50 Point Bonus!

This summer I've been working on a Scrabble quilt for a friend.  It's a really easy game to translate into quilt form, since it's just a lot of different colored boxes. Just sketch it out and count up the different squares.

One useful tip I got from someone who'd already done a Scrabble quilt was to break the pattern up into 9 blocks, and sew them up that way.  I'd never really analyzed a Scrabble board before - it's really just 2 different block configurations oriented in different directions, then one center block.  Easy-peasy!  I embroidered a little star to mark the center square.

I had a little assistance while assembling the quilt - from the cat I was watching for a friend. =)

It's always good to have your quilts pre-approved by a qualified kitty quilt assessor to certify it's cuddliness.

I really had to use some creativity to put together the backing.  I love buying fabrics for quilt tops, but  I keep neglecting to purchase enough yardage for the quilt back.

I wanted this quilt to be functional as a Scrabble game as well, so I used iron-on letters on 2" squares of felt for the 'tiles'.

Two things to note here:
1.  Iron on letters don't come in quantities that match Scrabble letter distribution.  I just bought an extra pack and made sure to get two full alphabets, multiples of the vowels, and several blank squares to make up for the difference.
 
2.  Synthetic felt is not meant to be ironed!  My first pass ended up with a half melted square and bit of a sticky mess on my iron.  I resolved this issue by turning the iron to a lower temp and laying a sheet of paper over the letters before ironing them.  It took a bit of finesse to get the letters to stick without melting the felt.

But once they were ironed on, they looked pretty good.

Then I made a little bag to house the letters.  I think it turned out cute.

 

I got it finished up in August in time for my friend's birthday, so I sent it off before my vacation.  I think it turned out well!

Ok... I've got one more post about Costa Rica... then classes start again on Monday.