i want to make a friendship quilt for a 14 yr old relative for xmas. one that will have signatures of her friends, family. must the sigs be embroidered over the writing or can i just give her a good pen and let her gather sigs herself?
on the antique friendship quilt that i have all the sigs are embroidered.
thanks for your advice in advance.

I think that it can be done however you want it :D I think it is like many others have said here, it is your quilt do it the way you want! :D :D :D

I think signing the blocks would work just fine nanabird. Just be sure that they use a permanent fabric marking pen. She'd hate to lose their signatures/sentiments after a washing or two. What a sweet gift this will be!!

Hi, I made one and everone signed with a perm. pen i washed it and it was fine happy quilting

Oh, almost forgot. Even though the pen says "permanent", I'd heat set the writing with a hot iron just to be sure. :)

I just got done making a memory quilt for my Mother who is retiring in November. I went to the quilt shop and bought a pigma pen and all of her coworkers signed it. I can't wait until she sees it. Some of the other links say not to use a sharpie pen as it might damage the fabric. If you are going to do this please get a pigma pen.

yes, definitely i will give her a couple of pens from the quilt shop.
thanks for the reminder. she is a teenager and they can be a bit airy :D

oh by the way, i'm sure your mom is going to cherish her quilt. that's a good idea.

I used a pigma pen on my husband's 50th birthday quilt. It worked great no bleeding I used a 05.

Just a suggestion but it might be a good idea to iron a piece of frezzer paper the size you want to allow for writing onto the back of the fabric. This prevents writing being lost in the seam allowance and also stabilizes the fabric and makes it much easier to write on. Non quilters don't always understand about leaving enough fabric for seams. Gives a simple guide, you can just say write where the paper is :D .

Wonderful tip Shelly, you are sew right about the seam allowance! :mrgreen: What a great way to remind everyone and to also make it easier for them to sign the blocks :D :D :D

You could also accompany the quilt blocks with a piece of very fine sandpaper which can be positioned under the area to be signed. I use sandpaper with the 4Hers I teach when they have to draw the diagonal line for half-square triangles. You might also suggest that the signer write slowly.

Sounds like a wonderful gift idea for a teenager.

Suzanne

My sister made me one several years ago and all of my siblings and their spouses and children signed it with a fabric marking pen. It isn't necessary to embroider the names, just a pen will work.

Great tips Shelly and Suz! Thanks. :)

thanks for all the good ideas. i think kayla will love the quilt with the sigs of all her pals.

Maybe you could throw a small Halloween party for her, as part of the evening you could hand out the squares and pass the perma pens around. That way you could get in on the fun of seeing them have fun with the squares and also supervise positioning of the autographs. Maybe capture a few photos that you could transfer along with the autographs. When you're done you can have candy apples :thumbup: :D :D :D

that is a good idea.