hildebrandtjane

I have painted myself into a corner with this quilt. After many false starts getting the pictures to come out right, I've finally got the top made. Now I just don't know the best way to put the sandwiches together. l'm afraid to stitch in the ditch as it seems to make the pictures a little puffy and distorted when I want them very flat. I have hand sewn some of my quilts together with embroidery thread every 4-6 inches and this seems to be maybe my only choice. I even bought basting spray and am afraid to use it. I could not get my hands on 505 so I bought Dritz basting spray. The quilts I did before I used the safety pin method then the embroidery thread and this seemed to work fine. I've worked so hard on this one, I don't think I could start over again. It is for my son who is in Afghanistan and the pictures are of his 4 small children and his wife. Any ideas on what I should do?
Thanks in advance

KSellers

Oh please share a picture!!! I've never done one of these, but I understand your concern about distorting the pictures. What about outlining their faces, and then maybe small stippling in the other area?

hildebrandtjane

here is one pic I think

hildebrandtjane

It only took 2 months to get these pics right. I would never use anything except bubblejet solution and rinse.

irishrose

Can you handsew an outline 1/4" around the feature in the picture, then machine quilt the rest? What are you using for battiing? The 80/20 cotton/poly I used for my deployed grandson wasn't very puffy.

What an precious baby!

hildebrandtjane

hmm I'm kind of liking your idea. I think I may have made my question a little confusing. But we will see what happens tomorrow. Yes he's a beauty. My first Grandson.

mucky

I don't have an answer for you but know that quilt I did with photos did not lay well.

LadyElisabeth

There has not been a problem with the photo quilts I have made with Printed Treasure fabric sheets and durabrite ink in my Epson printer. I stitch around the edge of each photo.

suebee

The puffiness (after stitching) is from the batting. use a thinner batting. Ive done these before with no distortion. Good luck.

Oh...I too use the Printed Treasure transfer sheets, they are the best. They are expensive, but sooooooo worth it. I would never use anything else.

QuiltnLady1

I too have made several of these with no distortion. I used a flat batting (Warm and Natural that I wet and dryer dried to preshrink it a bit) and I outlined the major figures and did a filler stitch around the major figures. In the case of the adorable baby, I would outline him (either by hand or machine).

If it was me, I would outline his limbs so he is emphasized. I have actually hand embroidered through the pictures and the batting (not the backing), then added the backing and filled in the background with stippling and cross hatches. I loved the look -- kind of a fake trapunto.

I have only use Printed Treasures fabric to print on and I have used abd HP printer. The fabric is a bit more dense than regular quilting fabric, but it looks good when quilted.