Word Play Quilts

When I was first introduced to quilting blogs, a friend gave me her three favorites:  Bonnie K. Hunter of Quiltville, Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times, and Tonya Ricucci (the Unruly Quilter).  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  These three opened my quilting horizons to places I had never seen nor imagined!  I've since added hundreds of blogs that I check on periodically but I sure do have my favorites that I check every day or even more often during the day.  For example, Judy (Patchwork Times) usually posts many times a day which is fun when you just need a little boost during the day.  Another favorite, Victoria of Bumblebeans, usually doesn't post until around noon but Judy posts very early in the day and she lives a time zone west of me!    Another favorite is Kim who lives in California but her post automatically comes up early in the morning (EST)!!  I really should update my profile and get all those blog sites listed for you.

Which leads me to the purpose of this post...Tonya's book is called Word Play Quilts which is such a wonderful and fun approach to quilting freedom.  She is a devotee of Gwen Marston (a fellow Michigander I might add) and free piecing.  Through Tonya's blog, I was introducted to the very talented Lynne from New Hampshire who is starting a quilt-a-long with instructions on how to make your own free-pieced letters.  Check it out!!  Her first class is Tuesday, July 6.

Here is my first attempt at free-pieced words:

Of course, I didn't start out with such a project like this in mind.  I started with a few letters at a time and then started putting the letters together to make the words and since I almost had a project,  I continued to add the letters I needed to complete it.  I actually worked at this shop and it became a gift to Sharon, the owner of the shop.  The quilt store was in downtown Gaylord, MI and when Sharon retired, my good friend Delphine opened her own shop around the corner:

Three more to show you...my granddaughter's graduation quilt.  I tend to make my letters too large and so this ended up on the back of her large quilt:

(sorry about the bad picture but I think you can click on it to see it better)

Two other favorites requested by Tonya were:

(for a scary Halloween quilt) and

LAFF is my favorite and my most famous (to me!) ... look at the cover of Tonya's book above - right there in the middle of the right side.  See it??  I was so excited and happy when the book was published!

So you can start with just simple letters and have some fun in a short amount of time.  Scraps are used plus a large piece of background fabric.  Please try this, I'm sure you will enjoy the process.  Join Lynne for some great tutorials and purchase Tonya's book for even more information, tutorials, and inspiration.