Family Photo Quilt

I would like to make a photo quilt for my mother for Christmas. I was just wondering if there was a pattern to go by.

The great thing about memory quilts is that they work for any skill level. If you are an experienced quilter you can do more complicated blocks alternating with photo squares, or put the photos in squares like the Attic Window that uses Y seams. For a less experienced quilter, you can use alternate photo squares with less complicated blocks, or put the photos in the center of simpler blocks like the Sawtooth Star, Churn Dash or Picture Frame. Check Alex Anderson's Block Party and Quilter's Cache for other blocks. You can also use photos and make pieced sashings and borders. For a beginning quilter you can just sew strips of fabric around the photos (just one row, or several rows like a log cabin block with a larger center) and then sew the framed photos together in rows, then sew the rows together. Sew a couple of borders on the quilt and you're done!

The most important ingredient in a photo quilt, however, is the fabric the photos are on. You can buy special fabric sheets made to go through your inkjet printer. There are available at most craft and fabric stores. Be sure to read the instructions - some require heat setting, and others are not washable. Get the right product for your project. Do NOT get iron on transfer paper (found in office stores) - this is fine for a t-shirt that you'll throw out in a couple of years, but it does not hold up for years, the way you want for a quilt. There are links to several products below.

Finally, check the last few links for more photo quilt examples and instructions.

Good luck with this - it's a great way to preserve memories! Be sure to include a detailed label so future generations know who these people are. Use good permanent FABRIC markers or print it from your computer on the treated fabric sheets.

2006-11-16 18:18:16 by Pam P

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Every website I go to says to print the picture onto the fabric using some type of paper. Is that the only way? Isn't there some place that I can send pictures to and have them do it??

Buy the photo transfer sheet or colorfast fabric sheets and take them to a local copy shop. They will be glad to print it for you, usually.

2007-08-20 00:57:52 by justinetcarbon

Price: $12.99

Okay, you need to go to a fabric store, and there should be a kit to make iron on pictures. You print out your pictures on the special paper, and then you iron the picture on to the piece of fabric you want to be sewn onto the quilt.

2007-03-25 09:11:50 by Aretha S

Price: $149.99 $149.99

Versatile - scan small to large originals, photos, drawings, quilts, even small objects like coins or jewelry, newspapers, bound books, albums and magazines
Keeps Your Memories Safe - scan album photos in place, patented "flip-and-scan" technology, see-through window for framing the original, safequard important documents and Images and store in a safe location
Accurate - high quality digital image, high resolution retains the detail, color, dimensions and texture true to the original, 600 and 300 dpi resolution settings

My younger brother is deploying with the Marines to Iraq then Afghanistan for 7 months. I was thinking about making him a blanket or quilt with photos of our family superimposed onto fabric for Christmas. Is this a good idea or not?

This is more than a good idea. For one, you're wanting to put all your time, effort, and love into this project. For another he will be on the other side of the ocean and then some with no family. I don't know the weather conditions there so don't know if a blanket is something he'll need to use, but I'm sure he will embrace that blanket every second he can. Those pictures will be one of the few things to put a smile on his face and heart. What a wonderful idea!

2008-09-21 17:52:15 by Tigerlily

Images are on this website and are titled text. (I may have placed some images upside down due to the fact I don't recognize the language, so consider this a preemptive appology.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amberk/?sav ed=1

It looks sort of like Arabic.... my guess is its from the Middle East somewhere.....or it could just be funny patterns and not a language at all.

Nice apartment BTW....is that the lobby of the Natural History Museum in NYC?

2007-02-26 18:22:21 by ambage