Quilt Labels

The stashbuster topic of the week is quilt labels. I label all my quilts and don't consider them "finished" until that is done. Sometimes, if the quilt is really small, or if I am really busy and know that I won't have a chance (or the interest) to make a "proper" label, I just write on the back of the quilt with a Pigma pen like this label on the left.

I do prefer to have a "proper" label on all my quilts and it is my goal to make one for each quilt. The photo on the right shows the way I most often make my labels. I fold a square of light coloured fabric on the diagonal, write the quilt name, my name and the year on the triangle of fabric, and pin it to the bottom corner before I sew down the binding. Then I hand stitch the diagonal fold and stitch the label right into the binding.

Sometimes if the quilt is going to be submitted to a challenge or show, or if I really like the quilt and want to make the extra effort, I make a label to applique on the back of the quilt like the one on the left.

But my favorite method is a photo transfer label. You can see a label I made for a photo transfer quilt that I wrote about last month, by clicking here.

I have made a lap size quilt for my 11 nieces and nephews. For those quilt labels I made a transfer of a photo of myself and the baby/child and appliqued it to the back of the quilt. My sister once told me that when my niece Ellen was a preschooler, every night at bedtime she would look at the photo transfer on her quilt's label and say "Goodnight Aunt Kathy". I loved that story and have made the same kind of label ever since! Here is the one on the back of my nephew Matthew's flannel dog quilt.