What a nice song! The CD doesn't have a lyrics sheet and I can't find the lyrics on the Web. Here is my by-ear transcription, incorporating Jim's transcription. I couldn't find a Cathy Fink recording. Seems to me there was an AIDS quilt CD - I wonder if Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer did a recording of the song for that CD.

SEWING A NAME
(Cathy Fink, 1987)

I'm sewing a name for the world to see,
I'm sewing a name to reassure me
One life is never lived in vain,
One man's pleasure, not another man's pain.

CHORUS
I'm saving this name like a book from the past,
It has tattered edges and a spirit that will last;
I'm saving this name for the world to see
That the life you lived is now part of me.

We're joining a family of others who sew,
And watching a beautiful artwork grow,
And trying to see that the world won't ignore
The rights and the loves we've been fighting for.

CHORUS, then instrumental break

Well, it doesn't matter what stitch I use,
Your favorite colors are the ones I choose;
And I couldn't leave off your sparkly blue tie,
You wore the day I caught your eye.

CHORUS

I'm sewing a name for the world to see,
I'm sewing a name to reassure me
One life is never lived in vain,
One man's pleasure, not another man's pain.

CHORUS

Source: by-ear transcription from Claudia Schmidt & Sally Rogers album "While We Live" (Red House Records RHR45, 1991).