What Do I Need to Photo Quilt?
Quilting has been around in American culture dating to the colonial era. Every summer, women would spend hours sewing a quilt for the upcoming winter. The most skilled quilters created rich and lustrous designs. Quilters would frequently create stories and pictures with fabric. Today, the same thing can be accomplished with a photo quilt. By taking your treasured photographs and transferring them to fabric, you can make heirloom-quality quilts that will be prized for generations.
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Quilting Supplies
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You will use the same basic quilting supplies and techniques as with any type of quilt design. The batting and bottom layer of fabric will be layered in your quilting frame as usual. The differences will be with your quilt top. Piece together the photo quilt top using the same methods you would with any other type of material. The additional supplies you will need are a computer, printer, scanner, fabric printer sheets and of course, photographs.
Photographs
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If you are using old photographs, use a scanner to create a .jpeg or other type of photo file in your computer. This same method will work for almost any object that you can place on your scanner bed. Everything from flowers to vegetables can give you a photographic outline suitable for quilting.
If you are taking new pictures for your quilt you should use a digital camera that is at least 4 mega pixels. You don't need an expensive, professional camera to take photos to be used on fabric, because simple photographs work best. Even poor-quality, grainy photographs can be used and achieve beautiful results.
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Printing on Fabric
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If you are computer savvy, you can use any photo software program such as Photoshop to alter everything about your photos from color to size.
Once you have your photographs selected and saved as files in your computer, you can print them at home using specially made fabric sheets. Fabric sheets come in the size 8 ½ x 11-inch just like paper. Any high-quality ink printer will work.
The Quilt Design
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Now that you have your fabric photos, you can begin your design strategy. Most quilters will want to start with a regular block-styled design. Depending on the size of the quilt you are making, start with six photo squares and attach to the selected border trim as usual to create your quilt top. Then assemble it with the batting and bottom layer of fabric in your quilting frame.
Stitching
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There are many types of stitching methods for quilting and you can use any of them for a photo quilt as well. But you may want to make your quilting stitches along the outer edges of your photographs. For instance, if your quilt has a square with a picture of a sunflower, sew your stitches along the edge of the petals.
Washing Instructions
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Wash a photo quilt with care and only if necessary. If you absolutely have to wash it, wash once in cold water without detergent and then wash a second time in cold or warm water using only mild detergent. Remove promptly from the washer and lie flat to dry, being sure to gently smooth out the quilt squares.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Blue and coral quilt block background image by Bluebird from Fotolia.com
