This was an idea I had ages ago, like 2013 or so, when I read a book about codebreaking and saw the tabula recta diagram and recognize it as being similar to a simple layout for a quilt made of squares. And then the idea hit me - get 26 different fabrics and make one. And then the bigger idea hit me: get 26 different TYPOGRAPHIC themed or alphabetic fabrics and make one.
It took a couple years to just do that. Some of them - the "wingding" or "dingbat" type ones are a bit of a stretch, but I got 26 that coordinated well enough. And then I had to cut them and arrange the bits so I'd be sure not to mix them up. What I did in the end was label 26 envelopes (A through Z) and tuck the fabric corresponding to that letter in it, and then, for each row, pull one square out of each envelope, and then move the front-most envelope to the back so they'd stay in order:
It took a LOT of sewing. I started this back in...well, early July, and I admit recently I thought about how "when I started on this, my dad was still alive" and that's kind of a hard thing to think.
But I pushed through. Got it done today.
Unfortunately, it's still super wet out (and kind of grey) and the quilt is too large to hang on my clothesline anyway, and I'm not laying it on the ground to get it wet. And there's nowhere in my house I could easily hang it up - I tried a couple places but not having pushpins I could use to anchor it, it didn't work. And I didn't want to be climbing around on my stepstool too much and risk falling anyway.
So here it is laid out on my sofa. I'm sorry it's a little hard to see; maybe if we get a run of dry weather I can pull it out into my backyard and spread it out on the lawn.
Here are some close ups of it, I know that is hard to see the fabrics in it:
After.....all *this* is over, if there is still a longarmer in business in my area, I want to take it in and get it longarm quilted, provided it's not too huge for their machine. (I *think* I have a big enough piece of a different typography fabric for the backing, I think I got 7 yards of it). If not? I suppose I can slowly handquilt it.
I also started a simple ("Grandma's Favorite") dishcloth of some cotton yarn I had. I thought if I could get it done before Friday morning when I run out to mail my brother's birthday gift, I will send it to my mom, I bet she could use some fun mail.
I'm also going to try....in all of this....to periodically send out cards to different people (especially if I can eventually get a few more different ones) so people have "fun mail." Since we're probably all sticking at home more for the nonce. It's small, but it's something, and I know it's a good day when I get a card from a friend in the mail, so maybe other people feel the same.
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