Instructor: Lynne Tyler

Personalize your quilts, sign and date them, show your love and commemorate a special event without using embroidery or appliqué. Learn how to make patchwork letters without patterns, templates or paper piecing. This easy technique allows you to create unique letters that add verve and joy to any quilt.
Many of you have admired the changing landscape of “word” quilts hanging in our gallery. We’ve enjoyed listening to parents explain the meaning of the quilted pangram “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” to their children while reminiscing about those infamous high school typing classes. We’ve chuckled over “If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun!” We’ve studied, with astonishment, the quilt of 9-letter “color” words, each stitched from fabrics in their respective colors (think champagne, chocolate, persimmon).  And now we’re encouraged to “think outside the box!” Many of you have asked of the quilter, “How does she do that?”

We are very pleased to have Lynne Tyler, the artist behind the words and quilts, spend another day with us, sharing her technique for playing with letters.

Lynne learned to sew in fifth grade and made her first quilt in college. Lynne is a former juried member of both the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and the New Hampshire Artists Association, where she won numerous awards. She taught Drawing and Oil Painting at the Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences for over 10 years.

Trained as an artist, Lynne loves working with abstract shapes and color. She loves strip piecing and the graphic quality of quilts. Lynne makes art quilts and is an active member of the online quilt blogging community. Her blog, The Patchery Menagerie, can be found at http://patcherymenagerie.blogspot.com. Lynne has been making free-pieced letters for over 3-1/2 years. Her original quilt, Letters From Home, is featured in Tonya Ricucci’s book, Word Play Quilts.

Students should have basic sewing and piecing experience.