Labels
I’m working on a few more posts about the dyeing but they aren’t quite ready.
This weekend I needed to dye the fabric for the back of a couple large quilts and I wanted a few more images for these posts, so my plan was to dye a couple yards just for demonstration. I’m not sure what happened but next thing I knew I had 70 yards in dye baths. Oops that wasn’t the plan, but more on dyeing tomorrow.
A while back someone (maybe Shelia?) asked me about how I signed and labeled my work so I took some photos last time I did labels.
I run off the labels with the title, my name, copyright symbol, email and website address on my computer printer. I iron the fabric down onto freezer paper and cut it 8.5" x 11". It likes to jam a lot so I sometimes tape this to a regular piece of paper to get it to actually feed through the printer. After printing I sign the label with a pigma pen.
These are the labels after I printed them - they generally coordinate with the backing fabric and you can see I use scraps left over from previous labels whenever possible.
I remove the paper, trim, and then turn the edges under:
As I currently have 15-20 quilt tops in need of quilting I’ve been basting a several quilts at once. These labels are for quilts recently finished or soon to be.
In addition to this fabric label, which is sewn to the back of the quilt, I also sign the front right hand corner with thread during the quilting. I generally use a matching thread color so the signature isn’t very obvious and won’t distract from the work. This signature is more permanent than the label and is very difficult to remove (although it’s doable - I’ve removed a few and redone them).
A collector bought my piece during the opening of Quilt National 2005 in addition to a smaller piece in the gift shop. Even though I had signatures on the work he requested to the staff that I sign the work again - so in the middle of the show I had to sign my name across the back of these 2 quilts in big sharpie marker. It felt a bit weird to write directly on the back of the quilts like that - almost like I was disfiguring the work, but if it made him happy, fine by me.
Structures #31 ©2004, 34"x53", in Quilt National 2005:
Posted by Lisa in: Quilting Process
Omega said,
November 21, 2006 @ 2:51 am
I have often had conversations about signatures with artist friends. Personally I don’t like a signature to intrude on the work (especially scrawled across large white margins round photographs!), but it seems that I’m in the minority, so I was interested to read of your collector’s request.
At present I prepare my quilt labels on the computer, including a scan of my signature, and then mirror the image before printing onto transfer paper. Then once on cotton, I turn the edges as you do and stitch on the back in the middle above the lower sleeve.
Now that I am successfully getting into shows and galleries, I might just rethink whether I should incorporate a signature into the original image - it would be really easy for me as it’s prepared on the computer and so the signature would be printed with the wholecloth.
Cynthia said,
November 21, 2006 @ 8:20 am
Very interesting…I had been playing around with printing on iron on fabric, but this looks nicer. I also scanned my signature in, but it looks mechanical.
I’d be interested in how you hang your work, does your work have stretcher bars in the back?
Pat said,
November 21, 2006 @ 9:02 am
Thanks for the photos, Lisa. The labels look much more professional than what I’ve been doing.
Lisa Call said,
November 21, 2006 @ 10:55 pm
Omega - I agree with not wanting the signature to intrude. I’ll photograph one and post it sometime soon.
Cynthia - I sew a fabric “sleeve”, basically a tube of fabric, to the back of the quilt then cut a wooden slat that slides through the sleeve. The slat has holes on the ends so you put a few nails in the wall and hang it up via the slat. I’ll take some pictures of how I make the sleeve at some point also. This is maybe my least favorite part of the quilt but it’s kind of nice because it is the last thing I do so it’s the “I’m done” feeling.
Pat - oh yeah - it was you that asked - sorry about that. I was going to go back and look but forgot. I’m looking forward to seeing your QN quilt - are there goal posts?
Pat said,
November 22, 2006 @ 9:25 am
That made me laugh — no goal posts on that one. But it is the season and I’ve saved your fabric football so that I get the proportions just so when I finally get around to that particular composition.
Lisa Call said,
November 22, 2006 @ 12:21 pm
Pat I’m slow - it took me a while to figure out what it was the season for. I’m clearly not a fan. But I’m expecting full credit the day the football appears in your work.