These are all wonderful suggestions. But for someone who has yet to put even a label on my quilts it all sounds a little daunting. But then I've never been one for keeping up journals. However, in thinking about a quilt my grandmother made obviously from old coats, it would be kind of fun to know where she got the fabric, whose coats were these.

I think the absolute minimum that a quilt deserves is:

the makers' name, location, and year completed - somewhere on the quilt

I always hand embroider my initials and year on the back - hadn't thought about location though - guess I should as I've moved a fair bit in my life and probably not done moving yet!

that's so if someone wanted to research it, they'd have a chance at finding out something.

Hard to imagine anyone being that interested in my stuff when I'm gone - probably end up in a thrift store! But that's probably what our foremothers thought so, ya never know! :D

who knows?

I know so little of my family history - my parents were divorced when I was a baby - and my mom didn't talk about anyone - and my Grandma B would talk about the 18th cousin twice removd three marriages away - so I just kind of tuned her out - wish I'd paid better attention now-

My Grandma B made some great utility quilts - I'm only now starting to appreciate them.

Yeah, I wish I'd had a tape recorder running when my Gran was talking too. Too late now...

I have been told that I put my life story on mine, but I want someone 100 years from now to know who, and when, etc. I sometimes even put why I used a certain fabric.

I think we're starting to mix up what Pam was talking about - Quilt Journal - and the Label on the back of the quilt. I agree with Bearisgray about the absolute minimum for the label. For the LABEL, I usually include My name for the quilt, who I made it for, the event (wedding, baby usually), and 'machine pieced and quilted by [my name, city, state]' and the year.

i think date when completed, where, for whom, relationship to that person,
occasion, your name and age (sorry about that, i think it's important), so it would look something like this:

made by butterflywing, age 66, for her daughter, sondra flite, age 46, and her husband, michael, on the occasion of their new home ( 45th birthday, etc.) in 2009, in the city of birdsong, chickadee.

this way, there is a real family history that gets handed down with the quilt. you know what my name was, who my daughter was, where we lived, our ages in what year (you can figure out our birth years) and you know that she bought a new home that year. if you're interested, you can know that there were no children. also, if other quilts follow, there is a continuation of the history of that family.