Random Letters! Quilt

I'm so excited to show my "Random Letters!" quilt today!  This quilt was inspired by the Uppercase fabric line designed by Janine Vangool and printed by Windham Fabrics.  All the letters, and some of the background, were pieced using the Uppercase fabrics.

I designed the letters myself, using a 5x5 block grid for each letter.  I limited the pieces in each letter block to squares and multiples of squares, half square triangles and quarter square triangles. No curves or applique were allowed! 

It was a challenge!  Some letters were harder to design than others.  I owe the letter "V" to a good friend who is a calligrapher/letterpress printer/typographer.  She looked at my "V" and thought it could be better. We sat at her kitchen table, each with our graph paper, and tried again. She found a good solution before I did!  Many thanks to E for the letter "V"!

Note:  There are patterns available for pieced letters.  I'd never had any interest in piecing letters before and I didn't look at any of they available designs before I drew out my own.  Except for the V, these are all my invention.

On the steps at the skateboard park

It seemed appropriate to make this quilt with letter blocks because the Uppercase fabric designs were originally graphic designs used on the covers of Uppercase Magazine!  (Click the link to seecovers from back issues of the magazine).  Letters = printed text!

I turned two of my letters on their side because letters in the "All Caps" pattern of the Uppercase fabric were turned.  Turning the letters also adds a more modern look to the quilt!

The above photo is the back of the quilt. It's fun to see all the beautiful colors of the Uppercase fabrics stacked up together in a column.  (The floral and solids aren't part of the Uppercase line).

My quilt design originally had 26 letter blocks and 4 blocks of negative space.  With just 4 empty blocks, the negative space didn't balance well. So I added punctuation!  

It's quilted with straight line quilting, done with a walking foot.  I used both pale grey and light blue green thread for the quilting.

This is a quilt for young and old alike!  I took these photos at the local skateboard park just to emphasize the fact that this is "so not your typical ABC" nursery quilt!  (Quote thanks to my teenage niece)!

"Random Letters!" is definitely one of my all time favorite quilts!