I am in the beginning stages of planning a memory quilt for a friend's 50th anniversary. The plan is to have the guests at the party sign a signature block and then I will create the quilt afterwards with pictures. I am attaching the design from EQ7. The blank blocks are where the pictures will be. My thought is to have their wedding picture to the left of the center block and a picture from the party to the right of the center block and pictures of them and their family (to be provided to my by their daughter) in the other blank areas.

My question is: What is the best fabric to use for the signature blocks. My plan is that the outside white borders of the pieced blocks will be the signature blocks. We plan on having the fabric ironed onto freezer paper with the areas marked for people to sign at the party.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Kona cotton is always good for signature blocks.

There was a suggestion on Fons & Porter last Saturday. Instead of signing on blocks, have pieces of paper marked with the size of the area for the block and have the guests sign these. Then scan them and print onto fabric.

The ladies at my church have also done a couple of signature quilts, and they always have everyone sign on paper, and then someone goes and uses a lightbox to trace the signatures onto fabric.

That is going to be an awesome memory quilt. I can't wait to see it.

I made a memory quilt from a family reunion. I used a very good quality, high thread count white cotton and had the squares cut ready for signing. I took permanent markers, the Magna pigma pens, and had a table set up for everyone to write a memory from growing up in our family. I then pieced it together with pictures from the reunion I printed on Printed Treasures fabric sheets. I gave the quilt to my mom and she loved it! My only suggestion....Make sure they don't write too close to the edge. There where times when I wasn't near the table and many people wrote alot and went right to the edge of the square. This meant alot to my mom and I really enjoyed reading everything that everyone wrote. We are taking it to the family reunion this week to share it with everyone! Good Luck..

I did a signature quilt as wedding gift. I use Kona Cotton - prewashed and they used pigma or ultra fine sharpies. I actually taped each square around the edges with blue painter's tape, so they wouldn't get into the seam allowance. If they are signing them there, I would either be sure there are pieces of fine sandpaper to put the fabric on to keep it from moving when they write, or do what I did, and fuse a piece of freezer paper to the back that will serve the same purpose. It takes a bit more preperation time, but at least everyone will have a square that doesn't move.