In place of embroidery, I've also seen people piece a label into the backing fabric. You can have SpoonFlower print up fabric with your labels & then piece that into your back. But embroidering or appliqueing their name on the front is also a good idea. I know my great grandma would forget to check the back of the quilts. She knew her quilt was labeled, but would forget to flip it over once Alzheimer's set in. Her retirement home also suggested that family members keep photos of important items to help in the event they got misplaced or there was a dispute. That came in handy on more than one occasion. If you can, get a pic of Mom with the quilt.
Can you ask your mom/MIL if they had any quilts as children? Maybe recreating a favorite pattern from their childhood would be fun -- plus who doesn't love hearing quilt stories?! :P All of the ideas for patterns so far would be lovely, but picking something familiar to your mom/MIL would have 2 benefits: it will bring back happy memories (giving them something positive to talk about), and if their memory starts to go, they are more likely to remember that it's their quilt.
Last edited by Bree123; 09-28-2014 at 11:59 AM.