag material from the BACK and SIDES of the crown royal bags for the sashing.   For all the other purple areas I used a mottled purple quilting fabric.

 Here are the two quilt tops on the wall, without flash ;c)  My camera seems to have trouble capturing the color purple.

 Here is me quilting the quilt with my big-guy machine ;c)  Yes, I think the name of my sewing machine is "big guy" . .  I never claimed to be creative.  LOL

 For the backing I used a purple minky fleece.    When I ordered it from fabric.com, I thought it was just as dark as the purple quilting fabric and the crown royal bags.   But when it showed up in the mail it was a bit lighter.   Like a lavender or something.

 Here are the 3 quilts finished!   I used gold binding on one, and purple binding on the other.

 Here's a shot of the backing. . it's the same on both quilts.

Brady's Baby Clothing Quilt & Sammy's Baby Quilt

I can make your own custom baby clothes quilt-
**See my facebook page for ordering and pricing information**

Two finished for the last few weeks.  I wanted to share them both with you guys here.
First, I finally got the opportunity to make a quilt out of baby clothes!  There was a mixture of knits, wovens, and fleece.   AND, since the clothes were so small, it was especially difficult to capture the WHOLE shirt logo without cutting into the arm seams.   BUT, we did it, and I think it turned out awesome!

 That's MOM (Beth) on the left, with her son Brady. . and that's me on the right.  We're in Jacqueline's back yard.. .she is Brady's grandmother (Beth's Mom.)  Her back yard is perfect for photos!!

Here's a photo of the back of the quilt, I used leftover woven fabric from Brady's little dress shirts, on the back.  Strip pieced them, and then added them in between two layers of Xtra wide quilt fabric!

And I just wanted to share with you my graph for this quilt.  As I've said before, every SINGLE quilt, for me, starts with a graph.  Graphing out my quilts is especially important for T-shirt quilts. I measure each block, then write in a brief (and I mean REALLLLY brief) description of each shirt inside the block.   Since we were doing BABY shirts, these blocks were especially SMALL. . making it especially CHALLENGING!   I thought this graph was really funny, and I'm glad noone else has to decipher it but me! LOL


My next quilt was a quilt for our church choir director Jack.  He recently had a baby boy and named him Sammy.   He told me to make whatever quilt I wanted, but gave me these specs:   Colors- blue and brown, Theme: Traditional.   When he told me this, I immediately thought:  SCRAPPY!!!   So, I went to the trusted QUILTVILLE site to look for a fun pattern to use for scraps.   I have always been drawn to her PLAYING WITH JACKS pattern, and so it was.

 I pulled out my 2.5" strips of Browns, Neutrals, and Blues.

 Here are all of my "jacks on six" or "double x" blocks finished and pressed!  They don't look like much now do they?  haha

 Here is the completed center top

 Top complete with borders!

 I REALLLLLY had fun quilting this quilt!!  I just love quilting patchwork !   And surprisingly, I don't get to do it very often!

 I stippled in all the neutral areas so that the "Xs" would POP!  Then I went in and did a one-line outline quilt all around the rest of the patches.

 I fused Sammy's initials onto the back of the quilt.   I did this after I made the sandwich, and just quilted over them!

 I tried something different with the feathers this time around - I quilted my feathers, and then did an echo stitch back down to the starting point.  I really REALLY like the way it looks, and plus, it's easier!  YOu don't have to either make a stop, and then reposition, OR follow your feather vein all the way back down!

 I really like this photo of the quilt - it shows off the quilting AND the back.

 Thank you hubby for helping me photograph (it's like pulling teeth God-love him!)

 We got a little bit of sunshine on the quilt, showing off the feathers!