Fusing Words

I was asked how I did my lettering on the borders. There are so many ways out there to do letters on your quilts. I have done various ways over the years. True appliqué, letters pieced from square and half square triangles, embroidery, liberated letters, fused, etc. This time I chose to fuse the letters on. I would have to say my favorite look is the liberated letters that are a bit wonky. But in this quilt the letters my friends made are definitely the stars of this quilt and I didn’t want the border to move the eye away from them, so I chose to fuse smaller letters.



To get started on this I decide what width my border is going to be and what words are going to be placed on what border. I then choose a font from my Word program on my pc. After finding what font I think will work best I then play with the sizing, printing different sizes out of a few words on paper and then placing them on the border until I get a size I like. Once you find your font and sizing all you have to do is print the words out, turn the paper over and using a sharpie outline the letters so you have them in reverse and then trace the reversed letters directly to your fusing paper.



After fusing the letters to the border I then like to sew a straight stitch around the edges of each letter to make sure they will hold if the quilt is washed. I do this using matching thread to the actual letter fabric and my machine. To finish the letters off I embroider around each letter using matching embroidery thread and a buttonhole stitch.



Viewing the quilt from a short distance you can’t even tell this step has been done, but I like how it pulls the letters off the quilt a bit. You could do the embroidery by hand or machine. I always enjoy the handwork. I am including a couple of examples of previous quilts I did using this method. I hope you give it a try, very easy and words always make the quilt!

"If you obey all the rules, you'll miss all the fun." - Katherine Hepburn