Quilt Labelling: Stencil Samples

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

Last week, I came down with an absolutely monstrous cold. It brought along the standard cough, congestion, and dizziness, but the worst part was the pure exhaustion and brain fog, so I couldn't even think enough to let you all know I wouldn't be able to post.

Happily, I'm over it now and feeling almost as good as ever! And that means I can finally start experimenting with my new hand writing stencils!

Stencil Samples

I started off commissioning a smaller sample of the characters and phrases I wanted so I could test them out before committing to the full set.

I chose "Designed, Pieced, and Quilted by Valerie Anne" as the sample phrase since some variation of that will be printed on every label I make, as well as the numbers 0 through 9 as individual characters.

In hindsight, this is a bit of an odd choice since I couldn't test out printing any real words from the individual character stencils, just chains of numbers.

I'm really excited about how they came out and can't wait to print with them!

Printing My New Stencils

Now that I have stencils to play with, I need some fabric to print on!

I chose a remnant of a white on white print that I had laying around and drew some guidelines on it in pencil. On a real label, I wouldn't draw these on the right side of the fabric since it would show on the finished quilt, instead I might press the lines into the fabric so they could be removed later, but this is just a test!

The lines running around the outer edge of the fabric square are there to represent the seam allowance needed for a real label, indicating that anything printed in that space would be cut off inside of a seam.

And since I'm leaning towards a triangular corner label, the diagonal lines are where the text will be printed!

To help keep my stencils aligned with the guidelines, I had them made with little circular registration marks. These can align with the cut edge of the fabric for the large stencil, or with the guidelines on the individual character stencils.

One more thing that helps with alignment is the translucency of the stencils.

When using individual characters to create a word, or in this case, a multi digit number, you're able to see through the stencil to check the spacing of your letters!

After playing around with my number stencils and printing the full phrase from the large stencil, this is how my test label turned out:

I printed this label from top to bottom, and as you can see, I got better with practice!

While printing the first line, I used several different applicators—including sponge and bristle paint brushes of different shapes and sizes—and tried printing with different amounts of ink on my brush.

After testing, I now know which brush is my favourite! And by the time I got to the numbers, the printing was coming out very crisp and clean!

After printing, I was able to clean the excess ink off my stencils so they're ready to be used again in the future!

Reviewing my Thoughts

The text I commissioned as a test isn't enough to print a full quilt label, but it has shown me that I am absolutely on the right track! I love how it looks when printed and it feels both customized and personal in the way I wanted it to!

The only thing I'm a little concerned about at this point is the size of my labels.

My plan was to make them in the shape of a right triangle and I've been aiming around 6" finished. With the current size and layout of my text, the label would end up around 8" finished instead.

Ideally, I think I would like the text a little smaller, but that's not really possible with this medium; the smaller and more delicate the lines become, the more difficult they are to print and the less durable the stencil is.

With that in mind, I think I'll put a little more time into playing with my layout and spacing before I commission the full set.

Regardless of that, I've been really happy with the stencils Muddaritaville Studio printed for me and I'll definitely be getting them to make the full set for me soon!

In the meantime, you can check on my progress on all of my ongoing quilt projects by visiting me on Instagram! I do my best to share photos there when I'm not afflicted by the plague, and I always love reading your thoughts and feedback!

And with a new month drawing near, I'm excited to share the March instructions for Blackwork Roads very soon!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA