Picture & Traditional Block Quilt

Today I’m telling you about the first photo quilt I’ve created, but I don’t think it will be my last! This quilt was a collaborative quilt for a very special co-workers’ birthday.

Collaboration

This quilt was a collaboration. Danielle made the 4 Cricut blocks (using Heat Transfer Vinyl) and the cross-stitch block. She also wrangled us, which is a job in itself. Lisa dug through the Facebook archives to collect the photos needed and order the photo blocks. She also came in clutch when I forgot to wrap the gift. Look at this wrap job she managed using paper she found in the copy room.

I did the remaining quilt blocks and the assembly. If you’d like, here is the link to the YouTube video documenting this journey. It was a fun one with a lot of indecision (which is typical for me)!

Quilt Pattern

As you can probably guess, there was no quilt pattern used for the quilt itself. However, I did a Center Street Quilts FPP to make the dog bone, which you can find here: Dog Foundation Paper Pieced Quilt Block PDF Pattern Bundle – Instant D – Center Street Quilts

Photo Blocks

These photo blocks came from an Etsy shop – called SweetOnStitches. They came quickly, the quality was really good, and I would recommend them if you’re in the market for photos printed on fabric for a quilt!

Fabric

While most of this was just fabric we had on hand, I do know the light blue used was Robert Kaufman Kona Solid – Blue and the backing and sleeve used was Fall Buffalo Check Paws. We got both at Joann Fabrics online.

Quilting

This was quilted with a walking foot and straight-line stitching, using white thread.

Other Features

I think the star of the show was the cross-stitch block. Although I may be bias because I know how much work goes into these blocks. Here is a close-up of the great job Danielle did on this block. The pattern is called “Let’s Bark” – and you can find it on Etsy here – although, I’m not sure if she used this vendor, but they do have a lot of excellent reviews.

The quilt label was made using the lettering on my machine, a heart template I made in Canva and HeatnBond UltraHold.

I also created a sleeve on the back so the quilt could be hung with a curtain rod! I’ve never done that before but also is something I’m going to start adding to quilts that I may choose to display!

Lessons Learned

Each quilt you do teaches you different things. A few things I’d do differently:

1. I would make the inner border of the light blue a full square. You can see I missed the corners on the outside corner blocks. I’d do this by adding borders to the photo blocks themselves on all sides (making sure light blue went across the top/bottoms and the ends).
2. I would add the year to my quilt label

That’s it for me, otherwise, I think it came out really well.

Wrap Up

Have you made a photo quilt, how did you do it? I’d love to hear from you – find me on social media!

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This was linked up to Quilting Jet Girl’s Favorite Finish {May 2024} – Quilting Jetgirl – go check out other great finishes by other quilters!