Signature traits on quilts

I did not accomplish much today--had a rotten sore throat and felt like I was trying to move with a gel suit on......just so slow and lethargic. Anyway, while I was zoning out in front of my Janome 6600, trying to get myself moving, I was looking at some of my finished tops and projects. I realized I have a couple of "signature" things that I do over and over on my quilt projects. Here they are:

One, I always use a fabric in the quilt that has crescent moons in it. I scour every fabric store I go to looking for crescent moon fabrics. These are not so easy to find, esp. since I tend toward reproduction-style fabrics. I'm not even sure how this motif worked it's way into my quilting. The crescent moon thing has been with me since my "golden" birthday (that's the year that your age matches your date of birth)--that year, the evening of my birthday, there was the most stunning crescent moon out with the planet Venus right at the tip. It was a very special birthday year for me and this motif has been special to me ever since. I just don't recall how it worked it's way into my quilting. My daughter knows that every quilt I make has crescent moon fabric on it somewhere, and she will look over every inch of the quilt until she finds some! It's like a game to her.

Two, I do a lot of piecing on the backs of my quilts in making my labels. I use up scraps and extra blocks. On November Nova, I used all the little leftovers to make small pinwheel blocks to piece into the label section. Some of my friends think I am nuts to do even more piecing after making an entire top, but I love the way it fancies up the label.

Three, when my doggies were around, I always tucked a tiny bit of their fur into the quilt somewhere--sometimes in the binding, sometimes just between the batt and the back. No pooches in the house now, so this is from the past. One quilt in particular, a guild challenge quilt about childhood games, was my "Ghost in the Graveyard" quilt--a memory of me and my brothers playing that hide and seek game in the backyard of my parent's house. The dog in the quilt was our family dog from a long, long time ago, but when I made this quilt for the challenge, I tucked two tiny bits of Zoe's and Teejay's fur behind the dog applique.

Hope the fur thing doesn't sound too strange--it was just a way to keep a bit of them close. You can't see them too well in the photo, but there are threes pairs of eyes (me and my two brothers) peeking out from various hiding spots in the yard. And my Dad's boxer shorts (yes, I sewed a tiny pair!) are hanging on the clothesline with a "ghost" (a tiny bit of tulle) that the dog is chasing after. It was a fun quilt to make (and there's a crescent moon, too!)

Does anyone else have little signature things that they do with all their quilts? I would love to know!