Photo Quilt: Finished — Leslie Unfinished

Sep 21

Sep 21 Photo Quilt: Finished

I've finished the photo quilt with mixed feelings. Here's the good and bad of it all.

Good: I love the fabric we chose. Since this is a quilt that will be kept and saved, a classic color scheme and pattern was the way to go. I really like the dark small geometric print around the photos, I think it makes the photos pop.

Bad: The geometric around the photos. I need to keep reminding myself that fabric is rarely printed straight. This geometric pattern is such that it must be cut straight on the design. If it's not, it'll look like it wasn't sewn straight. It wasn't a big deal, I just had to cut single layers, lining my ruler along the lines of the design.

Good: A wide 6-inch border with straight-line quilting. Also, on this quilt, since it's all about the photos, I bound it with the same fabric as the outside border. That way, the border just disappears and the photos remain the focus.Bad: Machine quilting black on black. My eyes will never be the same.

Good: The Printed Treasures photo panels are easy to use.Bad: I published a previous post on how to start making a photo quilt. I followed the manufacturer's instructions and rinsed each photo, separately, for 2 minutes. I didn't notice a bit of fading, which was great! After completing the quilt, I needed to get it just wet enough to put it through the dryer to crinkle it up so the quilting would show up better. Imagine how sad I was to see that some of the ink from the photos ran onto the others. It's not horribly bad in person, but it's extremely disappointing none the less.

Good: The photos have strong, good color.Bad: The photos don't shrink anymore after that initial rinsing. Since the photos air-dried after the first rinse, I really thought they'd shrink up a bit more after putting them through the dryer. They didn't. So, I would definitely pre-wash my fabrics in the future. And the batting too, or just use a polyester batting instead. You can see that the photos don't lie completely flat. But, because you don't want to quilt through the photos, those blocks are going to be a little loose anyway.