Quilt Labelling: Font Drafting

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

Over the past couple of years, I've been working towards the goal of making my own custom quilt labels, and last week, I took another big step towards that goal!

This process has been underway for quite a long time and I've shared several steps along the way already! I started off by planning the content, shape, and medium of the labels I'd like to make, then, after deciding I wanted to print my labels using stencils and textile ink, I bought a stencil to test the method.

I liked the results of that printing method, but still wanted to further personalize the stencil I was using by manufacturing one based on my own hand writing!

For about a year, I've struggled to make progress on that goal, but that has finally changed!

Drafting Characters

The first step towards drafting my own font was to take samples of my hand writing that I could digitize.

I wrote out samples of uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as numbers and a few punctuation marks. All of these were written on ¼" grid paper.

I photographed my font samples, then dropped them into an art program where I could turn them into digital, vector shapes.

I used Krita, a free digital art program, to make my letters, but I'm sure many other programs would work just as well.

I'm by no means a professional digital artist, but I've taken a course that taught me the basics of vector manipulation, so tracing over my letters was not particularly challenging once I got started!

Once I was happy with the shape of the letter, I added a square around it to use as a guideline. The dashed blue line represented the line my letters were written on, with the top edge of the square on the line above that and the bottom edge on the line below.

With the letter contained inside the square, I can scale them really easily.

From there, I move both the letter and the square guide into a new document and scale the square to 300px or 1", the size I want to print them.

Some letters, like "o" and "b" or like the number "9" shown in my pictures, have an island in the middle that's cut off from the background area around the letter and need to be connected with a bridge.

I wasn't sure how wide the bridge would need to be to support the island, and after a little research, wasn't able to find a real answer. I believe it depends on a number of different factors, including the size of the stencil and the material it's cut from.

In the end, I just decided to use 1mm or 12px wide bridges, represented by the gold circle in the image above. If I could pass the gold circle between the lines of my letter, then it was finished! But if there wasn't enough space for the circle, I would adjust the letter until there was.

I repeated the process with each letter and number, making duplicates of the really common ones so my words will have a little variability, enhancing the hand written quality of the font!

Drafting Words

After completing a full set of letters, I can start combining them into words!

I assembled a selection of common words, including months, years, and my own name, which I can copy into different combinations.

I really love how they've turned out and can't wait to see if they print well!

Commissioning Custom Stencils

Now that I have some letters and words drafted, I need to find someone with the tools and skills needed to cut them into a stencil!

I found a local print shop that also sells cutting machines and stencil supplies, and though they don't provide that as a service, they were able to help me find someone locally who does!

I've reached out to her about whether she can take on this job for me and am waiting for a response. Hoping to hear good news soon!

Even with all that work behind me, I'm not done quite yet! Once I've found someone willing to cut my stencils, I have to test them out to be sure they'll work the way I want them to.

If I've made the bridges too narrow, the stencil may fall apart during use, and if I've made my linework too delicate, it may not print very clearly. There are many things that could require future adjustments, but I won't know until I try!

In the meantime, I'll continue working on my various stitching projects and sharing my progress along the way!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA