When Lettering Achieves Results Beyond Words...

Last week was the Original Sewing and Quilt Show here in Georgia.  It was a week of hard work but fun and thank you to all those that stopped by to say hi and to those who gave me a "flurry of waves" when I was waiting on customers!  It made my day :)

In January, Cookiescreations.com featured an ITH dog bone project.   Krissy, owned by Donna Hoffman, truly enjoys her gift from mom! Donna sent in four adorable pictures and Krissy was asleep on her gift in all different positions... It was hard to pick one.

More thoughts on lettering:

Lettering can be used as a simple decoration and has the added benefit of holding layers of fabric together with no little parts like bows, buttons, and other noticeable accessories that can become a danger to children and pets. I would be remiss to give this gentle reminder that with or without buttons and bows, it is always important to supervise playtime with any toys you provide.

The size of the finished item dictates whether your lettering will be done as a satin or as a standard fill in.  I have always used 10mm as my rule for whether or not a letter should have satin or not.  If the width of the letter is greater than 10mm then the answer is no.

Most home embroidery machines can handle a 10mm satin without adding extra stitches to it. Once you extend beyond the 10mm width, you will often see an extra needle penetration inserted with unattractive results and/or loopy stitches. 

Many quality lettering/monogram programs suggest minimum and maximum sizes for their built in fonts and monograms.  Pay attention to those suggestions.  Those 4mm size letters you see on shirt logos have very light density and that makes them very clear to read once stitched.  This is evident to those who are making our Shamrock Needle Cushion which is the feature project in the March newsletter.   Lettering can be used in many decorative ways and that is a subject for another day!