Hi there!  It’s nice to be here. I found this cute panel in the local quilt store.  I decided I needed to do something with it now that my toddler is really getting into books more.  I didn’t want to make a quilt with it as I have plenty of other quilt ideas for him.  So I thought a simple book with loose pages that can come apart to make words would be fun.

You don’t need an alphabet panel like this.  Print up your favorite font & cut out fabric letters & use them in the same way as my fabric squares.

This is also a great stash-busting craft.  Use up scrap fabrics for your book pages.  Use up cuts of wadding for inside your pages.  If you are using up odd fabric cuts for the pages then use any thread to sew them up!

Supplies

• ABC panel or cut out letters
• About six fat quarters of fabrics in any print you like
• Fusible webbing
• Sewing machine threads in colors to match your fabric letters or a contrasting one
• Embroidery thread – optional
• Off cuts of wadding cut slightly larger to suit your page size
• Large Eyelets – enough for all your pages
• Hinged ring to hold them together at least three inches
• Hole Punch

Start by cutting out your letters from your fabric panel or from your font print out.  I have 15 pages in my book as my alphabet panel included four pictures without a letter.  I have one at the start and one at the end.  The last two are backing the R and S squares.  R and S are popular letters that I want to be able to use to spell more words.  Originally I was thinking of putting them on the back of four of the five vowels but then I had an odd consonant that I would have needed more pictures for.  It just wouldn’t work with what I had available.   But if you want to be able to work them like that that would be great for spelling words out later on.  You can make as many pages as you want or stick to the alphabet through all pages so you would have 13 pages in total.

Attach your fusible webbing to the back of your letters.  Trim to size.

Cut your fat quarters into “pages” approximately 7” x 6”.  I used some plain brights that I had on hand.

Remove paper on fusible webbing & place your letters on the “pages” measuring around so they are all nicely centered & press down.

Now the really fun bit begins.   You can appliqué them down using embroidery threads & a blanket stitch or any stitch you like.

I did try the embroidery with a blanket stitch on one of mine but I didn’t like the look of it so this is a personal choice.

I used a few different fancy stitches on my sewing machine & went around the letter panels with different one.  Good fun, as I for one, don’t get to use a lot of those stitches for anything at all.  Test out your stitches on scrap first though to get the tension right as some of them will pull quite tightly & you don’t want your pages to gather up.

Great job!  Believe it or not, you are nearly done now.

Get your wadding scraps & cut enough for your pages & just a bit bigger than your pages.

Thread your machine with any thread colors!  I just had one plain reel in the top & used up the bits left on bobbins for underneath!  With all the different colored fabrics I used I wasn’t going to bother matching for this step.  You can if you want too!  I was lazy & stash-busting my bobbin threads!

Now this is by no means a new method of sewing up small squares like this but it is important that you get them layered correctly & in the right order alphabetically.

First up you need to stack your pages in the right order.  Work down the stack & you shouldn’t have a problem.

Lay out a piece of webbing.  Take the first two letters from your stack.  Place one down right side facing up on the wadding.  Then making sure both letters are up the same way, place the second one face down on the first letter.

Then holding them all quite taut under the machine sew around the edge with a one-fourth inch seam allowance.  Leave a space though of at least two inches for turning right side out.

It should look something like the picture below when you have sewn the edges & have your turning gap.

Now trim the corners & any excess seam allowance from around the edge.  On the corner where you are attaching your eyelets, take a little more from down around the corners.  Then turn the right side out through the gap!  Use a point turner to push inside corners out so they look great!

Press all your pages.  Turn under the opening & press it down neatly & pin shut.

Now get your coordinating threads ready.  You will find this easier also with the walking foot on your sewing machine.  Probably not essential if you don’t have one, but if you have one, I suggest you use it.  To quilt it & close the seam I just sewed about one-fourth inch in from the edge.  So go around all of your page edges like this!  This is a good time to practice your machine quilting in other ways if you want to as well.  Just because I left mine at around the edges doesn’t mean you have to!  So practice your machine quilting here if you like with some different patterns or around the edges.   Now trim all your thread ends & that’s all your sewing done.

Lastly you need your hole punch.  Now you must be careful here that you get your holes in the correct corner.  So once again, put them all in order in a nice stack!   I put the eyes in the top left corner of my pages.  Punch your holes in the corner & use your eyelet tool to punch the eyelets in place! Do one & use that as a template to mark the spot on the other pages with a pencil.  Now all you need to do is hang them on your hinged ring & you are finished with your book or flash cards!

Thanks for sewing along with me! I hope your kids or grandchildren enjoy their fabric book or flash cards!

Guest Blogger: Mandy @ Fell4u