Tutorial Tuesday

For this tutorial Tuesday, I am going to show you how to make a photo quilt.The great thing about photo quilts, is that you can do so many different things to them. You can do as little or as many squares and pictures as you want, different fabrics, and you can also make it into a wall hanging instead of a quilt.

This was the first photo quilt that I made several years ago for my best friend.

Photo quilt my mom made for her exchange student

Another one that my mom made

Materials you will need for a twin size quilt:
-3 yards of fabric (60" wide) for the top
-3 yards of fabric (60" wide) for the bottom (if you don't want to use batting, buy fleece for the bottom)
-1 yard of white fabric
-batting
-thread
-needle
-Quick Fuse by june tailor - 3 per pack White, fusible inkjet fabric sheets or Avery Printable Fabric #3384, Inkjet, 5 sheets per pack White, Iron-on or sew (these are the brands that I like to use)
-yarn

1. For the first step, you want to get your pictures printed out on the fabric sheets. Then you are going to iron the picture onto white fabric. Be sure to read the instructions on the fabric sheets and follow those instructions. For the photos, you can put just one picture in each square, or you can make a collage of the pictures for each square.

Hopefully this won't confuse you more, but these are instructions that my mom made for me awhile ago that I followed.

2. You are going to cut the strips of fabric out that will go around the photos. You can make the strips of fabric next to the photo however wide you want it to be. If you want less fabric between the picture, than make the strips skinner. If you want more fabric, then make them wider. I think my strips were about 6". Remember to add the 5/8" allowance. The bottom, top, and middle strips are going to be wider than all the other strips. Mine were about 8". When you are cutting the strips, make sure they are all even so the rows match up evenly when all together.

3. Now start sewing!! Sew the first row first. Fabric strip, picture, strip, picture, strip, picture, strip. Repeat for the other two rows.

4. Then sew the top strip to the top of the first row. Then sew the middle strip to the bottom of the first row. Then sew the next row to the middle strip....and so on, until you sew on the bottom strip. Ta Da! Now the top of the photo quilt is done!

5. Next, lay the bottom right side down. Then lay the batting down on top of that. Then lay the top of the quilt right side up on top of the batting. (One quilt I made, I did not use batting. Instead, I used fleece for the bottom fabric and it worked out great)

6. Fold the bottom fabric over the top fabric about an inch and pin. Sew around the edges.

7. Then start threading and tying the yarn around the quilt evenly.

And you are done!!

The photo quilts do not hold up in the washer very well. You have to dry clean them, I believe. The washer might ruin the pictures. You can also make a wall hanging instead of a quilt.

This is a wall hanging that Amanda made

Sorry this picture is sideways! Blogger keeps rotating it...anyways, here is another wall hanging that Amanda made for her daughter

For the wall hanging, you will only need 2 yards of fabric. And the top strip will be a lot longer so you can fold it over to put the rod through it.

I hope that wasn't too confusing for you!!!