Piecework – a stamped leather collection for quilters and makers

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

A September study. Volume I-B.

Piecework – a small leather collection for people who make things: five original stamps about seam allowances, lost tools and the projects that stay open. Designed for the shelves of a very good quilt shop, and for the hands that browse them.

First, we let the luggage tag confess. A suitcase stands with its lid cracked open and a strip of patchwork escaping, and beneath it the tag declares CONTENTS MOSTLY FABRIC – the honest customs form of anyone flying home from a good shop.

Mostly Fabric luggage-tag stamp design: an open suitcase with a patchwork strip

We pressed it blind into honeyed russet and navy, then again into warm red.

Contents Mostly Fabric stamped on an Indian Summer leather luggage tag

Contents Mostly Fabric stamped on a Blueberry leather luggage tag

Contents Mostly Fabric stamped on a Poppy Red leather luggage tag

Next, a small medal for an article of faith. SCANT QUARTER INCH rings a badge where the stitched line hugs the cut edge a hair inside the mark – the seam allowance quilters defend like doctrine.

Scant Quarter Inch circular seam-allowance stamp design

The black fob carries the badge in gold. The pale sea-blue one takes a blind deboss.

Scant Quarter Inch stamped in gold on a Black leather keychain

Scant Quarter Inch blind-stamped on a Turquoise leather keychain

Then we stamped PIECE BY PIECE into the corner of the toiletry bags – a four-patch square with one patch still traveling toward its place along a dashed line. The stack pairs honeyed russet over deep espresso brown, and the bag holds a wash kit as happily as a project on the move.

Piece by Piece four-patch stamp design with one moving patch

Piece by Piece stamped on Indian Summer and Dark Espresso leather dopp kits

Then the catchall tray settles the oldest argument in any sewing room. THE SEAM RIPPER IS IN HERE, it promises, beneath the tool itself unpicking a seam – and once the tray sits by the machine, the sentence finally becomes true.

The Seam Ripper Is In Here stamp design with an unpicked seam

Looks great when stamped onto the golden tan leather.

The Seam Ripper Is In Here stamped on an Arizona leather catchall tray

And finally, the one we liked the most. WORKS IN PROGRESS sits in the corner of the journal above a row of tally marks with the last gate still open – a cover that admits what every maker's notebook is really for. We made it in warm tan and in deep green.

Works in Progress stamp design with two complete tallies and one open tally

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Works in Progress stamped on a Caramel leather journal

Works in Progress stamped on a Forest Green leather journal

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 these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.