How to Sew a Memory Quilt
If you have basic sewing skills, you can make a memory quilt to give as a gift in observance of a specific time in someone's life or to record a lifetime of events. You can use t-shirts from concerts or sporting events, family pictures or scraps of fabric from your child's youth. Be creative and have fun making a memory for yourself or someone else.
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Things You'll Need
- Sewing machine
- Finished quilt blocks
- Quilt batting
- Scissors
- Straight sewing pins
- General duty sewing thread and quilting thread
- Quilt binding
Instructions
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Choose the memory that you want to make into a quilt and collect the necessary components. Transfer favorite photos to fabric, have friends or loved ones make a special quilt block to commemorate a wedding or child's birth, transfer a child's drawings to fabric, or make a variety of different quilt squares from special clothes that your children wore when they were young. Check out the book by Inc. Leisure Arts for more ideas and tips on making a memory quilt.
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Make your quilt blocks as you would with any other quilt, leaving a 1/4-inch seam allowance. If you're new to quilting, you may want to start with blocks that are all the same size, to make piecing easier. Use strips of coordinating fabric to join them or just sew them together.
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3
Join all of your finished squares together with your sewing machine. Be precise with your seams, using the seam guide markings on the throat plate or a seam guide attachment. If you don't have either one of these, place a piece of masking tape on the throat plate that is 1/4-inch away from the point of the needle.
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Place your quilt backing down on a flat surface and sandwich the batting, then the quilt top together. Baste through all thicknesses, and then hand or machine quilt them together using our favorite quilting design.
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5
Sew a binding around the edge of the quilt, using purchased quilt binding or make your own.
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Finish your quilt by sewing an information tag onto one of the corners. You can embroider this or use a permanent marker. Include the date, occasion, for whom it was made and your name.
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Tips & Warnings
If you're using recycled clothes, make sure they are in fairly good condition. Try to use fabrics that have close to the same fabric contents.
Give fabric care instructions to the recipient of the quilt. Fabric with pictures and photos transfers should be washed by hand in cold water. Include any other care instructions that may apply to the fabric you've used in your quilt.
