Every handmade project deserves a label to let the recipient know just who made it, and to carry the artist’s name for generations to come. Emma from the Spoonflower help team is here with beautiful label templates that you can customize to make unique to your quilt.
EMMA: It always makes me a little sad when I see a beautiful quilt hanging in a museum with a tag that says “artist unknown”. Labeling your quilt is just like signing a painting–you made it, why not sign it! Especially for gifts and heirloom quilts you’re handing down, a label is an essential addition to any quilt. But quilt labels are a tricky thing to make! Embroidering or hand-writing a label with a fabric marker can take a lot of time, but there’s no need to order a ton of custom labels for just one project. That’s why we’ve created an easy way to create your own custom labels–order just one, or a whole yard! There’s no fancy software required, and we’ve included some templates below to get you started. Read on to learn more!
I decided to make a label for a quilt meant for a friend who’s about to embark on a big adventure. Since it was for just this special quilt, I knew I only needed to order one, and could customize it just for him.
We’ve created a series of templates already sized at 4.5 x 3.5 inches, a great size for a quilt label. If you want to make them even smaller, you can adjust the size once you’ve created your label. To create your own special label, save the template you want to use (scroll to the bottom of the page for more!) to your computer, and log onto Spoonflower.
First, click Create at the top of the page, then select the template file from my computer and clicked the Upload File button. Don’t worry–I give you all permission to use these templates, so you can click the copyright confirmation button without fear!
Once the template uploads, just click the Edit with PicMonkey button on the left-hand side. This will make a open of the template in PicMonkey, a free (and very easy!) editing platform.
With the template open in PicMonkey, it’s time to get creative! I started by adding text to my label–just click on the button the left that says “Tt” to add text. You can pick a font, change colors, arrange, and re-size your text however you’d like.
You can also click the button on the left that looks like a butterfly to add overlays (which work like digital stamps and stickers). Since Oscar is going on a big sailing trip, I picked out a few nautical-themed icons.
Once you’re done adding text, click the Save button at the top, and the X in the right-hand corner to go back to the Spoonflower preview page.
For just one quilt label, select Centered repeat and order a test swatch. For just $5.00, this will get you a single label. If you need more, you can order a fat quarter. This is also the page where you can adjust the size–click the Smaller button until the size listed is what you want. Go ahead and add it to your cart and you’re all set!
You can even add your own images. For this label, I added a picture of my grandpa that I had saved to my computer. Just click on the Overlay button that looks like a butterfly and click Your Own at the top. Then you can use any image already on your computer–photos, logos, even scanned kids artwork!
We’ve included some templates to get you started below, including a few sizes of blank labels that you can open in PicMonkey and edit the same way. Between PicMonkey’s great free tools and images from your own computer, creating your own labels is a breeze!
I am so excited to have found this label program! But more so to start using! I love spoon flower site and blog. You have always provided the easiest site to-navigate.
Thank you so so much❤️
So glad to hear you are excited about making some labels, Bobbi! 🙂
And thanks for the kind words about the site too!
Best,
Betsy
Spoonflower
HI there. I can’t find the quilt label template. Do you still offer this?
Thanks so much.
Does this work on Mac, I can’t find the quilt label template
Hi Meg,
I’m glad you enjoyed making your own labels! They’ll be saved in your Spoonflower design library, so you can return and re-order your labels whenever you want. When you log in, click on “design library” to see all your designs.
If you’d like to sell a design you’ve created, all you need to do is “proof” it–order any quantity of it on any fabric so you can make sure it prints just as you envisioned it. Once you’ve done that, you can make it for sale! Any time someone purchases it, you’ll earn 10% of the sale. You can read more about selling in the “Selling” section of http://www.help.spoonflower.com.
Thanks!
Emma
Hi Barbara,
150 dpi is just fine–that’s the resolution at which we print, and higher resolutions will just make your image bigger, rather than sharper (though you can always use the “smaller” and “larger” buttons to change your image size once you upload).
You’ve got just the right size for a fat quarter–that will fill the printable width of the fat quarter perfectly; no need to leave an allowance for selvedges.
I hope that helps!
Emma
I wish I knew how to navigate the steps provided to create a quilt label, but I am just stuck in another decade. I tried, but I think I will just label my quilts the old-fashioned ways.
I played around with the label making, found it fun, and immediately started creating a label.
I have two questions before I purchase my created labels.
1) Will my label be saved to my Spoonflower account so I can access it and order more labels later?
2) I noticed one option asked if I want to sell my labels. I do not even know how that would work, especially if I put my name and personal pictures on my labels. If I made creative and generic labels, then I would be fine with selling them.
How does one go about creating and selling on Spoonflower? I love to design, but I do not know anything about selling through a site. I have always created just for fun.
I apologize if the answers to these questions are in front of me. I am still new to this site.
Thank you,
Meg
Hmm – would love to do this, and for me the easiest way to do this would be to set up my own Photoshop document.
I found the page: http://help.spoonflower.com/customer/portal/articles/993576-how-big-should-my-image-be-
So, the proper resolution, I gather is 150pixels per inch, but the actual pixels needed to fill a fat quarter from a particular type of fabric varies, because the sizes of the fabrics vary so the sizes in pixels of the fat quarters also are different depending on the fabric.
So for Kona for example, if I want to do a fat quarter, I should set my document at 3150pixels wide x 2700pixels high [(150•21)x(150•18)]
Question: How does that relate to the selvedges, inclusive or not?
Do resolutions higher than 150ppi give better results, or are all files brought down to 150ppi
Thanks,
Barbara
Hi Kathleen!
“Save link as” should also let you save the images right to your desktop–they’ll download as a PNG to wherever downloaded files are saved on your computer.
Thanks!
Emma
Hi, Emma! I’m having similar problems — If I right-click on the label, I get “save link as….” which is not what I want to do, I want to save the file.
Thanks for your help!
Kathleen
Hi there! Are you clicking directly on one of the blank labels? You’ll want to right-click (use the right button on your mouse) or hold down control and click to save the image to your computer. Then you can upload it to Spoonflower and get started!
Feel free to write us at [email protected] for more information!
this is not working for me. I followed above directions and get a blank page.