Make a Banner

This scrappy banner is easy to make; you get something pretty and your scrap bin gets a little less crowded. Win win, right?

Choose fabrics and letters that suits the occasion; this name banner was made for a new baby boy.

What you’ll need
Fabric scrapsFusible web
Background fabric; choose a solid fabric or one that reads as solid for the letters to show.
Tulle or netting
A printout of your letters

And what you’ll do
Print out the letters you want to use; I have made mine in Word using the font Tekton Pro Ext, bold and in size 300. If you have the option to print a reverse document, do so.
If your letters are the right way; make a mirror image by tracing around them on the printout using a marker that will show through the paper. Draw the lines properly on the wrong side of the paper (see my Make a Letter tutorial).

Cut a strip of fusible web as wide as you want your mid section to be. Make it as long as possible, and adjust the length later. I am sorry, I forgot to measure mine and the quilt is given away, but I think my strip was approx 6” wide.
Draw your reversed letters onto the fusible strip exactly the way you want them to appear on the quilt. This means lining them up properly and using the same space between the letters (sorry, no pictures of this step).

Place the fusible strip on your ironing table, glue side up, and start covering it with little pieces of fabric.
Make sure the fabric pieces overlap properly in every direction and let them go over the edges. Fuse the scraps to the web.
Using sharp scissors, start cutting out the letters. Save the negative spaces of letters like O and A.
Turn over and check that you have cut away all the layers.
Clean up the edges with a rotary cutter and remove the paper carefully.
Place the fused piece on the background fabric, including the “holes” from Os and As etc. Fuse into place.
Layer the top with batting and batting.


Cover the fabric scraps with a piece of tulle, and pin.
Start quilting. I have quilted vertical lines using the walking foot and a light thread matching the background fabric. I started with the tulle covered mid section, stitching the first line one presser foot’s width left of the fabric scraps and kept quilting lines through the mid section all the way over to one presser foot width right of the scraps.
Cut away the excess tulle close to the stitching lines on both sides of the mid section.

Continue quilting the background.

Add hanging triangles and binding and you’re done.

Have fun and let me see your scrappy projects!