I found printable sheets of cotton from The Electric Quilt Company, a product and brand listed in the resources section of Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. I ordered some and came up with this design for my own personalized labels, using one of my self-portrait doodles and a project from JH’s book. They look incredible; I was worried that the design on fabric would be unrecognizable. The sheets are smooth and the print quality is just like paper. They were so easy to use.

Alannah’s blanket (which she’ll be getting at her first birthday party today) is the first to get a label. I think they’re great. I sewed fusible interfacing to the label (right sides together, just like the JH project), turned it inside out, and ironed it to the blanket. I still have trouble with blindstitch, so I just ironed it. I hope it stays put!

Two things I learned doing this:

1) They shrink when you soak them in water, so the labels do come out smaller.
2) I used polyester batting and put the label on after this blanket was made. Ironing at the temp needed to fuse on the label also sort of flattened the batting around the label. So in one corner my nice lofty blanket fused into a sort of pancake. I still love it and think it’s great, but next time I will put the label on before I sew the whole piece together with the batting. Live and learn.