by Carol Henry

Whether you have a Discovery Day near you or not, every quilt maker should consider recording information on each quilt they make.

You might start with your inspiration for making the quilt. Did you see a picture in a magazine, have a new grandchild that needed a quilt? Maybe you just wanted to get rid of ugly fabric or did you see a fabric that just needed to be made into something special?

Start a file for each quilt. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• If you still have receipts or know where you acquired your fabric, make
  a note.

• Design ideas, drawings, fabric samples, or ideas discarded along the way can be noted.

• Have someone take a few pictures of you as you are making the quilt. Future generations will be just as interested in what goes into a quilt today as we are interested in what went into a quilt 25 years ago.

• List the date you started and the date you sewed that last stitch.

• Include a brief story about the quilt. Any awards? List those as well.

• Try to think of all the things you wonder about when you see a quilt. Add that type of information to your file.

If nothing else, a few years from now, looking back over those files will bring back all kinds of memories.

Oh, and it is not too late to make a few notes on quilts made in the
past. In fact, it might be more fun than you realize.
Remember your first quilt? (I let the dog and cat eat on my first quilt, but I guess I should let you read the file sometime.)
Remember how proud you were to finish it and give it to the special person you made it for, or maybe you did not finish it? I have a few of those too. They need to be in a file as well.

For me, I want my family to know about the unfinished projects. I always want the last word and I know what some people will think when they see all the tops. I might add a note saying I could not decide on a quilt design yet!