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Friday 11 May 2012

Mystery of the Stolen Quilts

17 years ago two quilts were stolen  when they had been on display for the Premiere of the film
How to Make an American Quilt. That film was made in 1995!
At the Australasian Quilt Convention recently I had the chance to speak with the President of the Western Australia Quilters Association. Two quilts were recently posted to the  guild with a letter attached. The letter said that they had been stolen a long time ago and now the person wanted to return them.
The only reason those quilts were able to be returned to the owner was because those stolen quilts had labels sewn onto the backs of them. What a happy story. The other good news is that the quilts were still in excellent condition.
Quilt labels

I have written about the importance of quilt labels before. I suppose it's a valuable lesson to label everything that we make even if we don't think that it is very important or special. I know how difficult it is when you have worked so long and hard on a quilt and you finally finish sewing on all that binding. What an effort to make a label and sew it on.

Not only do I write my name and address and the title of the quilt and the size in inches and centimetres, I also write the year that I finished the quilt. The way time flies I would never remember when I made a quilt unless I had put a label on it.
Now, I must get on with those labels for my latest quilts. Do you label your quilts?

Bye for now,
Linda

2 comments:

Gina E. said...

I've put labels on the back of all the mini quilts/wall hangings I've made, but only with my name and the year I made it. I doubt if any of them would be worth stealing, and if they were, I would hope the thief derives some pleasure from them! That is wonderful to think after all that time, those quilts were returned. Perhaps the original thief died, and the person who was clearing out the estate decided to return the quilts... who knows..

Linda Steele said...

I agree about the small quilts Gina. On my little Waverley Art Quilts I just write my name and the date so I can remember when I made them.