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Monday, October 5, 2020

Design Wall Monday - October 5, 2020



 Good Morning Quilters!  

This last week I made nine quilt labels.  I don’t know if you have trouble getting this last step completed, but I do.  However, the method I use gives me the best results without a lot of worries.  So I thought I’d share how I make labels.  

1) Cut pieces of freezer paper to 8.5” by 11” and iron them onto the fabric you want to use for a label (shiny side to fabric).  I used muslin fabric this week for all of mine.  After the freezer paper and fabric are nice and tight together and cooled, cut the fabric to match the size of the freezer paper.  

2) Take the fabric, now stiffened by freezer paper to the computer printer, and feed it in the paper supply tray so that the ink will print on the fabric side.  For my printer, I put the fabric in the tray with the fabric side down, and the freezer paper facing up.  Only load one sheet at a time.

3) On the computer, (I use Microsoft Word software) compose what you want to put on the label.  There are many fonts to choose from which makes it fun to experiment with different looks.  I save my final version into a Word file, so when I want to make another one, I have a template.

4) Print the label and hopefully your printer will feed the fabric just like a piece of paper.  (Only use this method if your printer is the ink-jet type.  Sometimes it jams and I have to start the process over, but this week all went well.  Pull the freezer paper off the back, and give the label a final press.  I press the four edges under 1/4 inch and give them a nice press.

5) Sew the label onto the back of your quilt.  Usually I sew the label into the bottom corner of the back left side.  Which means when the quilt is right side toward you, the label is behind the right bottom corner.  As with all things quilty, there are no hard and fast rules, but this is what I do.

One of the labels I made was for the quilt “Buds in a Basket” that I show below:  





























The only other step I should add to the 5 step process above is......(6) proofread the final label!  As I was getting ready to sew this label onto the quilt, I noticed I had printed the name of the quilt as “Birds in a Basket” instead of Buds!  Groan....I went back to the computer to print another version with the correct name,  Buds in a Basket.

Here is a picture of the labels I made before they are sewn onto the quilts:
















The Buds in a Basket quilt is now completely finished and I shall blog about it in my next post, as I am stoked that it is finally finished.

What are you working on this week?  I so enjoy looking at all the pictures, and going to your blogs to read more about your quilts.  Thank you for linking up with Design Wall Mondays.


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15 comments:

  1. At least you discovered the mistake before you sewed the label onto the quilt! I'm going to try your label method and see what happens. Happy stitching!

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  2. Getting the labels done can be a chore. I've learned to triple check spelling before I stitch the label onto the quilt. Looking forward to seeing your Buds quilt all finished up.

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  3. haha - I am glad you have a new buds quilt - thanks for the tute

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  4. does your ink stand up through washing a quilt? I used to try that and the ink would fade quickly. I got a product called Bubble Jet Rinse which you use to soak your fabric in, let it dry and then iron to the freezer paper and it keeps the ink from washing out. I haven't done labels like that for awhile though so don't know if the ink is still like that - I have gone through several printers since I did it that way last.

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  5. I've used that same process to make labels in the past. It worked great with my ink jet printers, but now I only have a laser printer and it isn't working as well to do this.

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  6. Your labels are just perfect, Judy.

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  7. Thanks for the little tutorial about labels, Judy. I use June Tailor printer fabric but it is quite expensive. I will give the freezer paper method a try!

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  8. Thanks for the tutorial on labels! I probably have about that many to label, I am bad at putting them on quilts I'm keeping, but always try to get one on a gifted quilt. Thank goodness I have my blog to help me date some of them.

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  9. I am guilty of not having added a label on a quilt for a long time... I try to free motion quilt my name, the date and the recipient/occasion on my quilts when I make them, but not always.. Well done for doing yours

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  10. Thanks for the run down on your labels. I hate to admit it but I have pretty much quit printing labels and putting them on my quilts. Have you seen what happens to the labels when you wash them? I wonder how many washing they last through. Any idea? I need to decide if I'm labeling a batch of quilts I'm sending to Washington for kids whose families have lost everything. Must keep my nose to the grindstone.

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  11. I've made my labels the same way, but found that they wash out unless I use special photo fabric. Am I missing something? Thanks! Margie/TN

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  12. That is so interesting, Judy! Does the printer ink stay in the fabric even if the quilt gets washed? Do you have to set it or treat it with anything? I tried printing on those specially treated fabric sheets from Electric Quilt a few years ago and was REALLY disappointed how badly the colors faded with the very first wash, even though I followed their instructions to a T. So I've been machine embroidering quilt labels, which is almost as slow as hand embroidering them by the time I digitize the label in the software, save it to the flash drive, sew out a test run, tweak the design/stabilizer/etc to correct problems, and then spend an eternity picking little bits of stabilizer off the back of the label. But I like to put my labels on BEFORE I bind the quilt, so that two sides of the label are secured by the binding stitches. I feel like it's more secure that way, and putting the label on before the binding means I can't ever procrastinate the label like I would if the quilt was bound and finished.

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  13. I'm a retired teacher and I can't how many times I have proof-read a handout or lab directions then gone to the copier and run a hundred+ only to find a mistake, sometimes on the first page. Grrr...not redoing all those copies. :)

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  14. I've used this method to make labels in the past. Since I've gifted the quilts, I don't know how well the ink stayed after washing but at least they had a label. I have kept a couple of quilts with an inkject label and the ink has faded a little after washing but they don't get washed often. Love the baby boy quilt!

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  15. That’s a great way to make labels! My mom usually embroiders mine for me, but this would be a nice way to knock out a bunch of them. Do you find that they fade with washing or does the ink set pretty well?

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I am always searching for new ideas and your feedback helps me learn how to do things better. Thanks for stopping by! Note that I am not on the computer daily, so responses to your comments happen when they happen.....I'm 80, and I hope allowances can be made. 😊