meyert

I am working on a memory quilt. I will be adding in other fabrics with the clothing - to fill it out and make the appearance a little nicer. I was wondering if anyone here had an idea of how to mark the quilt blocks that were actually cut from the clothing - as an identifier. I was thinking maybe a tiny little heart ? or initials even?? But I don't know that the best technique would be to accomplish this Any ideas?

PaperPrincess

Don't know what kind of sewing machine you have, but if you have some fancy stitches, there might be a heart (or a flower etc.). I have a Viking and there's an outlined one and a satin stitch one. If you have a computerized machine, you may be able to automatically stop after one iteration of the design. If not, you can just sew very slowly and do just one.
Another idea would be to hand embroider a tiny "X", like a kiss, in the appropriate blocks.

Tartan

Do you want them to be visible for the recipient or just for identification while sewing? For sewing I would just write inside the seam allowance. For the recipient I might see if I could find some ready made embroidery details that could be stitched to pieces after the top is together. If you had an embroidery machine you could do them yourself. If not I would look at Michaels for little bows, ribbon rose buds or kiss embroideries. You might even be able to look in the bead department for little hearts etc. to sew on.

HillCountryGal

Depending on the age of the person the clothing belonged to...
The 1st thing that comes to mind is a tiny heart on each piece of fabric. Or possibly a butterfly.

meyert

I want the mark to be visible.. I am cutting up some of my nephew's blue jeans for some patches but will have to include to some filler jean material to complete the quilt. So I thought it would be nice for the patches that were actually cut from his jeans to be identified somehow - - so when his little brother and sister or mom and dad are looking at or using the quilt there will be no doubts which are from his jeans. I love the idea of the "X" for a kiss... I will have to think about hand embroidering... that may take me some time. I will check out Michaels... and look at my sister's sewing machine to see what options it has....Thanks for the ideas I am glad that I asked

meyert

My nephew was only 18 when we lost him in an auto accident... so young but not juvenial

meyert

How about some kind of fabric paint - has anyone ever used something like that? I am picturing a stamper to quickly mark each block....

Scissor Queen

They make rubber stamp ink that's for fabric. And there are thousands of rubber stamps. Maybe you could find a few stamps that would represent some of his interests? That would make the blocks special instead of just having a mark on them.

meyert

Thank you for your reply.. have you used this technique before? I wonder if the fabric stays pliable and soft or if it becomes stiff

meyert

Scissor Queen - would the ink work on jean fabric or would the jean fabric be too dark? (I do have some light jean fabric that I am sure will be fine its just the darker jean that I am wondering about)