Questions about Photograph Quilt
 

Hi - One of my clients (grandmother) had me make her granddaughter a T-shirt quilt from T-shirts the mom gave to me. After it was done, the grandmother noticed that the mother did not include any T-shirts from the vacations they took with this grandmother (in-law situation), and the mom has since thrown them away. The grandmother paid for the quilt but was sad. She asked me if I could make a quilt from photographs she would give me. While I think it's a sad situation, I also think it may be petty to do a photo quilt and suggested that she should just gather her college T-shirts, etc. to make another one, I told her I would explore the possibility of a photo quilt, though. I have a few questions.
- How do you do it? Is it expensive?
- Do they last (washing after washing)?
- Any other information you give would be helpful. I suppose the whole quilt would be like this.

Thank you for any help you can give me on this one!

I Googled How to Make a quilt from photographs and there are lots of pages with suggestions. When my daughter did it, she saved the photos as sepia prints and then took the photos on a flash drive to a place that printed them on the fabric for her. Trying to run the fabric through her printer did not work at all. It's not cheap.

I've included some photos for t-shirt quilts I've made for others--I also took a photo to a local t-shirt printing shop and had them do the transfer. as far as how washable it is--I do think they tend to fade out if washed much. But I have to say, other than baby quilts, I recommend no frequent washing for any quilt.

I took photos to a place that printed t shirts. They are expensive but printed and hold up well. I have also done the sheets you run thru your printer. Those printed well but faded in a short time. If you do one, I suggest you have her get the photos printed. At least she will have that expense on herself.

I did a photo quilt years ago. I printed the photos myself. It's been kept out of direct sunlight and never washed since it's a wall hanging. However, the photos have still faded a it. I doubt photos you print at home would hold up to repeated washings.

Thanks everyone for your input! I'm going to relay this information to her and let her decide. Thank you!
LaDonna

I have done a photo quilt and if using a laser printer you are going to get better results than an inkjet printer. It is expensive and you may even want to consider having the pictures sent out to be put on fabrics if they are to be washed other wise I don't recommend they be washed. Something like a picture quilt may be better made as a wall hanging.