In the process of quilting words

Starting a quilt can be intimidating, even if the idea gives you all the excitement in the world. For me, it's akin to taking that first step out onto ice (I've had a couple of severe ice falls in my time, so this can be perilous) or how you feel when you take your first sip of coffee in the morning (or, if you're a daredevil, sumptuous coffee ice cream at night). Wired and slightly more aware of your surroundings.

This year, I want to make more word quilts - just because. I'm not into super corny sayings (unless they're for my husband or sister, who love puns), but often, I'll come upon an excellent quote or lyric that's just begging to be stitched into fabric. This particular one has been on my mind since Christmas Eve - I'll explain more when the quilt is done. This sentence is just to illustrate that it's been haunting me, in a good way, for a couple of weeks now; it's finally all coming together. The fabrics, the thread, the fonts.

When I quilt words with free motion quilting, I'm not using embroidery stitches - just my own two hands guiding the fabric. I'm not always marking the letters (though this time, I did). Usually, I'll use Fons and Porter chalk pencils or my hera marker (an amazing plastic tool) with a ruler to mark the straight quilting lines. Then, I just go for it. It's really that simple!

It definitely helps to be confident with free motion quilting, though you can quite easily quilt a cursive word, like a name, while you're learning (it's similar to signing your name on a document, except you're using a needle instead of a pencil). Just like anything else, you have to practice, practice, practice.

In terms of fonts, it depends on the words I want to communicate. Usually I create my own fonts and practice drawing them lots on paper. The last word on this quilt feels fierce, so after going over the curvy-ness a couple of times, I've randomly added streaks to look like fur.  There's your hint for now!

Last year around this time, I presented an hour+ long webinar for the Modern Quilt Guild with much, much more about Quilting Words with Free Motion. You can find it here if you're a member.

And now that the process has begun, I'm going to let these words simmer a bit. However, it's a fairly small quilt, so finishing it can't be too far away. And I'm eager to hang it on my wall.