My avatar quilt has photos, but I went to a special place to have them transferred to fabric. Although they are heat set, they are not like most t-shirt prints, the "ink" is actually fused into the material. The quilt has been washed numerous times, and the photos have not changed at all. I was given a guarantee that the photos would not fade even after 50 washings. This being said, the process was not cheap. There are 20 photos on my quilt, and the cost was around $300.00 in 1995.