With my quilt idea, I took this to my local quilt shop and tried to find fabrics that would work. With the help of the employee we made one alteration from my design. Instead of light green we went with a light coffee color in linen. I was a bit skeptical about the brown but decided to trust our instincts, the fabrics looked great together so they should look okay in the quilt too. I couldn’t make a decision on the backing and binding fabric so I decided to think about that later.

I wanted to get this quilt done before my friends had their baby, so my deadline was mid August. Baby quilts so faster than throws so I thought I could manage. I also was going on summer vacation for a month and hoped I could finish before we left, cutting down my time to finish to mid July.

Sometimes, I am not the best at thoroughly reading descriptions. The fabric was actually from a wide bolt and was made of cotton/linen canvas, which is quite thick. The universe was on my side; the fabric was exactly the size I needed. The seller wrote all this in the description, but I didn’t read it far enough. She also wrote that it might not work so well with quilting since it was canvas., but I was determined to make it work.

I always prewash my fabrics, so I threw this in, ironed it out, and got to work with basting and hand quilting.

I realized that if I keep gifting quilts, I want my name to be attached to the things I make. As soon as you hand it off, you have no idea what life it will live. Quilts tend to be passed down or continuously given away, so I wanted to make sure who made it was known.

Many quilters add, in my opinion, huge labels to their quilts. I don’t like the look of them. The label shouldn’t be the main focal point. I wanted something simple and timeless. Do I make myself a brand or just use my name? Will it always be a hobby, or will I sell items at some point? Do I make social media accounts dedicated to my work or keep using my personal one? I had lots of questions to ask myself and created many iterations of possible label designs.

I finally landed on a design I liked, bought some iron-on paper, and printed a page. Luckily, our printer worked for this one page, but we don’t have the right printer for the iron-on paper, and I could have broken our printer. It was a good thing I did test prints before the final one, but I cannot make labels like this in the future. I will either need a new printer or find another solution. This is something to think about at a later time.

I bought rolls of linen and cotton that I ironed the labels onto, one white and one a natural color, so I could choose to match future projects. While working on the binding, I attached my new label.

I am amazed at how much it brought the finished quilt together. It was such a small detail, but it made the quilt feel even more real.

Thankfully I was able to complete this quilt before going on vacation and sent it on to its new home before the baby was born! They were so pleased and it fit their baby room perfectly! I couldn’t be happier.