"I hate to bother you all but I have never made a quilt. I work
for **** and one of our colleagues is terminally
ill with *** cancer... We are having a
benefit for him and his family. I don't have the money to pay
to have a quilt made but I wanted to surprise him and his family with one
at the benefit. I would love to do it myself but I'm not able to find any
quilting books for beginners to help me. PLEASE help if you can. Any
guides or help would be greatly appreciated. I have taken tons of
pictures off their facebook page to use but not I need to know what to do
next. Thank you so much in advance for any help you may offer!!"
Hi Stacy,
Sorry to hear about your colleague's illness.
Very nice of you to try to make him and his family a quilt, I'll be glad
to try to help you.
If you have a lot of photos, the easiest thing to do is to make collages
of the photos so you can get a lot of photos on the quilt.
You can put one photo in a block to make it stand out, like one of your
sick colleague with his family, in the center or in a corner.
Hobby shops like Michael's and Hobby Lobby usually carry photo fabric
blocks you can use with a printer to transfer photos. I can't recommend
one since we exclusively use Color Plus Fabrics but I'll be glad to print
photos on fabric for you:
http://www.bluebirdgardens.com/index.cgi?realm=Home&page=Store+Item&product_id=1148
Now there are a couple of things you can do with these photo blocks:
1. You can make a quilt out of the same size squares - the bigger the
squares, the less sewing you'll have to do, something like this:
http://www.bluebirdgardens.com/?realm=Home&page=Store+Item&product_id=1286
If you use our fabric blocks, I would recommend making your quilt blocks
8.5x8.5 square. Your photo collages should be 8x8 so you can leave a seam
to sew them together with other fabric cut into 8.5x8.5 inch squares. That
way you can easily sew them all together to make the quilt top.
2. You can also sew the photo fabric blocks to the quilt blocks, or even
more simply, sew them onto solid fabric made into the quilt size you want:
http://www.bluebirdgardens.com/?realm=Home&page=Store+Item&product_id=1268
(If you put the photo blocks in a more random pattern sewn all over the
fabric, it will be easier to do)
3. You can also sew together same size quilt blocks and then sew pictures
on top of those blocks.
Once you have the quilt top pieced, you'll then need to get quilt batting
and fabric for the back.
The easiest way to finish this is to have volunteers who can hand stitch
the quilt top by tying yarn or embroidery floss to finish the quilt.
You'll then need to sew narrow fabric on the edge to "bind" the fabrics
together.
You may also find someone who knows the family who knows someone who can
actually quilt the top for you, either on a sewing machine or a real
quilting machine.
Don't forget to "sign" it - the easiest way to do that is to sew a piece
of fabric on the back with your signature and date in indelible ink pen
written on the fabric. If other people helped you, have them sign it as
well, it will mean a lot to the family.
Hope this helps. If you have any questions please let me know.
Good luck with making your first photo quilt!Charlotte
http://www.bluebirdgardens.com
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