Sandy, host of the podcast "Quilting for the Rest of Us," recently did a podcast on quilt documentation (http://quilter.podbean.com/2010/10/28/episode-27-in-which-we-document-our-quilts-10-28-2010/#comments). I am showing here the documentation portfolio I set up about 10 years ago. I will also confess that the most recent entries are from 2001. I think when I made the switch from film to digital photography, I quit making a paper record. And frankly, I went through a long spell where I finished nothing. Sandy has encouraged me to do better, and I'm going to spend some time thinking about how to update this system.

I started the portfolio around the time I was being encouraged to think of myself as an artist, not just someone who twiddles with fabric as a hobby. Having a portfolio is something artists do, so I chose that format rather than some sort of notebook.

The idea was to have a standard page of information about the quilt, at least one photograph,

and anything else that seemed important about the quilt. In one case I included a smaller version of the block that made up a table runner. In a couple of cases, I included a printout of the schematic I made in EQ software. The information included a completion date (but not a starting date :-) ), the name of the block or blocks used, the type of quilting used, and anything that was special about the quilt (made for a raffle, etc.). These pictures aren't the best because the vinyl cover on the pages wants to reflect light, so I had to take them without flash, but they give a general idea of what an entry for a given quilt might look like. Every entry was to be no more than the front and back of one page in the portfolio, but since they are oversized pages, that actually is quite a bit of room.

This is what the printed information page looks like. I had a template in the computer, that I could modify as needed.

The entry for this Christmas runner included 2 photographs and samples of the fabrics used, mounted together on a separate piece of paper.

This was the one where I made a small version of the block and included it in the entry.

This is an example of the EQ layout from another quilt.

When I pulled out the portfolio to take these pictures, I found a bonus in the back - several sets of Stack and Slash blocks in various stages of completion, neatly interleaved between blank pages. Evidently I did a workshop on this technique for my local guild, and these were the class samples. There are 24 blocks all together, so here is the beginning of another quilt (or yet another UFO, but I'm trying not to think about that right now). These fabrics are mostly leftovers from the quilt I made for my dad in the mid-80's, a quilt I sleep under now that the weather has turned cool enough for a quilt on the bed. Not sure where the finished quilt will end up going, but it looks like an easy finish, so it might get done next year.

As for what I am actually sewing on right now, it's a Christmas present for somebody, so I can't talk about it.