Quilt Labels

How do you label your quilts, or maybe the better question is 'do you label them'? In my40 years of sewing & quilting I just started using labels in last 5 years. When I worked for Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting I discovered it to be a common practice among quilters. I think I had hesitated before then because I didn't want it to appear as though I was bragging about my work. I now realize that it is important to document your work for posterity's sake. Someday somebody will want to know who made the quilt, when, & for what occasion. I own a few antique quilts that I wish included this important information. One was made by my great-grandmother & although it isn't a fancy piece, it would still be special to me to have that documentation.



This is a photo of the label I attached to the quilt I made for our church. It is machine embroidered & sewn into the binding. I almost always machine embroider my labels, but sometimes put the information on the binding, folded around to the back side of the quilt. All the important data is included, but it's less obtrusive than some big square in the corner. Another thing I try to do is to use either the same fabric for my label as the back of the quilt or something I used on the front. Sometimes I use a motif from the front especially if it is a whimsical theme, such as for a baby's or child's quilt.

Tell me your favorite way to label your work....

Keep on stitchin'

Deb

Faith Quilt

Our church recently converted an under-utilized room behind the sanctuary into a cozy, inviting coffee nook. In the 70's someone had decorated the room with dark paneling & orange shag carpet ~ sound familiar? In the late 80's or early 90's it had another makeover. The paneling was replaced with walls in stark white and the orange shag got tossed in favor of the burgundy carpet being installed in the sanctuary. The room was much improved & used as a chapel for quite some time. In the last few years it had become more of a catch-all storage area until this fall when it became the new Coffee Chapel. It recently got a new coat of warm beige paint, but the walls were begging for decoration. I found this panel at Hobby Lobby & knew it would be the new Coffee Chapel quilt.

I had to buy two panels in order to get enough fabric to have matching borders on all four sides. (I still have the second center panel, minus the borders...any suggestions?) They had a coordinating print that I used for the corner squares, back & binding. I was please with the over-all result & the background matches the wall color perfectly. Sometimes things just work out!

Let me know your ideas about what to do with the leftover panel.

Keep on stitchin'

Deb

Catching Up

In September a friend of ours celebrated his 50th birthday. His wife planned a surprise party for him & this is the gift I made him. He is on my husband's high school football refereeing crew & he also loves to barbecue. In my mind the natural gift was a personalized apron. (I have fallen in love with aprons, so watch for a post soon about them.) This is a design I created several months ago to make some towels for the guys on the crew. Seems many schools forget to provide towels (along with soap & hot water sometimes) for the refs. Go figure! By the way, this is my husband modelling the apron. Isn't he a doll?!

I can't believe how quickly the weeks have passed since my last post. I have been busy at the sewing machine as well as several other activities. The highlight of my creative life lately was the AQS show in Des Moines in late October. I attended all four days of the show, three with my sister & one with the rest of the gals in my sewing group, Sew Much Fun. Besides the beautiful quilts and fantastic shopping, I attended a couple of interesting lectures, too. Ami Simms was the speaker one evening & she had everyone rolling in the aisles with her anecdotes. Nadine Ruggles, author of Inchie Quilts, gave a three-hour seminar about blogging. Now, don't you think that should have inspired me? She had excellent information for us, some of which I hope to incorporate into this blog (eventually). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay for the entire three hours as it was also my youngest grandson's first birthday party. Couldn't miss that now, could I?

Leave me a comment to let me know what you've been working on. The holidays are fast approaching & if you don't finish that project soon, you'll be caught up in making gifts for everyone else & it will have to wait until January.

Keep on stitchin'

Deb