How-To: Mak a Photo Heirloom Quilt
From an interview with Nannette Moss, professional quilter. Based on an email from my Mom, Joan H.
Many families enjoy a gift with the personal touch. Others enjoy having a few family pictures for their wall. Some enjoy the fun of preparing a craft for another person was there to learn how to make a photo heirloom quilt.
Briefly the steps are:
• collect the family portraits and arrange a pattern of how you would like them to appear on the quilt.
• prepare the material for the fabric pictures.
a. The fabric has to be high quality white or cream-colored muslim with as many threads per inch as you can find or afford.
b. The material is cut into 11 inch strips, soaked in the bubble jet preparation fluid, and hung up to dry.
* Try putting plastic pans under the hanging muslim to catch the dripping bubble jet fluid to recycle (it is expensive.)
• Once the muslim is dry, iron it flat ... no starch, no steam, just a flat, hot iron.
• Cut the 11 inch strips into 8.5 inch pages. The goal is to reproduce the pages which go through the printer. Cut up freezer paper [the kind with a thin film of plastic] into 11x8.5 inch pages.
• The freezer paper is then fused to the muslim, plastic side to the muslim to make it easier to put through the printer.
• Dust, use the lint remover and scissors to remove any stray threads or pieces of lint. Any that stays will leave a white spot on the finished picture.
• Prepare the pictures:
a. Scan and copy them into the computer. [A special print program for this may be needed because of the difference in the ink and material.]
b. Crop the pictures, tone them a bit darker than normal because of the inking process which follows.
c. Add borders or titles if you wish. You can also scan newspaper articles or copies of wedding certificates or other papers to print out for the quilt as well.
• Once the items to be reproduced are in the computer, and the muslim is ready, it is time to begin the slow process of printing out the pictures. a. Put no more than one page of muslim in the printer at a time.
b. De-lint before printing.
c. Carefully moniter each picture through the printer.
* Don't use transfer type pictures as used in t-shirts because it has plastic and will crack or melt.
* Recommended printer: a Hewlitt Packard, for process and quality needed.
* A quilt can have just one picture printed at the bottom say on a memorial quilt made up of the person’s favorite clothes, or as many as you can cram onto the quilt.
* Try making wallet sized pictures larger for the quality and visibility, but each family designs and determines what they want for their family heirloom quilt.
• Once each picture has been printed out on muslim, it is ready to be incorporated into a quilt.
* Moss likes to set the ink by ironing the printed picture. She strongly suggests two things about the quilt: do not plan to ever wash it with detergent. The detergent destroys the pictures / fades them. These
really are more of a wall hanging, and should be hung away from direct sun light which fades material rather quickly.
* When quilting the finished pieced top, use invisible thread and stitch around or outline the figures in the picture to make them stand out. (especially for any picture 5x7 or larger). It helps secure the quilt piece and makes the pieces stand out in a 3-D look.
* A rinse can be put over the printed pictures to help set the picture's color.
Many families enjoy a gift with the personal touch. Others enjoy having a few family pictures for their wall. Some enjoy the fun of preparing a craft for another person was there to learn how to make a photo heirloom quilt.
Briefly the steps are:
• collect the family portraits and arrange a pattern of how you would like them to appear on the quilt.
• prepare the material for the fabric pictures.
a. The fabric has to be high quality white or cream-colored muslim with as many threads per inch as you can find or afford.
b. The material is cut into 11 inch strips, soaked in the bubble jet preparation fluid, and hung up to dry.
* Try putting plastic pans under the hanging muslim to catch the dripping bubble jet fluid to recycle (it is expensive.)
• Once the muslim is dry, iron it flat ... no starch, no steam, just a flat, hot iron.
• Cut the 11 inch strips into 8.5 inch pages. The goal is to reproduce the pages which go through the printer. Cut up freezer paper [the kind with a thin film of plastic] into 11x8.5 inch pages.
• The freezer paper is then fused to the muslim, plastic side to the muslim to make it easier to put through the printer.
• Dust, use the lint remover and scissors to remove any stray threads or pieces of lint. Any that stays will leave a white spot on the finished picture.
• Prepare the pictures:
a. Scan and copy them into the computer. [A special print program for this may be needed because of the difference in the ink and material.]
b. Crop the pictures, tone them a bit darker than normal because of the inking process which follows.
c. Add borders or titles if you wish. You can also scan newspaper articles or copies of wedding certificates or other papers to print out for the quilt as well.
• Once the items to be reproduced are in the computer, and the muslim is ready, it is time to begin the slow process of printing out the pictures. a. Put no more than one page of muslim in the printer at a time.
b. De-lint before printing.
c. Carefully moniter each picture through the printer.
* Don't use transfer type pictures as used in t-shirts because it has plastic and will crack or melt.
* Recommended printer: a Hewlitt Packard, for process and quality needed.
* A quilt can have just one picture printed at the bottom say on a memorial quilt made up of the person’s favorite clothes, or as many as you can cram onto the quilt.
* Try making wallet sized pictures larger for the quality and visibility, but each family designs and determines what they want for their family heirloom quilt.
• Once each picture has been printed out on muslim, it is ready to be incorporated into a quilt.
* Moss likes to set the ink by ironing the printed picture. She strongly suggests two things about the quilt: do not plan to ever wash it with detergent. The detergent destroys the pictures / fades them. These
really are more of a wall hanging, and should be hung away from direct sun light which fades material rather quickly.
* When quilting the finished pieced top, use invisible thread and stitch around or outline the figures in the picture to make them stand out. (especially for any picture 5x7 or larger). It helps secure the quilt piece and makes the pieces stand out in a 3-D look.
* A rinse can be put over the printed pictures to help set the picture's color.
