LOVE- June

Hi Ladies,
First off, I will admit I was totally convinced I was July! Whoops! So... I had to improvise here. I had plans of taking all of June to perfect my tutorial with fantastic pictures and clear directions. I was looking into using paper piecing too. Alas, I don't have my fabric, and don't have time to understand paper piecing, but we're going ahead anyway!

This month we are going to use only solids, and this is done by free cutting and piecing. I would LOVE for the end product to look like this:

http://quiltycat-quiltycat.blogspot.ca/2010/09/layout.html

I love these colors. I would like bold colors, no pastels, no grays or browns or black. All cotton, please. 

I wrote to the creator of the above, and she told me that she used the book by this lovely lady:

http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.ca/2010/12/feeling-overwhelmed-by-all-love.html

If word quilting is something you'd like to do more of, she wrote a book:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1604680172/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=lazgalqui-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=1604680172&adid=1JGRPH18H1YQGR8BS1MA&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Flazygalquilting.blogspot.ca%2F2010%2F12%2Ffeeling-overwhelmed-by-all-love.html

Here is a link to some tutorials for "unruly piecing" :http://www.unrulyquilter.com/tutorials/unruly-piecing-basics.pdf

Now... onto my tutorial! 

Here are some hints that I wrote down while doing my square:

Iron your seams as you go.

Don’t cut your fabric into same width of strips! Save some squares too.

Mark a 9”x9” square on your cutting mat.

The wonkier the better!

Clean your edges before ironing.

You'll need at least nine different colors. I love quilycat's variation, much better than mine.

Okay, start with the L. I want the whole square to be about 18" x 18", so each letter will be about 9"x9". You can look at any square from the examples and try to copy them, or design your own. you can also use mine as your guide. I'm really going to start now...

Take a strip and a square. Exact measurements don't matter. The rougher the better! Sew them together. Iron seams.

Now, take another strip of your side color, or one in a similar shade. Sew it on! Iron seams.

Check that this square is at least 9"x9". If it isn't, start over. Just kidding! That is the beauty with this design. Just tack on fabric where you need it. Easy, eh? (See, I'm becoming Canadian.)

Now the O.

I would have preferred the pinks to be closer in shade. I think you lose the definition too much since they are so different.

And the V....

Whoops! I forgot to sew the piece that goes between the two sides of the V. I could have used a different color for the middle too.

And... the E.

Here it is shown that my E wasn't long enough, so I added a piece to the bottom.

Tada! So, what I like, and don't like...

I don't like that my L and V use the same background color. I want more variation. I would also like there to be variation in some of the letters. For example, two oranges for the L, but very similar shades. I would prefer that the pinks in the O were closer shades. I like how most of my lines are not totally straight. I like the slanted lines best. I like that the seams don't meet in the middle.

I hope that is clear enough. Please e-mail me with any questions!! Can't wait to see your LOVE!!!

Oh! Can you please send me some scraps along with your square? I may do a striped sashing, and would love to have most or all of the colors in it. Thanks!!!