Quilt Abecedary: A

Uppercase A and lower case a

If you are new to this process, please read START HERE, and perhaps look at a few other letters. This blog is meant as a whole, an interdependent way of looking at improv letters. I started with the center square, then added bits of scraps all the way around, following the numbers.

Having said that, this very first creation -- a lowercase a -- came out too small.

Bigger center yields a better letter. There’s a truth in this somewhere. This would be a great place for a fussy cut bit of print. I learned from this that all of the counters (empty spaces in letters) should begin with a 2" square. I may end up trimming as I go, but that's better than having weensy letters.

Climbing into the capital now. Begin with the cross-bar, bordered by a square on top and a bigger bit on the bottom. (It should be a rectangle, as that carved out bit in the lower right had to be filled in with another scrap in the end.)

I placed first the left hand side of the A, figuring out what angle I wanted. I put right sides together, sewed a 1/4" seam, flipped it back and checked if it was what I wanted.

It was, so only THEN did I trim off the excess.

Repeat for the other side.

I cut larger rectangles (about 4" by 8") and sewed one to each side of the A. I took my ruler and placed it so I could see how it would look and then trimmed it down to size.

Other truths: you need a strong contrast between the background and the letters. More advice is found in the reference books.