Want to Savor Memories?

Yesterday I finished my Son and Daughter In Law’s Memory Quilt for their Fur Baby.  Rocky was their baby so we wanted something special.  I have made several types of memory quilts and they are wonderful for any occasion.   This next one is for a friend with Dementia and it is used to help her remember who members of her family are.

Sometimes if we do things very much we forget others may be just starting something new and may have questions.  I know I do.  So for anyone interested this is how I make my Memory Quilts.

Step 1.  How big of a quilt do you want?  I have made them from Lap to King size.

Step 2. How many photos do you have?  This will determine the size of your blocks and your layout.

Step 3.  I cut out pieces of paper the size my photo’s will be.  Use these to design your finished quilt.

Step 4. I purchased June Taylor’s -In Computer Printer Fabric  and printed my pictures of on this with my HP Printer.  When doing this I print out 1 small picture to see if I need to adjust the brightness or color of the photo.  I darken my photos as much as possible and still get a lot of details. When this is to my liking I print out my photos.

READ INSTRUCTIONS ON THE PACKAGE OF COMPUTER PRINTER FABRIC I get this at JoAnn’s and use my coupons.

I press the crud out of printed fabrics to heat set the photos.  In fact I press even more than I normally would.

This was my test photo.  I saw the detail of Rocky’s face on the computer, but when printed onto the fabric all was lost.  Even darkening it as much as I could, some of him were lost.

Step 5. Now I Know my border sizes for the photos and cut these out, and attach these.

Step 6. After all borders are on the photo’s lay out your blocks and see what you want.  With the Rocky quilt we wanted him to be the star. For this reason Snoopy(his favorite toy) was my filler fabric.  You may have different size blocks unless all your photo’s are the same size and print orientation.  You can add fabric, or your favorite block.

Step 7. Now let’s put it together.  I start in the middle row.  For me this is my focal row and then build around it.  I continue auditioning my photos with each completed row.  Sometimes the photos “talk” to me and want to be in a different area.

AFTER EACH STEP I PRESS WITH A HOT DRY IRON to make sure the photos are heat set.

 

I sincerely hope these make sense to you and not confuse you.  I have reread this post and it read ok, but I know what I am posting.