Patchwork Letters Tutorial is an easy guide to share the steps I follow to applique letters on any quilt.
Easy and fun to make, it won’t take lots of time to design your own letters and make the applications to sew them on any quilt.
A name, a word, or a quote, anything will look great on a quilt!
The art of quilt making is a fantastic way to write (or to applique words on quilts) to tell your love ones how much you love them.
Materials To Make Patchwork Letters
1 piece of paper, it could be the paper you use for the printer or from any notebook.
1 pencil
1 pencil or marker for fabrics
Pins
Needle
Polyester 100 % thread.
Cotton 100 % thread for quilting.
DMC embroidery floss any color
Thimble
Scissors for paper
Scissors for fabric
Visit today the best patchwork tools page to take a look on what quilting tools I use every day to make my quilts, you can follow the affiliate links to Amazon for you to get your own tools, I thank you for your support to my blog!
Video Patchwork Letters Tutorial
Tutorial to make patchwork letters
Step 1
How to applique letters on quilts is an easy tutorial to follow where I’ll be sharing the steps I follow to add a letter, a word or a quote on my quilts.
The video I made to show you the steps I follow when I work on letters on my quilts is in Spanish, my mother tongue, but it will be easy for you to watch it and to follow it.
I mentioned on the video, you might have at home a book where you can copy an ABC, or you can find on the internet an ABC to download to get the letters you need to make the applique on a quilt.
But I find it will be better if you learn the steps I follow to use my own handwriting and use my own letters to make the applique of words on any quilt, this way, you can make your own letters any time and with your own design.
The first step is to get any paper you have at hand, it could be a paper for the printer or a paper from any notebook that you have at home.
Cut the paper to the size of the block you will be working on your quilt.
Fold the paper in two and mark down the middle.
Write down the word or the name you’ll applique on the quilt, count the letters on the word or name and find the letter in the middle.
Write on the paper on the middle the letter in the middle on the word you’ll applique on the quilt.
Now you can write the rest of the letters from the word on the right and on the left.
Leave some space between the letters.
You can make this steps as many times until you’re happy on how the word or the quote looks like.
The next step is to draw each letter, make it wider and add your personal style to each letter.
When you’re happy on how it looks, then you can cut out each letter with the scissor for paper.
The paper letters will be the templates.
Step 2
Once you have the letters templates in paper ready, it’s time to trace each letter on the cotton fabric you’ll use to make the applique.
When tracing each template, leave enough room to add the seam to each letter.
As you mark each letter with a pencil or marker for fabric, you mark the outline for of each letter to follow when making the applique of each letter.
When you cut out each letter you’ll be adding the seam on each letter, you can trace with a pencil on the fabric before you cut out each letter or not.
Cut out each letter from the fabric and place the work, the name or the quote on the block on your quilt.
Pinch a pin on each letter.
Make a few running stitches on each letter. (I like to do this step, as I find when I work with pins while making the applique on quilts, pins can move and the fabric pieces will move too and I also can pinch my hands with the pins while working on the applique.
While with the running stitches on each letter or fabric piece when making applique, I won’t get pinched and letters will keep it their places, this always makes applique easier for me.
Step 3
When you’re happy how the letters look on your quilt, you can work on the applique of each letter, folding the seam inside and making small stitches of applique to do each letter at the time.
Once you finished the applique of all the letters, you can do the buttonhole stitches with a different color thread from the fabric of the letters to help the letters to highlight on the quilt.
Congratulations you have made a great job, your patchwork letters look amazing!
Two ways to make the letters applique on quilts.
There are many ways to do the letters applique on quilts as there are many quilters.
You can find nowadays many quilters that will share with you their own way to do the applique technique.
On the video I share the way I do the applique on my quilts, this applique technique will work for letters, flowers and anything that you want to applique on any quilt with good results.
I share on the video two ways to do it, one with seams and one with no seams.
To make the letters applique with no seams.
You need to trace the letters templates on the fabric for each letter, but when you cut out each letter from the fabric, you just need to follow the pencil or the marker for fabric lines to cut out each letter, don’t add any seam to each letter.
Follow the same instructions to place the letters on the quilt and make the running stitches on each letter.
To do the letters applique with no seams will be easier and faster as you don’t need to do the applique first and then the buttonhole stitches on each letter.
To do the applique with no seam, you just need to do the buttonhole stitches on each letter.
The Pros of No Seam Letters Applique on Quilts:
- It’s easier to do
- It doesn’t require to sew double on each letter, the applique and the buttonhole stitches.
- With time, it will get a nice textil texture on each letter.
The Cons of No Seam letters Applique on Quilts:
- As it will have no seams, it can get fabric threads coming out with time, use and laundry.
Which is the best Letters Applique Technique?
I use both techniques on my quilts, and I love both.
You will need to make a sample of the letters using both techniques to see if you don’t mind using one or the other.
Make the samplers, use them, iron them, wash them and check how the fabrics gets after the wash and the use, if you like the no seams applique, you can use it, but if you don’t like how it looks, it will be better if you work with seams on each letter.
Clossing.
Applique letters will always add that extra touch to any quilt.
From a simple word, a name or a quote, your quilt will be from a simple quilt to an art quilt,
Making the applique letters might seem as more work on a quilt to make, but it’s worth the work!
It won’t take you long to do it and it will look great on any quilt.
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