Embroidering text

Silk page with two sets of lettering

I'm working on a baby announcement block for the latest addition to our family.  Lucas is my niece's first baby so that makes me Lucas' great aunt.  Three of my five grandchildren have blocks and I'm in the process of finishing the other two.

There is a lot of lettering needed on the block:  name, date and time of birth, and weight and length.  Getting the writing neat and even is tricky, and for the first couple of blocks I transferred the letters by tacking through a printed paper copy.  When I started using the silk to print off my own pictures, I also tried printing the text information on the silk.  For the lettering I used the font Comic Sans, size 30.  I chose pale blue ink because I will be using a pale blue thread, and chose the "outline" effect.

Close up of lettering

To get the best use out of the silk, I cut a piece of 8 1/2" x 14" legal size silk from the roll and adjusted the text and printed several times on legal size paper before I printed onto the silk.  To get two to a page, the format for each set of lettering is the same on the page using the landscape format.  When you are printing the second set of lettering, feed the paper into the printer from the opposite end.  Be sure to practice first on legal size paper.

Lucas' unfinished block

Most of the embroidery is finished, and the space at the bottom is where the silk piece with the lettering will be attached.  The printed silk page is cut from corner to corner so that each lettering is on a large triangle.