The Skinny on Quick Quilt Labels

I love the beautiful labels that I see people making for their quilts. Many are quite the works of art!

Seriously though, labeling quilts often gets left to the last minute and forgotten. The information you put on your label helps future generations know its history!

What should you include on your quilt label? Here are a few ideas:

• Who made the quilt.
• What pattern was the quilt made from? 
• Who did the quilting?
• When was the quilt completed and where?
• Is the quilt a gift – include who it was made for.
• What was the occasion? Wedding, birth of a baby, retirement, anniversary, going to college….
• Care instructions.

At the most basic, include the name of the maker, where it was made and the date.

My friend Susan Marth (Suzn Quilts) shared this quick “Skinny” label technique with me a few years ago. There are two ways to do it.  

Freezer Paper Method

1. Iron freezer paper to the back of a fabric that you will able to see writing on. Like muslin or a lighter tonal print. 
2. Cut the paper and the fabric to about 8-1/2″ wide and 10-1/2″ – 11″ long.
3. Cut into 1-1/2″ x width strips.
4. Fold the strips and finger press the center along the length to get a line to follow when writing.
5. Write your information with a pigma pen, I like to keep the fold at the bottom of the writing.

Printable Fabric Method

1. I create a new document in Word or InDesign. Whatever program you have can work just fine.
2. I format the document so the the table cells are about 1-1/2″ high. You can get 7 cells on a 8-1/2″ x 11″ sheet.
3. I’m going to put text in every row.  I lighten up the line weight so it isn’t too dark. That gives me cutting and printing lines.
4. Then I center the text making sure I have at least 1/4″ above for seam allowance and that the text will be just above the fold line.
5. Then I print on fabric made just for inkjet printers. I like the EQ products but there are many on the market. You can also print on fabric that has been ironed to freezer paper (Inkjets ONLY).

Once you have your strip and it has the information you want on it, fold the ends right sides together and stitch. Clip the corners and turn right side out. Press in half.

Tuck the raw edges into the seam allowance before you stitch your binding to the back of your quilt. I like to use a little bit of Elmer’s School glue or Roxanne’s Glue Baste-It.