Any input gratefully recieved
 

My parents celebrate there 70th, yes there 70th wedding anniversary early next year - we are already planning a party and present from all us 6 children but I thought I could make some sort of 'card' for everyone coming to sign - I thought of putting a picture of them on their wedding day in the centre and then somehow incorporate into the quilt design the names of myself and siblings (don't think there would be enough room for all the grand and great grandkids - would various random small blocks - say 3 or 4" square around the picture work - any other ideas very welcome as I am struggling to get this going.
PS Don't want to make a big quilt as they already have two from me!!!! plus time would be against me

I don't know about your parents.....but I would most definitely want my gr children included on it somehow.

I thought someone might say that ha ha - yes I think you are absolutely right they would too will have to put them on as well - would you think Great grandkids as well?

Why not do like family squares, with perhaps a group photo and then the names

I personally would want all the kids, grandkids and great grandkids in it. It is a tribute to them and I think should include everyone - their family history. Maybe do one picture with all the grandkids in it and another with all the great grandkids since you don't have room for individual pictures. Or do one picture per family - you with all your grandkids/great grandkids and one for each of your siblings famiy. However you feel best to include to everyone. How wonderful to be celebrating 70 years of marriage! Send us pictures when you are done!!!!!

How wonderful it would be to have the entire line of descent on one quilt!! Kids, grandkids, great-grandkids - awesome. How about something like a signature quilt - or put each name on a sashing strip... lots of possibilities. 70 years of marriage is almost unheard of in this day and age. I salute your parents!! :)

Everyone seems to be saying the same that I must include all grand and great grandkids - thought of embroidering the names around the blocks on the sashing - can't do photos of them all as sadly some are not in contact but I still feel they should be there as I know my parents think of them - thats not too many names to test my embroidery skills only 28 (I think)!!!!!

Someone did a silhuoette quilt with all the kids in her class. That might be a good idea. But have to get all the family members' side head shots first!

Last year I found a book called Memorabilia Quilts: Fabulous Projects with Keepsakes & Collectibles by Rita Weiss and Linda Causee. They had a quilt wall hanging (I think it was made by Rita) for her son's wedding. the guest signed 3 inch squares and she put them into the wall hanging. the design was quite nice. She calls it "wedding of the stars" I found the book at my library and bought my own copy at Alibris, for a very good price. Tried to get a copy of the picture for you but can't find the download so here is a link and you can scroll through to book to see it. I'm sure you could get the grandkids and greats too on this.


http://books.google.com/books?id=jGt...page&q&f=false

If you want pictures instead of signatures you could do that, I think with this design it would be easy to add more squares. Also you could do a photo of each of your parent's children with their spouses (for those married) and then a photo of each set of grand kids by family, like suggested already..
If you do a wall hanging I'd suggest using the colors they used for their wedding, and the 70th anniversary is platinum so maybe something suggesting that too.

Just had another thought....what about a tree..."The family tree" and every one could sign their own leaf.....you could sign for those that can't. At the base of the tree would be your parents wedding picture and then from there up grows the tree. Each branch a sibling for the tree......

i think this is a great idea or i was thinking do the grands and greats on the back - do a two sided - wow 70 yrs - that is special

I agree with Deborahlees, every leaf would have a name on it. or maybe even a small picture of the person.

Thank you everyone for your ideas - its certainly given me alot to think about - will get busy with my pencil and paper - am rather liking the 'tree' idea but then I like the album idea as well - I can see my kitchen table is going to be covered in a zillion bits of paper before the end of the day!!!!

I can see your difficulty if some are out of touch, but perhaps you have older photos you could include (which would be how your parents remember them, I assume?)

When I think family tree I dont think the one with the leaves- I imagine a diagram with the parents at the top, their children in a row below (oldest to youngest, left to right) and then next generation below, and so on.

It does get tricky in modern families though, when you have divorces and so on, and sometimes if middle children have small families or no kids you can get a bit of a hole in your diagram, but I would play around with it. For someone who is really into genealogy, the tree thing is not specific enough about who fits in where, although it is certainly pretty.

Yes I do have some older photos of the missing grandkids (2 of them) all but two of my siblings have the same number of children, of the two one has none and the other has 6 lol!! MORE to think about!!!!

great idea there!

This is a great idea and would work since you don't have pictures of everyone.Plus it shows the progression of the family!