I make quite a few t-shirt quilts, and I love to quilt the borders with information about the t-shirts that are in the quilt.  For the high school quilts, I like to put the person’s full name on one border, the high school name on another, and “Class of …” on a third.  Activities can be added this way as well.  The family name and year can be added to Christmas quilts.  Baby’s name, birth weight and length, and date can be quilted into those special baby quilts.

To do this, I use the Mylar Alphabet Stencils and lay the wording out along the borders.  I trace the letters with a pencil or pen that will be able to be removed after the quilting.  In the past I have used Frixion pens, but recently, I have had issues getting the lines to disappear.  When heat is applied, the line changes from the color of the pen to white.  The moral of that story is to ALWAYS test whatever pen, markers, or pencil you are using to mark on a scrap first to make sure it will come out!

I start my quilting about half way down on the left side of the first letter (see photo below) and, moving toward the bottom first,  follow the outline of the letter around the bottom and up to the point that it is closest to the next letter.  I keep stitching and move across to the next letter.  I quilt the bottom part of each of the letters in the same manner.  When I get to the last letter, I quilt all the way around, and when  I get to the line coming from the previous letter, I stitch over it and complete the top half of that letter.  Moving from right to left, complete the tops of the letters.

Hopefully the pictures will help you to visualize this!  These photos do not necessarily use the same same font as the 2 1/2″ Alphabet Stencils in my store.  Click here to check them out!