How to Attach a Quilt Label so the History is Preserved

Quilt labels are really one thing that you should get in the habit of putting on your quilts or projects.  I’m not the best at remembering these.  There is so much excitement about finishing the quilt that often times the backside gets forgotten.

Has there been times when you have found a quilt and you have no idea where it is from?  This happened to me a few years back when we were going through my Grandma’s home while she was moving.  There was a quilt.  No label.  Hand quilted.  Little lamb on the front that had some fabric coloring on it and then quilted in an outline.  She had no memory of what it was and where it came from.

I took it home and it sits on a shelf in the living room.  That’s what happens when there is no label.  The story is lost.

So today- let’s get some instruction on putting the label on.  It’s not that hard and it really doesn’t take that much time to do.  It’s not like the binding!!

How to Attach a Quilt Label~

1)  You can piece the blocks into the back {if you are piecing the quilt back} or you can use a seperate block and sew it on.

If you are sewing your label on you can add it before the quilting and it will be quilted on, or if you don’t like that you can sew it on after the quilting {covering up a little bit of those stitches}  Either way will work.  If you want your label to be on a specific corner though, make sure you tell your quilter so they can line it up properly.

2)  Fold under all the edges 1/4-1/2 and then stitch them down to the back.  Iron them before you begin to help keep the hem under and in place.  Use pins to keep them in the right spot- the label will shift on you and you’ll find it all crooked when your done!

Hand stitch the edges of the label using a ladder stitch {tutorial found here}:

Or machine sew with a tiny zigzag stitch, but remember that if the quilt has already been quilted, the stitching will show on the front.

3)  Use a sharpie or permament marker and sign your name, date, who it was quilted by, name of the quilt + any other information you might like to add.  You can do this before you sew it down to make sure everything is spelled right also.  I know there are a few of you with fancy sewing machines that do a beautiful job of embroidery use it!  Since I am not a fancy gal, I use a sharpie marker.

Now the fun thing about this is– your quilt label can be simple fabric with folded edges (kind of boring!) or it can be something fun and unexpected- like a quilt block.  I am pretty sure you can dig through your pile of unfinished quilts or projects and find a finished block that was never finished into a quilt.  If that’s the case — I would make some money if I bet on it!– you can use those!

Here is another tutorial for adding a separate quilt block for the label on the back.

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