I spent some time experimenting with this. A good exercise using the 2d and 3d tools. Here is what I finally settled on. The patterns are all made using puff.
I traced the outlines of the letters from the original posted image using 2d trace. I used path offset to get the letter outlines and chopped them up with the vector trim tool. I discovered a trick to puff between two curves which really made it all worth while to me. Great exercise whether you use it or not. Thanks.