For Quinn’s recent Ice Cream Social birthday party, we created an enormous quilted “Q” to personalize the dessert table. It ‘s now has found a permanent home atop her bedroom dresser. This quilted monogram looks like a lot of work but it comes together quickly and can be used for years to come. Make one for your next party, or simply as a year-round decoration.
Read on for the full tutorial.
1. Sketch a boxy version of your letter with consistent thickness all around.
2. Use a 16-Inch-by-24-Inch Quilter’s Ruler (optional) to transfer your design to foam core. It need not be exact but using the ruler definitely helps.
Cut out the foam-core letter with a straight edge, Xacto Knife and Self-Healing Double-Sided Rotary Mat, using several light strokes of the knife to cut through each edge.
3. Cut a piece of the top fabric (flannel or quilting cotton works nicely, then a layer of thin batting and a layer of inexpensive cotton underneath.
4. Lay the letter right-side-up on top of the three layers of fabric and pin through all layers around the letter.
5. Now it’s time for quilting. Using disappearing ink, draw your quilting lines on the diagonal, 2″ apart, or feel free to use any quilting design you wish.
6. With a walking foot on your machine, stitch along the lines through all layers of fabric.
7. Turn the quilted fabric right-side-down, spray the from of the letter with adhesive (or an alternative glue) and lay the letter right-side-down on top of it.
8. leaving 2-3″ around, trim the excess fabric.
9. Fold the fabric neatly up over the back edges and tape all along the edge with duck tape. Fold corners in sharply to overlap fabric at angles.
10. Make snips in the fabric as needed to “hug” edge of letter.
11. If there is a inner shape in your letter. Cut out the center, leaving 2-3 inches all around, snip into the corners and fold all edges towards the back, just like the outer edge. Duck tape to secure.
Add string for hanging with duck tape (optional,) or just lean against the wall. 
I love this. It has such a big impact but doesn’t take too much work. And I love that it can continue to be used year round.
This is fantastic! I love it and am thinking about what I could use it for! 🙂