There is nothing like a looming deadline to light a fire under my tailfeathers and get me motivated! With this Friday being the grand hanging party for the quilt show, I need the finishing touches. Today I was sewing previously made labels onto a couple of quilts.
I believe in very simple informational quilt labels. They are there to document the facts for future reference. I'd like to hope that my quilts are well made enough to be around in a hundred years and maybe still attractive enough by then to be desired.
I have no children, just a couple of nieces and a nephew, and God knows they won't remember anything about my quiltmaking. So it's up to me to provide the data. I like including the dimensions of the quilt, and where it was made, as well as the date, and credits.
These Fons & Porter sheets work great in my inkjet printer, but they are very expensive, almost $30 bucks for a package of five sheets. So I type out four to a page in my old 2003 Office Word program and make sure that I choose the "B" for Bold type. It pays to print out a sample on regular printer paper first to verify spacing and spelling.
After they are printed, I iron the label very thoroughly to heat set the ink, then peel off the paper backing. The labels are quite stiff. I flip the label over, spray the backside with starch, and then turn back the raw edge a 1/4" on all sides and press them down.
Next I use some Elmer's Washable School Glue, (the clear stuff that is starch-based) to run a bead about 1/2" in from the folded edge on the back of the label, and put it into position to heat set it with a hot iron.
This holds the label VERY securely, even on cotton flannel, for when I am stitching it onto the quilt by hand. It is very tough sewing, but worth it! If you didn't see Windmills Of Your Mind before, here are some pictures of it.
Very soon, the Quilt Police will be here to arrest me for using all Civil War reproduction fabrics in a modern Strip & Slash type of design. I think it is Hidden Wells, but I'm not sure. I used Jenny Doan's video from The Missouri Star Quilt Company. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5Ixvjje310 to make this, but it is all authentic Civil War stuff.
Here are more labels on Humble Pie,
and on the huge Calliope Music, too.
That means I have only one left to label, YEAY!!!!!
I've also been using those weensy little Ocean Waves HST's as leaders & enders as I go along. Pressing and trimming them is quite an effort, so after I press a big-ish bunch, I'm very ready to sit down to trim the dogears. Whew!
When I get an Ocean Waves "A" block done, it looks so rumpled!
Here is exactly the same block after a good starching and pressing.
My piecing is far from perfect, but here is the front. Great, huh?
I got two done today! Yippeee!
And last night, at dusk when the breezes died down, I laid out those extra blocks that I'm adding on to the Twisted Ribbons (a.k.a. Snowball/9-Patch) Civil War quilt to make it bigger.
Here it is not yet sewn on the far right column and the very bottom row. I wanted to be sure that there was a fairly even color distribution.
You know, random placement???? LOL! Carefully placed random placement is more like it. I worked for 30 minutes switching blocks around!
Nice day for drying too.
I believe in very simple informational quilt labels. They are there to document the facts for future reference. I'd like to hope that my quilts are well made enough to be around in a hundred years and maybe still attractive enough by then to be desired.
I have no children, just a couple of nieces and a nephew, and God knows they won't remember anything about my quiltmaking. So it's up to me to provide the data. I like including the dimensions of the quilt, and where it was made, as well as the date, and credits.
Next I use some Elmer's Washable School Glue, (the clear stuff that is starch-based) to run a bead about 1/2" in from the folded edge on the back of the label, and put it into position to heat set it with a hot iron.
This holds the label VERY securely, even on cotton flannel, for when I am stitching it onto the quilt by hand. It is very tough sewing, but worth it! If you didn't see Windmills Of Your Mind before, here are some pictures of it.
I've also been using those weensy little Ocean Waves HST's as leaders & enders as I go along. Pressing and trimming them is quite an effort, so after I press a big-ish bunch, I'm very ready to sit down to trim the dogears. Whew!
Here it is not yet sewn on the far right column and the very bottom row. I wanted to be sure that there was a fairly even color distribution.
You know, random placement???? LOL! Carefully placed random placement is more like it. I worked for 30 minutes switching blocks around!
Nice day for drying too.
1 comment:
more fabric? more quilts? it's all gorgeous!
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