Thinking, planning???
 

My crazy family thinks we need a "family" quilt. Perhaps even a "traveling " quilt. We have thought thru several designs, the Hand Print quilt

The Signed Envelope Quilt

And my personal favorite (so far) the Bookcase quilt

I personally like this one because of the pictures. We are fortunate enough to have picture going back to my Great-Grand Parents. My thought was, have everyone bring their favorite picture of themselves (does anyone have that??) to the next family reunion and make a quilt from them based on the book case?? My question, who to make the printed fabric, I know you can put put fabric thru the printer but who has actually done it? I tried the type you can purchase, don't remember the brand, to make labels but was not happy with the feel of the fabric. If I hated it for a label, I can't imagine a whole quilt. Any advise and personal experience with transferring pictures onto fabric?? One other question I just thought of, would it be a good idea to label each picture of who is who??

I like them all but who is going to keep the quilt? Is it going to be passed around to family members or displayed at family get togethers?

I would first thin of a purpose. When you said traveling quilt, I thought of something nice and sturdy that is made to withstand the adventures when traveling. Unless you are going to make a wall hanging, photos transfers don't wash well.

If you can manage, I would order the fabric through Spoonflower rather than printing it on a home printer. For something so cherished, professional printing really is the only thing that will last. I've done the printable sheets & they're okay, but definitely not permanent. With a little bit of organizing before you upload, you could get multiple pictures on some of the fat quarters. Your "photo" can be up to 11x11 so if you set your photos into rows of 3x2" before you upload, you'll get more mileage. Unfortunately, Spoonflower doesn't let you upload multiple photos to the same cut of fabric. If you have $120 to spend on photo fabric, that's without a doubt the way I'd go. I spend the extra couple bucks for the Kona cotton fabric. It's a slightly denser fabric which yields higher quality photos, but still needles well.

Your cheapest option is to get Bubble Jet Set & run the fabric through your own ink jet printer at home. It gives a faded look to your photos (and continues to fade even more with each wash or exposure to UV light). Printing that many photos is bound to use up your black & color cartridges so be sure to calculate that into the cost. I've found that for me, it's usually about the same cost to print at home vs. Spoonflower.

My husband had a photo quilt made for me one year for my birthday! I treasure it but I wouldn't even dream of letting it walk out of my house! Too many people do not know how to care for quilts! My mother was using a photo quilt for a window covering!! My how fast that quilt came down when I saw that happen!

I would without label photos. this sounds like something that would be handed down, so i would put the name and year if possible. please show us what you decide on.

Don't label photos but label quilt? Did I get that right?

So many ideas. Personally decide on what you want the quilt for then go for it.

I like the hand print idea and am going to try it , What kind of paint do you use? I hope it cleans off easy as We have our reunion at a park

I don't know, I haven't made it yet. Whatever they get to paint t-shirts I guess.