After the Last Stitch – Waterfall Volume II – a leather stamping study in quilt labels and stories

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of original leather stamping studies.

A September study – Waterfall Volume II.

When the last stitch goes in, a quilt's real life begins – it takes a name and a date, and its story travels with it wherever it goes. We made After the Last Stitch, a small collection about that second life.

First, we rolled a quilt up like a parcel and rewrote the shipping stencil the way its maker would – HANDLE WITH LOVE.

Black-and-white Handle with Love stamp artwork showing a rolled quilt parcel from the After the Last Stitch leather collection.

It looks genuinely beautiful. We ran it blind on warm red and on pale sea-blue.

A warm red leather luggage tag stamped Handle with Love from the After the Last Stitch quilt-story collection.

A pale sea-blue leather luggage tag stamped Handle with Love from the After the Last Stitch quilt-story collection.

The black tag carries the gold.

A black leather luggage tag hot-stamped in gold with Handle with Love from the After the Last Stitch quilt-story collection.

Next, the corner a knowing eye checks first. Under the binding, a little triangle label with its two lines still blank – SIGNED AND DATED, the way the good ones are.

Black-and-white Signed and Dated quilt-label stamp artwork from the After the Last Stitch leather collection.

Keychains with it look just awesome – in deep navy and in golden tan.

A deep navy leather keychain stamped Signed and Dated from the After the Last Stitch quilt-label collection.

A golden tan leather keychain stamped Signed and Dated from the After the Last Stitch quilt-label collection.

Then the toiletry bags. A patch on a heart means somebody wore it out and somebody sewed it back – so WELL LOVED sits small in the corner of the stack, warm tan over chestnut.

Black-and-white Well Loved patched-heart stamp artwork from the After the Last Stitch leather collection.

Warm tan and chestnut leather toiletry bags stamped Well Loved from the After the Last Stitch quilt-story collection.

Then, for the golden tan tray, a bed turning – five folded quilts in a stack, no two alike, above the words EVERY ONE HAS A STORY. The sentence holds just as well for whatever the tray catches at the end of the day.

Black-and-white Bed Turning stamp artwork showing five folded quilts from the After the Last Stitch leather collection.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with five folded quilts and Every One Has a Story from the After the Last Stitch collection.

And finally, the one we liked the most – an empty quilt label pressed into the journal's corner, MADE BY and FOR over blank rules with a date line beneath. Every made thing deserves one, and the next story is the writer's to fill in.

Black-and-white Made By quilt-label stamp artwork with three empty fields from the After the Last Stitch leather collection.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather – in dusty rose and in deep green.

A dusty rose leather journal stamped with an empty Made By quilt label from the After the Last Stitch collection.

A deep green leather journal stamped with an empty Made By quilt label from the After the Last Stitch collection.

We made this out of love. Leatherius Woodman is on a mission to create and share artifacts of beauty, craft and love – this study is one of them, and we hope the feeling is mutual. Every image is a render – how we prototype before cutting a die.

If you'd like any of these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.