cactusmomma

I take pictures of all my quilts and who they are for but that is as far as I go.

selm

The quilt album program is a great idea. I love keeping data in my computer(no paper) but advise all to keep a backup(I learned the hard way). I've always kept pictures of my quilts but have often wondered about the details(batting, etc) later too.
Thanks gramajo.

klswift

I take a picture, load it onto the computer, write a short note about it - date, size, occasion or person, approx. cost, anything weird in making it. I have one flash drive dedicated to quilts. Easier to retrieve and much smaller to save than a journal. I am SLOWLY working on getting all my to do list quilts onto the computer and out of the drawers, files, notebooks, stacks....around my workroom. And really deciding if they are really a to do item or just a passing thought!

donnajean

I keep a picture as well as a copy of the pattern. This really helps when I n to figure the cost of a quilt. Also keep an album for quilts on a flash drive and cloud for insurance purpose.

Bren

I have kept a journal of all my quilts since I started quilting 10 years ago. Each has a photo along with a photo of the label. Some have special stories or pics of the recipients included. The journal itself has a strip-pieced cover made of left over Thimbleberries fabrics over a 1 inch binder with clear sleeves. I have also made a couple of these journals for friends.

One was given several years to a dear quilting friend who
passed away earlier this year just 2 weeks before her 100th birthday! After I gave her the journal (which she loved) several members of our quilt group helped make and attach labels, then photographed each of her quilts and placed the pics in the journal. Her son, who is a very good friend, recently told me how much the family appreciated the journal when they were dividing her quilts among the heirs.

If you know someone who quilts, it's never too late to encourage and help them label, photograph, and journal their treasures.

Bree123

I never used to even photograph my quilts. My sister got me to start doing so after a quilt I made for her youngest. But it was my 4 year old niece (who LOVES quilting! I gave her a design wall for her birthday that she loves playing with) who inspired me to start keeping more information. I made her a little book that tells the story of her quilt being made -- fabrics, layout, tracing the applique shapes, construction, marking, quilting -- through Shutterfly; I still need to have it printed (I want to get one pic with her and the quilt together first) but documenting the process has been so wonderful. I'm thinking of doing that for all my quilts so that when people ask either "hey! Can I get one of those?" or "why are your quilts so expensive?", I can show them all the work that goes into it.

I also keep a couple spreadsheets that track my thread inventory & what fabrics I used in which quilt. I find this is especially helpful to do at the beginning so if I run out of something mid-project, it is fairly easy to source more of whatever I need.

oldtisme

I finally started a serious journal (serious as in the present quilt) instead of just who it's for without the picture downloaded and the total time it took me to make (including sewing, ironing, ripping out stitches etc.) The final quilt. I have an electric clock plugged into safe power strip that I now turn on every time I work on a certain quilt. These are all excellent ideas for a quilt journal! Thank you again QB people and friends.
Jeri