A tutorial, a contest and a whole lot of quilting pictures!

O.K. I've got lots to post about today, but first I want to remind you that you have just over a week to get as many quilts labeled before my giveaway. You'll get the same amount of entries into my contest for each label you make and post about. I'm going to give the winner some fabric (probably some fat quarters or charm packs, not sure what yet, but if you win you will get to tell me what style of fabric your little heart is desiring and I will surprise you with a little somethin' special!) The rest of the details about the contest (& where to leave your comments to enter) are here.

So, some of you may be wondering how do I make a label? I've talked about it a couple of times before (and it's not too hard to figure out) but now I've got a couple of pictures to help you see what to do. Call it a tutorial, if you will, but it's quite easy I tell you.

First, pick a font on your computer that is kind of simple and will be easy to embroider. Print out the information you want to be on your label. It's nice to include who or what the quilt was made for, who made it, the year it was made, the city & state you're from (think about what info. someone generations down the road might like to know if they accidentally stumbled across your quilt and wanted to know the history of it.) See, like this:

I printed out the next 3 labels I want to make all on one paper.
Next, you will want to use a light box or tape your paper up to a window (which is what I have to do.)


Using a water soluble fabric marker, trace the words onto your fabric.

Then put your fabric into an embroidery hoop and trace over your words with two strands of embroidery floss using a simple stitch. I like the back stitch. Like so:

After you've embroidered all of the words take the fabric out of the embroidery hoop and cut down your fabric 1/4" bigger on each side than the desired finished size of your label. Make a template out of freezer paper (I used thin cardboard in this instance) that is the finished size of your label. Iron over the edges of your fabric onto the template (using a little starch) to make nice, crisp edges.

Take the template out and there you go! You've got a handmade label.

Stitch the label onto your quilt using a hidden stitch and You. Are. Done. See? Not a big deal.

Now, speaking of that label. I've got a few pictures I want to share. Remember this mystery quilt? Well, we've given it to it's special recipient. Any guesses who it could be for? That's right! Gigi. My grandma (who taught me how to quilt). We gave it to her at our family reunion last week and here are some pictures:

My cute SIL, Brittany, gives all the great details and tells what my grandma said about the quilt after we gave it to her over on her blog, so you can click here if you want to read about those things, see more pictures, and find out how we worked out the details of doing this fun family project together.

Before we gave the quilt to my grandma though, we did a quick little quilt show showing some finished products from our Americana family quilt block exchange we had a couple of years ago. That is me with my quilt on the left and my grandma with her quilt on the right. Oh, man. I was so sad after seeing my grandma's version because it was a million times better than mine. I just didn't put the time and energy into coming up with something cute for it and now I really regret it. I love her dark blue sashing and light blue posts and borders. Her sawtooth border is fabulous too. Then to top it all off she did custom quilting on hers and it is just beautiful now. I really wish I would have put the extra time and money into making it cute. Oh, well. Live and learn.

My mom is almost done with her quilt top and here is a picture of hers. Looking good mom!

It's fun to have quilting stories involving 3 generations of family members. What good memories!