Saturday, June 26, 2010

Print, Peel, Stick

Thirty quilt labels is quite a few to make and sew on.  What to do?.  What to do? I need something quick, easy and durable. Something with three easy steps would be good!  Linda posted about making computer generated labels recently.  I decided to give it a try. Here's what I did...................... 
Armed with a 40% off coupon, I visited my local JoAnn Etc. for some Printed Treasures products as Linda suggested on her blog, Flourishing Palms. I found several kinds available. She suggested a sew in variety I discovered when I got back home.  Oops!  I got the wrong kind.  Well, I decided to try it anyway even though the instructions inside said NOT Machine Washable! I reasoned that was only because the variety I purchased was not meant to be sewn on like I was wanting to do. 
Not having the computer program that Linda suggested, I next surfed the Net for a clip art image that I thought would work for my purposes.  I chose a watermark image that I could put words on top of.  Because I couldn't figure out how to make multiples of the image onto one page, I just taped 6 copies together and used that as my original to photocopy. Hey, whatever works, right!
I was a little worried that the fabric covered sheets might not go through my printer very well. But, had no problems there.  So far, so good.  Then I discovered that I didn't have enough sheets to make all 30 labels.  Back to JoAnn's with another coupon. I decided this time to get the sew in kind that Linda suggested.  Back home again, I found that my printer hated this type and refused to do anything buy flash "error" at me.  Back at the store for the third time, I was able to exchange the package out for the "wrong kind"  and print out more labels.
Ok.  So, I printed, peeled and stuck a label on one quilt to test my theory that they really were  machine washable as long as I also top stitched around the outside. (Guess I really should have done that before I printed off all the labels, huh?)  Here's the final result after a run through the washer and dryer. Whew!  It worked. Today we will be labeling all the quilts for the kids.
Here's the front side of the labeled quilt.  It is the first mystery quilt that I made with Bonnie Hunter. It got me hooked on those online mystery quilts for several years.  I'm happy to share it with one of the kids at New Hope Homes.

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