Labels for quilts

I helped several people working on documenting quilts from their states as part of a historical record.  Many of the quilts we discovered did not have the maker's identity on them,  Sadly, this is the case for most antique quilts.  Because of that, I think that every quilt you make should have a label on the back with your name and the date.  Other things you can add are the name of the quilt, the person you gave the quilt to, a picture of the quilt or yourself or the recipient, a short story about the making of the quilt, or your city or contact information.

When I first started making quilts, I hand embroidered my name on the lower right back corner.  I started out using chain embroidery stitch and embroidery floss.  I changed to back-stitching with embroidery floss and still do that sometimes.  Here is my very first quilt signature:

(Did you notice that it took me 17 years to complete this quilt?  Yes, it was a long time.)

Lately, I've enjoyed doing the label in the Word program and printing it on inkjet ready fabric.  I try to match the color of the label to the color of the quilt.  But not always.  It's super easy to do that in Word.  Here are a couple of examples.

Sometimes, it's fun to include a picture of the recipient or the honoree on the label.  Here are some examples of that:

After I print the label, let it dry and iron it,  I stitch it to the back of the quilt by hand.

Some of my friends have labels made on embroidery machines and these are quite beautiful.  And other friends hand write out their labels with pigma pens.  Some of these labels are quite large.  But they tell the full story that stays with the quilt.  It's so fun to read those story labels.

I hope you remember to label all of your quilts too.