dltaylor

Several members has asked how I made the family history quilts that I have listed. Here are my notes on the project, I hope they will be useful to anyone that can use them.

Notes on Family History Quilt

Supplies: Family Tree Panel (ordered on line from Hancock’s Fabrics or Chester County Quilting (http://store.chestercountyquilting.c...ree-panel.html) for around $7.00 per panel. The name of the panel is “Our Family Tree” quilt panel.

I also purchased June Tailor “fabric sheets” for the pictures. These come in white or cream. Just search for the best price, because these can be a bit pricey. One important note on these make sure you order the sheets according to the type of printer you will be using. These come in “inkjet” and “laser”. I always use the inkjet ones; I think the laser ones get a little too hot.

Here are the steps that I used when making my family history quilts.
1> First you have to decide what size pictures you wish to use. Then cut your blocks ½ inch larger than your picture size. In both of my quilts just for sake of not wasting fabric sheets, I did all mine in 8 x 10 prints and cut my blocks ½ larger on all sides.

2> Pictures: I used a program called “Creata Card”, but I have also used a program called “Picture It by Microsoft. Just make sure that the program will not only allow you to edit the pictures, but also allow you to add text boxes under the pictures (optional).

3> I found that turning the pictures to black and white worked best for me.

4> As far as the history “if you want it” under the pictures. I felt that the younger children in the family would find it useful to know the following about their ancestors. Where they were born, what they did for a living, whom they married, who their children were and when they passed on. I also listed the final resting places, incase they wanted to later visit the sites. On the one for my husband’s mother I made a point of listing the “cause” of death, because the men in his family tend to die young of massive strokes, so I wanted my son and nephews to know that they needed to guard their health.

5> That’s it, just lay your pictures our around the tree and use borders to make the wall-hanging/quilt even or larger. I did one of mine with the “attic window” look and the other looked like scrapbook style.

6> Note: printing on your fabric sheets. I downloaded the instructions for the fabric sheets. But please take note to be careful to print on the correct side of the sheet. These sheets are made to be printed as “WYSIWYG” What you see is what you get!!

7> DO NOT DO REVERSE PRINTING. You should only use reverse printing when using printer transfer paper. Nor should you do “mirror image” printing, because your words will be backwards.

8> Another note on printing on fabric sheet. Take a sheet of printer paper and write “front” and “back” on the paper. Print a test picture on the paper just to see which direction you need to load your fabric sheets.

9> I found that once you iron your pictures and ovals and ribbons o the tree, it looked nicer when I stitched around them and it made them more secure.

10> The template I used for printing the ovals and ribbons were created on a word document, again just to save fabric sheets, I created and printed all the ribbons and circles on one fabric sheet. I have attached the word document that I used, just keep adjusting your font size until they fit with the object and then print onto the fabric sheet.