I had a hard time deciding what technique to use for the numbers on my advent quilt for the Countdown to Christmas Quilt Along over at Better Off Thread. I thought about doing reverse applique, a technique I came across in a neat book a little while ago called Pretty in Patchwork Holiday. Really liked this book by the way, but I felt that the reverse applique would take too long. Then I wanted to use my fabric scraps and do "regular" applique, but I didn't want to iron a bunch of Wonder Under. That lead me to wool felt for the numbers. I figured I could just cut them out and do a quick stitch around the edge.
Plus, I felt that using solid colors would be a better contrast against the patterned pocket backgrounds. I got some really great wool felt from Kindall Krafts on Etsy. Great prices, fast shipping, and wonderful product! On top of all that, the felt was so cutely packaged with a super sweet felt flower clip....loved it! I was, however, a little worried about the colors matching, but I got lucky because they were all pretty perfect matches, except the blue was a little off....but still works!
As you can see, I haven't had a chance to sew all of the numbers down yet, however I am hoping that it will help increase the contrast on some of the pockets. For example, pocket 14 was a tough one because the presents print is pretty bold and the green numbers have a hard time popping out....again I hope that stitching around the numbers will help a bit.
For the numbers, I used a font called Glasket, which I believe I downloaded from a website, like fonts.com or something like that a while ago. I liked it a lot because it had an art deco kind of feel to it and well, I am a sucker for anything art deco! I used Microsoft Word and typed the numbers at a size of 260, then formatted the font to outline only and printed 0 through 9. I used template plastic over the print out and traced the numbers, then cut the numbers out of the template plastic. Using the number templates, I traced outlines onto the wool felt and then cut them out, and voila....
Anyway, at least I got all of the numbers cut out...yay! I need to keep
chugging along and get this project together. Thanks for checking it
out. Hopefully, I will have more to show you soon!
You did an excellent job!!!! I love how you did your numbers. That looks like a lot of work. I can't wait to see your project finished. Thanks again for participating!
ReplyDeleteThis is so cute, I love it!!
ReplyDeleteI am so glad...thanks so much!!!
DeleteWOW, Kristin! You do such beautiful work! Love it!
ReplyDeleteI have wanted to do an advent quilt for ions! Love this!
ReplyDeleteThis waas great to read
ReplyDelete