(mini-tut) quilt tags

My Mother-in-Law makes quilts for all of her grandkids for several occasions...She has 15 grandkids, so you can imagine that with making quilts for them when they're born, when they're baptized, etc, she's made a jillion!  I've always loved that when she gives a quilt to someone she always puts a label on the back of it, so they know who it was from.  

It's my favorite.  

So, since she taught me to quilt, I've been adding labels to my quilts.  I thought I'd share how we do it!

Here's that darn It's a Hoot quilt again...I think that'll be the last you see of it...maybe :)

We start out by designing our tag in a program called Print Shop.  I'm Photoshop illiterate as of now, but you could totally do things with that instead.  Print Shop is just a way simplified version of photoshop...kind of. 

Anyway, I found an image of an owl on google images, and then added some text...Here is what I came up with:

We print our tag image out onto T-shirt transfer paper like this:

When you print it out, make sure to print it in reverse for transfer images...there's usually just a little box to click and your printer will automatically do it...

After you've printed it out, just trim around the tag, as closely as you can with scissors.  

Following the package's instructions, iron your tag, print side down onto a piece of white fabric...most of the time we just use cheapy muslin, making sure to leave about a quarter of an inch border of fabric around the tag.    

 

Peel off the paper backing and this is what you get:

I decided that since I had lots of scraps left, I'd throw a border around my tag.  ( I don't generally do this.)  But I thought it would be fun in this case...you can do whatever you want to your tag!

After all the borders are on, fold the edges in a quarter of an inch, or more underneath and iron it to it will stay.  See pic below:

 here's the front view:

Pin your tag onto the back of your quilt.  I usually put it on the bottom corner, but you could put it wherever you'd like!

use the whip stitch that we used in the faux-tie tutorial here to hand-stitch the tag onto the quilt...being careful to only go through the backing fabric.  

voila...nothing fancy, but it's so fun to remember who made you a quilt and for what occasion.

Here are some more examples:

Do you put tags on your quilts??

shared at some of these linky parties!