How to make a Photo Quilt, Part 1

If you are a crafter or like to make hand-made gifts for the holidays, you know that you need to start early and know what you game plan is. I have done neither with this gift. I hope I have not pulled out all my hair before I get this photo quilt done for my mom.

I got the idea to do this for her from a flyer that came in the mail just recently. Like so many things I can make myself, I saw the price and said "I can do this better and vastly cheaper". This photo quilt will definitely be cheaper than the one I saw priced, but I'm not sure just how much easier. I finally had luck transferring my first photo today, and after many pitfalls and stops and starts, I'm now printing. I thought I'd share the journey like I did with the Orioles t-shirt quilt I made around this time last year. 

Here is what I know so far in the "how to make a photo quilt" process:

• Use Avery Photo Transfer paper.  I first tried a cheaper brand with poor results.
• Print your photos to plain paper before printing to the transfer sheets: they are not cheap, so test a lot before printing to the transfer paper.
• Make sure your printer is in good working order: plenty of ink, printer heads cleaned, aligned and whatever else you can find on the "tools" option on your printer.
• Use photos straight from a camera: You can't copy from facebook or other online sites, and pictures from phones are not clear enough.  I had family members email me photos
• Here is how I edited my photos to get ready for transfer:
1. Save from email as a JPEG file (I named it person.photo)
2. Open the picture into Pixlr and add text; resave to your hard drive
3. Open that picture using Paint, and rotate the picture horizontally, so that the words are mirror images; resave to hard drive
4. Print a test copy to plain paper and see how it looks.
5. If the colors looks too intense, open into software such as Picasa and lower the saturation
6. Print to your transfer paper
7. Trim, and round your corners for longer wear (suggested by Avery)
• Use white cotton fabric for your photos; I first tried an off-white, and didn't like the appearance.  The photo looks much better on white.
• Iron on following the instructions provided by Avery.  I found they worked perfectly!

I will be glad when this part is over and I get to start sewing.  Gathering the photos, cropping, editing and adding text has been time consuming, but as I learn more, it's getting easier. 

If I do this again, it would be easier to take the photos I want as I see people, taking away trying to get people to dig up a good photo, emailing it and having to edit as I go.

In other words, I should have started in June!