Lettering

Sandstone Valley

In a recent post (Dec 6) I showed you the rough draft of my Hidden Valley alphabet. I thought if I took a second look at it I could work out some of the bugs. Instead I came up with a similar but different alphabet that I decided to call Sandstone Valley.

The Hidden Valley alphabet was based on a three dimensional cube. The Sandstone Valley alphabet is based on a square with a drop shadow.

Lettering

Hidden Valley

Annie's comments on yesterday's post inspired me to design this pieced alphabet. I'm calling it Hidden Valley for the simple reason that I don't think I've named an alphabet Hidden Valley before.

This is a first draft. I designed it in a rush last night so I haven't spent a lot of time playing with it and working out the bugs. That means it is still subject to change without notice.

I thought you might like to see it anyway.

Pieced Alphabet

Part 6

Today I'm posting the last of the numbers for my Shaganappi Alphabet.

Pieced Alphabet

Part 5

Today I finish with the letters for my Shaganappi alphabet and start on numbers.

Pieced Lettering

Part 4

You may be wondering about the name of this alphabet. Why Shaganappi?

I've designed a lot of alphabets to be used in quilts. Naming them was always a problem until I hit upon the idea of naming them after neigbourhoods in the City of Calgary where I live.

The neighbourhood of Shaganappi gets its name from the Cree word referring to the bison hide lacings that held Red River ox carts together.

Pieced Alphabet

Part 3

There are two tricks I use over and over to make this alphabet.The first trick is to paper piece the tricky parts.The second trick is to create diagonals using the binding strip method; that is, place two pieces together at right angles and sew them on the diagonal.

Three of today's 6 letters use both of these tricks.

Pieced Lettering

Part 2

Yesterday I showed you the first 6 letters of this alphabet. Here are the next 6.

G looks simple enough but the piecing for it doesn't. But looks can be deceiving.

Pieced Alphabet

Part 1

I thought it was time I shared another pieced alphabet with you. Starting with the first 6 letters.

The grid indicates size.

If the squares are 1/2" x 1/2", then the A is 4 1/2" x 7 1/2".

You might chose a different grid size.

Pumphouse Pinwheels

As you've seen in the last few posts, I used my Pumphouse alphabet to make pinwheels for a quilt.

There are 4 ways to make a pinwheel from a letter. This is demonstrated on the left using Z.

I decided to explore some of the possibilities.

Lettering

Pumphouse Alphabet

Part 5

I've been showing you my Pumphouse alphabet. The final six letters are today.

Lettering

Pumphouse Alphabet

Part 4

The border fabric includes all the primary colors. If you've ever mixed paints, you know that when you mix all the primary colors together you get mud. To keep the border lively I've alternated strips of the border fabric with strips of white.

Lettering

Pumphouse Alphabet

Part 3

I mentioned earlier that the letters of my Pumphouse alphabet remind me of actors or comic book super heroes because of their flamboyance. In other words, they are very child-like. For that reason I picked
primary colors for this quilt.

Lettering

Pumphouse Alphabet

Part 2

The letters in my Pumphouse quilt read left to right, then right to left, then left to right, etc. I did this so I wouldn't have to think about  the color sequence.

Lettering

Pumphouse Alphabet 

Part 1

Pumphouse is a serif alphabet with large exaggerated triangular serifs.

The result of this exaggeration is an alphabet that is flamboyant, dramatic and theatrical. So I decided to name it after the Pumphouse Theatre in Calgary.

Connaught

Look What Leanne Did

This is from the back of a quilt Leanne made for her husband Bill.
She used my Connaught alphabet.
I think she did a great job of piecing it.

The quilt also has a front.

The fabrics are Star Trek fabrics.

Pieced Pillow

Signature Pillow

 

I made this signature pillow for my mother's and step-father's 40th anniversary which will happen very shortly.

It is sewn from 1" x 5" strips of fabric. Each of which is a box in which a guest can sign an make a comment.

The pillow is 20" x 20"

Applique Lettering

 

I used my Cranston alphabet on the back to mark the occasion.

The capital letters are 1 1/2" tall. The lower case letters are 1" tall. They are in a 7" x 10" box.

An Applique Alphabet

In my last post I showed you the lower case Cranston alphabet. This time you get to see the upper case.

An Applique Alphabet

In my last post I showed you Chaparral, an alphabet I designed that combined piecing and stitching. I also pointed out that it had some issues that needed to be worked out.

I have decided that if I change it to an alphabet that combines applique and stitching, all those problems disappear. In addition raw-edge applique allows me to make the letters even smaller. And that means I can use these letters on quilts that are not huge.

A Pieced Alphabet

Chaparral is a lower case alphabet I recently designed. It is made by combining piecing and stitching.

Numbers for a Pieced Alphabet

I designed my Foothills alphabet using a combination of piecing and stitching. This allows it to be very small.

Today I'm showing you the numbers that go with the alphabet.