Eliza's ABCs

Baby Eliza Page was born June 13th to Melanie and Ken (and joins big sister Avery). So earlier this year my daughter, Emily, and I decided to make an ABC quilt for her.  But it had to be special! So we found a very cute pattern (SarahBellumQuilts) that had a square for each letter. Each was traced from a pattern, fused to the white background fabric, and then I zig-zagged around each one with matching thread.

Each block has an adjoining sashing piece that also reflects the associated letter.

Then, we set out finding a fabric for each letter that featured an object beginning with that letter. "Apple" for "A", "Buttons" for "B", etc.  Some were easier than others. But....since the family lives in NOLA, we also wanted to find some fabrics with a local interest. Thus, for example, "Fleur de lis" for "F" and "Mardi Gras masks" for "M". "Q" was a little problematic, but we eventually found a "Question mark" fabric, and I made a miniature "Quilt" for the sashing. The hardest was "X". The only true X fabric we could find was one with "X-ray cats"! Seriously! X-rays of cats!!! But that was too wild even for us. So we had to cheat and go with "eXclamation points" fabric.

The border is also made of one square for each of the 26 letters (plus the 4 corner ABC squares).

The back fabric is a riot of ABCs on black. Due to the width of the quilt, I decided to piece the back. What better way to do it than to have a strip of all 26 letters running down the middle (with some alternate appropriate fabrics)!

The final two squares were reserved for the baby's name and birthdate. I rejected having them embroidered on; didn't think it would work well in such a small space. Thought about tracing the info onto fabric and then fusing on, but finally decided to find a fun font (went with one called Curlz MT), reverse printed it onto "Print-n-Press" (what I use for my morsbags labels) and then ironed them on. Perfect! (if I do say so myself.)

Hope you love it Eliza Page! Learn those ABCs!!!!!!!