How to Gift a Quilt

Welcome to our series exploring the basics of quilting! Last time, we discussed ways to bind a quilt. Next time, we’ll be looking at strip piecing. To see all the posts in this series, click here.

Hi friends!

In today’s Exploring the Quilting Basics post , Tammy and I are talking about gifting your quilts.

Do you make quilts as gifts? or to sell? Or for yourself?

I do all 3. Plus I make quilts to test patterns I have written, to be pattern covers, quilts to be in magazines or for a class I am teaching…. so many quilts! And when I am making a quilt, whatever the reason, one thing I try to do every time is make a label.

Try being the operative word!

Step 1: Make your Quilt Label

There are many, many ways to make a quilt label- some quilters I know use their embroidery machine to create beautiful labels, some use permanent pens and write their labels and many quilters don’t make labels at all!

For me, because I have a computer and access to an InkJet printer, I start by printing my labels. It is pretty easy to do.

I print the labels on fabric made for the printer. There are a lot of different versions of printable fabric on the market. I use one that is washable (watch out for ones that are dry clean only!). I don’t use fusible fabric because I hand sew my labels to the back of the quilt.

(I know- for many this is already a nonstarter! You can follow part of my process and just fuse the labels.)

You can also make your own printable fabric with freezer paper- check out this tutorial.

Since the fabric is the same size as a sheet of paper, I like to make 3 or 4 labels at once. I have set up a document in Pages (Word would also work). When I am ready to make new labels, I can pull up the file, change the names and other information and print.

Step 2

Once I have printed the page with all the labels, I remove the paper backing and cut them apart. Sometimes the backing is easy to remove, other times not so much. Soaking the label in cold water can help remove the backing and for some products, they suggest doing this anyway to remove an excess ink.

I use leftover binding from the project to make a cute little frame around each label. I cut the binding in half lengthwise and cut to size for the label.

Next, I cut a piece of leftover white or light fabric that is the size of the label. I layer them right sides together and sew all around the 4 sides, leaving a small opening on one side to turn the label.