To Label or Not to Label - Conclusion

Thank you to everyone that commented on this post regarding whether or not I should label all of my finished quilts, including those that will be sold.  After reading all of the comments and putting some more thought into the subject, I have concluded that I really do want to label all of my quilts, both small and large, and not because I'm being guilted into doing it.  As many people pointed out, if nothing else, I should take credit for my work.  With all of the time and effort we put into our quilts, I certainly can't disagree with that argument.

I think the thing that was holding me back was that most of my quilts aren't made for a specific purpose and I don't know that a quilt I decide to keep today won't be sold 5 years from now.  I was afraid that a buyer wouldn't want a 5 year old quilt, for example, but I decided that as long as I identify the quilt as coming from my personal collection and the actual age and condition of the quilt at that time, I should be fine and can leave the original quilt label as is.  Basically, I didn't want to waste my time making and attaching labels only to have to remove or change them later.  That said, if I were to pull a quilt from my collection that is not a current quilt and I intend to give it as a gift, I would certainly remove the label and make a new one with personalized information for the recipient.  I don't make many gift quilts, so there shouldn't be too many "re-do's" of labels.  I don't add my labels until the quilting is done, and don't plan to change that practice, so if I sold a quilt and the buyer really didn't want a label on it, they could always remove it.  However, since my labels are removable, I think I will come up with some other small unique marking that I can inconspicuously put on all of my quilts to identify them as mine. 

So that's my conclusion on quilt labels.  I guess as soon as I'm back from vacation I best get cracking on catching up on my labeling because I am waaaaaayyy behind :-).  Now that I've finally settled on a "procedure" that I think will work for me, I'm anxious to get it implemented.  Thanks again for all of the input!

To Label or Not To Label - Opinions Please

Now that I have been finishing all of those small quilts lately, I am once again stuck with the dilemma of whether or not to make labels for all of them.  Truth be told, if I wasn't always reading about how you "have" to label each quilt you make for posterity sake, I'd consider them done when the last stitch was made in the binding and feel no guilt whatsoever about not adding a label.  That said, if there is special significance to a quilt, or it is a gift, I do make a label and have no problem doing so.

My dilemma is with all of the quilts that I make "just because", which is probably 99% of the quilts I make.  Since I have limited room and limited recipients for whom I would make a quilt, I'm guessing that most of quilts that aren't "must keep" quilts for me will end up being put up for sale eventually, and even some of those I keep may be sold eventually when newer ones  that are "must keeps" get added to the collection.  I'm working on a separate blog right now that will just be for selling.  I have extra stash to sell, both quilting and cross stitch, and will also post any quilts for sale as well, in addition to possibly putting them on Etsy.  As far as using a label to remember when I made the quilt, I already keep a journal where each quilt has a page with pertinant details about that quilt, including the finish date, so I've got that covered already.

So here are my burning questions:

• Do you feel that EVERY quilt you make must have a label and why?
• If you were to buy a quilt from someone else, would you want a label on it or not?  Please note, even if I were to put labels on quilts I sold, they would not be quilted in so the purchaser could easily remove the label and pass the quilt on as their own.  So that could happen whether I label the quilts or not.
• How do you feel about simply signing the quilt with a pigma pen, or sharpie?  I find this difficult because it's hard to write on a finished quilt, but if I remembered to do it before the quilt was finished, I could stabalize with freezer paper first.  Of course, that would mean that the quilt would need to be quilted and bound immediately instead of the top marinating in the drawer for several years before the quilt actually got finished.  I also find that I use alot of darker fabrics that I couldn't write on, so that is a problem too.  For a couple of quilts, I put all of the information on the back of the binding before I folded it over, so it's there, but hidden.  Again, that works great until you have a fabric too dark to write on.

 Thanks in advance for your opinions!  I really do struggle over this issue every time I finish a quilt!