Good Morning, Quilters!
Looking for a great way to personalize your quilts? Use your handwriting! There are a variety of ways you can use handwriting in quilting.
First, mark your quilts with evenly spaced lines (Chalk is my favorite marker) and stitch rows of cursive as a background fill. Stitch a song, poem, or recipe, or list the recipients favorite things.
Another way to personalize a quilt–tuck little messages in among the other quilting motifs. Tell the recipient “You, are the bees knees!” or “I’m over the moon for you!”
I love this technique. Not only does it add a personal note, it records YOUR handwriting.
YOUR family will cherish the quilt forever!
What about YOU?
Have YOU ever added a hidden message in a quilt?
What did you write?
We’d LOVE to hear!
Lori
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks!
54 comments
Pam Hotle
I made a birthday table runner and all the quilting was cursive handwriting. Words like: celebrate, happy birthday, family, love, happy birthday to you. I suppose my grandchildren won’t ever be able to read it since they don’t teach cursive in school anymore.
A few years ago the grand prize winner at the Quilt Festival in Houston made a quilt that had all kinds of patriotic words: The Declaration of Independence, Preamble to the Constitution. I don’t remember what all but it was amazing. A huge quilt and all quilted on her domestic machine.
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Sounds really cool!
Kathy Callahan
Yes I have added messages such as “soar” “fly high” “reach for the stars” in a grand nephews quilt. It was fun to do
ROBIN RODRIQUEZ
I like to add parts of scriptures to the quilts (HUGs) we make in the guild’s Charity Bee, such as Jeremiah 29:11.
Annette
I made my grandsons a Jelly Roll Race Halloween quilt and added ‘Happy Halloween’ and related words such as boo, ghost, scary, cat, bat, trick, treat, etc.to the quilting design in many rows. They love searching for the words.
Julia Parrino
My best friend and I have both lost a son to addiction. I made quilts for her daughters with words of encouragement in the solid block, as well as their brother’s name. They love them.
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How lovely to be able to wrap them in love! I am truly sorry for your loss.
scrappychris
Love the handwriting idea! Before I got smart about labels I made quilts with no labels and am now going back to make labels…One, though, I was very clever and made a quilt for my husband as he was stationed in Turkey for a year and wanted a quilt for his bed so I made one I called Amish Army. It was a very traditional Amish pattern but did it all in colors from the “forest” camo they wore at the time. I put a big black border and in the border I hand quilted the names of all the places we had been stationed at up to that point. I used large cardboard plain simple letters.
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Very cool! A family heirloom with a lot of family history!
annieofbluegables
I’m not sure if I can guide my hands this beautifully but I will consider this in future quilts
Lois weissberg
My daughter once made a bet with her brother in law that the White Sox wouldn’t be at the cardinals. She lost and made a White Sox quilt and all through it she wrote Go Cards!
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Hilarious!!!! A family heirloom to be sure!!!
Kristine
I wrote a sentence on the language of flowers, on the modern quilt on the flowers : violet.
You can see here : https://quilteuseforever.wordpress.com/2015/06/11/les-violettes-sont-fanees/
“Bouquet de Violettes, Amour Secret… ”
I love wrinting with quilting in my quilts !
Karen
I wrote words of encouragement, prayer, and love on my friend’s cancer quilt.
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I’m sure she loves it!
lilquilter
A few years ago at my quilt guild’s annual retreat, we did a 1600 jelly roll race. I cut 2 1/2″ strips from my stash of pink, tan, brown and mint green tone-on-tones and prints with ice cream cones and other sweets to make the quilt top. I quilted words describing ice cream flavors, cookies, candy bars, cakes, etc. in the tone-on-tone strips and ribbon candy in the prints. Fun!
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That is fun!!
Verna A.
I made a quilt for my father-in-law and quilted his grandchildren’s names in some of the blocks!
Jenny Crossland
Recently made a quilt for my niece and started writing on it. At times I found it easier to quilt it backwards from right to left!! great way to involve others, asked family for their favorite says or quote, very interesting.
Well done on such a varied blog
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I bet your niece loves it!
Sandra S Clarke
I have 3 granddaughters and I’m making them each a Sticks & Stones quilt. I have a list of words to describe each one and where they are at in their lives right now. Amazing to see how alike in some ways and how different they are just by these words. Can’t wait to get it on the quilts.
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They will love these quilts!! Love letters from their grandmother!
Linda kelly
I made a quilt for my sisters 60th birthday and in the machine quilting I wrote the names of her 2 little angel grandchildren who died after premature birth. I also sewed 2 tiny angel buttons on the quilt just next to their names. She was so overwhelmed that I acknowledged them in this way and it is her secret comfort.
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I love how we can make our quilts personal in that way!
Janette
Found fabric years ago the line was pieces of hope…….in honor of autism…..made the quilt. Did straight line quilting with every fourth line l wrote pieces of hope. Then l donated the quilt.
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How lovely!!!
ADKKATE
Did this on “A Night Before Christmas” quilt that I made for my granddaughter. Cut the panels apart that were to be made into a cloth book and fashioned a quilt. Last square added my name and date doing this.v
Mary
I do guilting for my guild’s “patriotic” committee (the quilts go to vets at a local VA hospital). I often tuck secret words in the quilting, like: strong, honor, valor, mighty, tough, proud, grateful, and so on. My hope is they find a word and it gives them a tiny bit of inspiration in that moment.
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Great idea!!!
Pam P
I did a series of small quilts for the local quilt shop. I stitched the designer’s name and the quilt name in one of the borders. The border was built-in spacing. Love the idea of writing recipes on a food related project!
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Wouldnt that be cool!!
Pat V
I was at a loss for a background fill for a koala bear baby quilt. Also tired and ready to be finished. So I quilted baby boy stuff around the koala: snips and snails, trucks and trains, etc. It was easy to do and fairly stream of conscience. I thought I was cheating. Now looks like it is an acceptable technique. Thanks for legitimizing my short cut.
Lori Hope
I’m finishing a quilt for a friend who suffered a TBI this spring, and I’m going to use this idea to put a message of encouragement in the quilting. Thanks, Lori!!
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Lovely! Best wishes to your friend!
Heartland Honey
I almost always quilt sayings or some forms of inspiration in the “busy” fabric portions of my quilts. You don’t necessarily see them unless you’re looking for them.
I recently heard from someone I’d made a quilt for, about 8-years ago, that told me she “found” sayings on her quilt. Prior to that she wasn’t aware the writings were even there. She said she’s been searching to see what else I wrote, LOL.
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Lol!! So much fun!
Mary
I made a “C” qullt for my daughter Christine and quilted as many
positive “C” words I could come up with.
A baby quilt with a made up poem
Quilt for grand daughter with words denoting positive qualities.
Lines from a poem on a wedding invitation onto a wedding quilt
For guests to sign.
…
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Love it!!
dioneags
My close friend moved to Africa. I got her friends and family to write one line messages that I stitched onto a quilt for her to take with her. Making the quilt was one way I dealt with the loss.
Phyllis
On my daughter’s king size quilt I wrote her name and her pet’s names. Did the same for my brother’s. For my friends and her family I wrote all of their names on separate ice cream cones that were appliqued on the quilt.
Jan Beyer
When I give a baby Quilt, I write Jesus loves George. and His birth date
Love this idea.
,
Kathryn Otto
I made a quilt for my dog and wrote the history of all the dogs that I have had over the years.
Susan G
My very first machine quilted project was for my dog. I was too intimidated to try machine quilting on a project for a friend, so I made a sofa quilt for her. I quilted her name in diagonal rows across the quilt. It was a great way to practice.
Many years and many quilts later, I am preparing to quilt a wedding quilt that will have a row of books down the middle. In the background, I will quilt text from their favorite books and sayings. Thank you so much for your inspiration.
Cathy Campbell
Love this idea! I have stitched the person’s first/last name within quilting before but really like the idea of putting more messages, etc. Tks!
Mary
I just finished a quilt for a friend. The focus fabric was rows of cats. I alternated it with strips of black. I used all the colors in the focus fabric to quilt balls of yarn in the black strips. Some of the tails of yarn spelled out “meow’ or “purr”. I also used the middle black strip to spell out the name of the quilt, ‘Kittens at Play”. Thanks, Lori for giving me the confidence to design my own free motion motifs.
Mary
My kids’ college quilts borders contain various thoughts from me. These range from “eat your vegetables ” to ” call home ” to “dream”. Once I started thinking about what to add, the trouble was in not overwhelming the quilt with them!
Pat
I love this idea and would like to do more of it! Right now I have been writing my name, date, and city as a replacement for a label.
Blanca Rico
I usully personalize the table mats with greetings, food recipes, etc.
susanstitch
I put a 2″ solid inner border around the body of quilts I make for my grandkids and I write a personalized message to them in it! As babies of course they can’t read it, but I hope someday it will be a meaningful memory of me!
Valerie Duff
My dad’s birthday was this week. I made a quilt with an applique’d guitar and quilted the lyrics to songs I remembered him singing with us kids over the years.
Lynn
That’s so sweet!
Deb Peterson
I made a tablerunner as a wedding gift and included the couple’s names and words of endearment in the background. It was fun!
Monica Hendewerk
My friend made a heart quilt and wrote the names of each of her family members sporadically in the background fill. It was fun to look for the names!
Lois Aspin
I love this idea!
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