I forgot to tell you about a big inspiration to choosing quilting as the perfect hobby for me!
It wasn't from only that pretend-quilting pillow from 25yrs ago that I mentioned, but probably even more, from a particular movie.
Did you ever see that movie called Stepmom? It's basically about Julia Roberts as the stepmom and Susan Sarandon as the children's mother. Well, Susan gets terminal cancer and decides to make something very special for each of her children before she dies. So for the rest of the film we see her taking photos and then using them on 2 quilts. She makes a bed quilt for her daughter and a magician's cape for her little boy. It's heartwrenching but got me so excited to do photo quilts!
Although I haven't done a big, primarily photo, quilt, what I have done is use the photo technique in a smaller way on gifts and they've made the receivers so happy. I often include a photo on my label sewn on back and on smaller projects like pillows and quillows. For example, I made a fancy-with-golds quilted pillow with a copy of their wedding photo in the center of the pattern (I forget which one) for my BIL/SIL's 50th Wedding Anniversary. They love it. Thanks, Susan Sarandon. Eventually I would've found and tried using photos, but watching the projects grow over 2hours of this movie inspired me to start out in my first year having this rewarding technique.
See that square in my avatar quilt? It's a photo of a dish broken into 4 pieces and a "whole" dish surrounded by the Broken Dishes pattern. I wanted to symbolize how a "broken" victim of sexual assault or domestic violence can become whole again. The photo helps me do that.