A, B, C... It's easy as 1, 2, 3

Our little lady, Genevieve, is turning 2 in less than a week and we are excited!  For the past month, I have been working on a special gift for her.  I saw a cute idea on pinterest and decided it would be a fun thing to work on- with hopes of finishing it in time for her birthday, but also realizing I could work on it little by little and give it to her at any time.  The reality is that when I start a project, I work and work and work with every free chance I have to get it completed.  And I am happy to say that I finished it just in time!

A Quilted Alphabet- check out the inspiration.

Lady Genevieve is a learning sponge right now- as many 2 year olds are.  She has had her alphabet down for a few months, and is onto her address, birthday, parents names.... and learning little Spanish on the side.  I thought a quilted alphabet could help her start identifying each of those letters by sight.  Though twice the work, I decided to do a capital and lower case alphabet set of letters, with coordinating fabrics.  This would allow her to match the Big and little letters by fabrics and learn the alphabet by sight.


Having sewed a number of things over the years (renaissance costumes, 2 quilts, numerous curtains...), I have a good amount of left over fabric and scraps.  This project seemed like a wonderful way to utilize some of those left over fabrics and scraps.  I decided that I would try to coordinate some of the fabrics with the letters (i.e. apple fabric for the letter A).  Though I couldn't coordinate all my fabric to match each letter of the alphabet, I did get about half to work out. 

All 3 layers cut & ready to sew

STEP 1- Print & cut paper letters.  I used these templates

STEP 2- Trace letters onto chosen fabrics and then cut out.  These quilted letters are made up of 3 layers- face fabric, bating, & backing fabric.  I used my left over fabrics for the fronts.  For the backings I used a combination of white muslin, linen & curtain liner fabric.

STEP 3- Pin all 3 layers together and sew together with machine.

STEP 4 (optional)- Use pinking shears to cut edges for a cute & decorative look

STEP 5- For letters with a hole in the center (A, B, D, G, O, P, Q, R), cut out center hole with regular scissors.

STEP 6- Sew a little Drawstring bag to hold/ carry your Quilted Alphabet. 

Sewing linen drawstring bag

Initial for drawstring bag

Finished drawstring bag

I made 3 sets of Quilted Alphabets- one for lady Genevieve, another for my almost 3 year old niece Ava, and another for Genevieve's birthday buddy, Lucy.  I made an extra letter corresponding to each of their names, to sew to front of the drawstring sack.  They turned out pretty darn adorable!  Though it was quite a labor-intense little project, I am quite pleased with how it all turned out.  I hope that the little girls all enjoy them, and this little "toy" will aid them in learning their letters by sight.