I Want To Make a Photo Quilt for My Mother's 100th Birthday--Help!

My mother will turn 100 at the end of June. At Thanksgiving we discussed making a special quilt and I thought of a family tree type quilt, with blocks for each family. I want to put in each block the person's name, date of birth, and a small picture of something that represents that person. The overall quilt background color will be different shades of lavender. Each family group will have the same shade for their members. I have a combo embroidery/sewing/quilting so the names and DOB aren't the issue. I've never transferred photos to a quilt. Has anyone ever done this, and do you have suggestions for me? I know there is transfer paper. I want the blocks to be 7"x7" just to make sure I can get everything in.

Thanks!

I have made many photo quilts. I use June Tailors Fabric sheets. They have never faded and can be washed. I make them whatever size I need in microsoft word and then print them out on the fabric sheets. They are a bit pricy. Just be sure to leave enough space between pictures for your seam allowance

Elliegirl, I've never made a photo quilt so I have no advice to offer. I just wanted to say how wonderful it is that you still have your mother on her upcoming 100th birthday and how thoughtful you are to make this for her. I hope the quilt turns out great!

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Originally Posted by Diva Deb

Elliegirl, I've never made a photo quilt so I have no advice to offer. I just wanted to say how wonderful it is that you still have your mother on her upcoming 100th birthday and how thoughtful you are to make this for her. I hope the quilt turns out great!

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Thank you! We are truly blessed! I live about 4.5 hours from her and make it monthly to see her and enjoy her while I can. She's pretty "with it" still. We talk every day. She was so excited about her 99th birthday she's determined to make it to 100. This will be a family creation because I'm asking every family to make some contribution to it. I'm just the one who got it off the ground.

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Originally Posted by Patrice

I have made many photo quilts. I use June Tailors Fabric sheets. They have never faded and can be washed. I make them whatever size I need in microsoft word and then print them out on the fabric sheets. They are a bit pricy. Just be sure to leave enough space between pictures for your seam allowance

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Do you have to use a chemical to soak the fabric in? I was just looking on youtube for some videos and one I saw required a chemical to soak the fabric in, and rubber gloves for handling it. Isn't it simpler than that? :lol:

There is a chemical call Bubble Jet Set 2000 that can be used to soak the fabric in before printing. You soak your fabric by the directions on the bottle....after it's dried you attach freezer paper, cut into 8 1/2 x 11 sheets to go thru your printer. After that has dried you soak again in Bubble Jet Rinse and let dry, iron and cut out the picture to the size you need. This is a very abbreviated version of the directions but you can get the gist of it. There are places online also that have directions on how to make your own homemade version of the chemical.....I use the Bubble Jet myself but am toying with trying the homemade version....cost wise it's more effective to do it either one of these ways especially if you need to do a lot of pictures because the transfer paper that you buy in the store is way expensive for like 5 sheets I think the last time I checked it was $20....go to this link..I actually found this last night....~HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN FAUX BUBBLE JET...Quick No-Fail Recipe~
this is the instrutions to make your own soak...plus you can see one on how to print after the fabric is ready.

I made a photo quilt with many color photos on the quilt. I used photo fabric sheets that had to be printed on an ink jet printer. Set the printer to the very best quality possible. I didn't have to use chemicals. There were instructions on the package (I got them at my LQS) - I think I had to soak them in water and then hang them to dry (it's been 4-5 years since I made it). I bought an inexpensive clothes drying rack so I could hang them all on it. It wasn't difficult - just time consuming and it used a lot of color ink for printing. I was worried about the colors running but they didn't - my pictures had a lot of black and red. The fabric sheets can be cut to size after you print the pictures. Be sure to leave plenty of room for seam allowances when printing and cutting. What a wonderful gift you have planned!

I made a retirement quilt for my sister and used the June Tailor Colorfast sheets and my ink jet printer. It was easy, but time consuming. My sister and the group that asked me to make it were more than satisfied. Somewhere on line I found it in packages of 25 sheets. I would say that this made the quilt stiff and you should change needles often as it was stiff to sew on. Good Luck and I know whatever you decide to do, your mom will LOVE all the time and effort you put into it.

I have another question. Once you put the photo on the block can you embroider on it?

I think it might be difficult to emb. by machine or hand through the stiff colorfast products. I understand that the bubble jet leaves the fabric more pliable (spelling?) and you would be able to embroider on the photo. There are some companies out there that do that. I haven't tried it though. send me a pm and I'll give you the name and website so you can see what can be done. She is my long arm quilter and I've been more than satisfied with her work. Pat

There is no problem to make embroidery on fabric after using bubble jet, it is still the same fabric and soft. I did this with the green/lime border around the smurfs. Now i want to try making it my self, using tnmtgrl´s link.

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Originally Posted by Patty J

I think it might be difficult to emb. by machine or hand through the stiff colorfast products. I understand that the bubble jet leaves the fabric more pliable (spelling?) and you would be able to embroider on the photo. There are some companies out there that do that. I haven't tried it though. send me a pm and I'll give you the name and website so you can see what can be done. She is my long arm quilter and I've been more than satisfied with her work. Pat

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