The badge of honour at stitching meetings seems to be one's personal Name Tag. I must confess that I've never stitched one for myself. I use my plastic Quilt Guild name tag which looks official, neat and does the job. Sometimes Stitching Guilds charge me the obligatory fee for a sticky hand written piece of paper. I just didn't connect with the pride of wearing a name tag until I had the experience of wearing one that I'd personally made.

This change of thought happened slowly.

I attended an EGA stitch-in at my Sarasota chapter and I was gifted with a brown paper bag. The contents of this bag were construction paper, art papers, cardboard, paper star, plaid fabric, overdye floss, Styrofoam, an ornament.

"Oh No! Not me!" I thought.

Why Not? . . . .because . . . . . . I have too much to stitch already; I don't do small pieces; my name is too complex to stitch; I have a 'thing' about name tags. That probably means that I have a resistance to doing what I'm told to do. I always stubbornly change stitch guides and then claim that I'm making them personal.

The next turning point to making this name tag was that glue was allowed! Is this really EGA? The challenge was the creativity, not the technique.

As soon as I discovered that the contents of my bag matched exactly to my printed stitchamaze 'cards' I was happy. This tag became the most fun piece that I've done in quite some time. I glued the paper parts, glued my name, taped all other parts with double sided tape. I did some decorative stitching with French knots and floss to support the various trims for the tag. I loved that the contents of my bag were 'my colours' and so well coordinated. I used all supplies that were included in my bag. Even the remains of the overdye floss became the cord that ties around my neck.