Quilt of Valor Labels - Brookings Style

Our labels are silk-screened.  DO NOT IRON!  They finger press very easily.

The first thing I do is to trim the white edges to 1/2”.

Second - finger press a 1/4” inch along the blue edge; pin the folded edge to itself.

You can sew your binding onto the front side of the quilt, as usual.  You are ready to add the label.  

But if you have finished binding the quilt, you can simply fold back all the label sides and hand appliqué it to the quilt corner.

Line up the label on the back of the quilt with a bottom corner.  Pin closely into place (3x the amount of pins in the picture!!)  Keep the pin heads on the outside edge as shown.

Turn the quilt over.  You can see the seam line you sewed the binding on with.  You want to start securing the label by sewing between the seam line and the edge.  Begin and back stitch just above the first pin, Sew to 1/2” from the corner removing the pins as you go, knot.  

Be careful not to sew through the corner, it will catch the folded binding, that’s no good, trust me!   

Start again 1/2” from the corner and sew between stitching and the edge to the last pin.

You’ve added another layer of fabric to the quilt sandwich, so it helps to clamp the binding in place.

You can now sew the binding by hand or machine as if the label is simply part of the quilt.  After the binding is sewn past the label, you can hand sew the blue edge of the label to the quilt.  Keep it as taut as you can.

When the Veteran for the quilt has been announced (usually a month before the presentation) we finish the label.

We label the quilt by hand with a Pigma Pen.  (Found at Wright’s Custom Framing and Art). I use 05 or 08 size.  Any smaller point catches on the fabric.  Do NOT write with a Sharpie, it will bleed.

I also practice my label on paper so I can determine where to start and stop before putting pen to fabric.  I also check my spelling.

Although the quilt is soft, if it's on a hard surface when you add the information to it, it works well. 

With a light touch, we usually write the Veteran’s full name but just the first names of the quilters.  In the bottom triangle in the corner we add the year when the quilt is presented.

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