Those Who Name Your Quilts
 

Do you try to think of names before you start? Up until now, I have not. However, lately I seem to be running out of ideas, so when I hear something that might be a good name, I write it down. I know some quilts "tell" us what they want for a name.

How about you?

I do not name all of my quilts just the ones that speak to me.

The quilt name comes to me in the most unusual moment. Labels too. I like to relate to the person that is receiving the quilt. Ladybug's Journey, my first quilt on the embroidery machine. Then four years later, Ladybug's Garden, the same design with different colors.

The label for my son's quilt popped in my head as I was driving home from the quilt shop. I pulled over to write it down. It was all about his fishing days. One quilt for a special first time Grandma included a full page letter about her stepping into the new role.

There is one quilt that is named and not finished. It is about butterflies and my mom. The label will include "and she gave me wings to fly" in tribute. Another quilt label includes mention of a special walk with a friend in his garden.

It is fun to play with ideas and give our quilts that special touch!

I generally have a working name for each project but rarely a fancy name, like right now I'm doing the "purple quilt" project. That's about the extent of my usual creativity as I look at the Dog quilt, the Halloween quilt, and the Valentine's quilt...

I'm finishing up one that is made of the traditional Flying Square block, I'm calling it "Not Quite Y2K" because I'm finally using my 1k or so of 2.5" Y2K squares along with some duplicates so it isn't Y2K in either fabrics or year. My fanciest quilt name was probably "Winter Dreams of Summer Skies" which was a broken dish design using black and about 20 shades of blue, and yes, pieced during the winter.

I've never named a quilt, and I've made a couple of hundreds of them. I haven't put labels on any either. Mine have all been just to keep people warm and were kind of pretty, colorful, and sturdily made. No winners, or even contestants in shows. But, I think it's great that y'all do. :)

I don't name most quilts, but those I do generally get named as I'm making them--like the "We don't need no stinking points!" quilt , or my "Every quilt I've ever made" (string quilt from all my brights).

This made me chuckle. Like you, the names come to me as I’m making the quilt. Some don’t speak to me so they don’t get names. I have a quilt that I made many years ago named Pointless. It pretty much was.

I name all my quilts. Many of my quilts are made for specific people or occasions. The titles are something about those. I did a mystery quilt in a class that had many, many flying geese. I named that one "Screw the Goose". My dad and brother raced midget race cars. I used racing photos printed on fabric to make him a quilt and named it "Continuing the Dynasty". I have to have a title to put on the label I always attach to the back of the quilt.

My 'memorable' quilts are usually named after the quilt is done, and the name is usually "The quilt from Hell!"

My niece did name one quilt that we both love, "The watermelon quilt" because one of the fabrics looks like fresh cut watermelon.

One quilt that I made is called, "My Mothers' Scraps" because it is made from her WOF scraps. It's small, but lovely to me.