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Playing With Photos
From the premier issue of Quilt It For Kids
Photos on fabric are becoming increasingly popular with quiltmakers, and there are many ways you can use photos to personalize a child's quilt. A bed quilt suddenly has more importance when a label is added with a photograph of the quiltmaker and the child for whom the quilt was made. A child who lives far from some family members will be reminded of them if their photos are on something the child sees daily. The projects shown on the following pages are just a hint of the many possibilities. No doubt, you'll come up with more fun ideas.
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Transferring Photos to Fabric
There are several methods for obtaining a fabric photo. One that is gaining in popularity is printing directly onto treated fabric from your computer. If you have a good quality printer and a photo scanner, or a way to get your photographs transferred to a CD, this would be a good choice. The photos on fabric are soft, clear, and easy to stitch. You need to purchase the treated material made for this purpose. See the resource list at right for more information.
Another method that many quilters use is color-copy heat transfer. This technique produces photos on fabric that are colorfast and washable. Your photographs are transferred to special paper placed in a full-color laser copy machine. Follow the directions that come with the paper, available at some print shops, quilt shops, and by mail order. Be sure that the photos are printed in reverse so that once they are ironed to fabric, they will be in the correct orientation. Do a test patch first. If your iron does not get hot enough to transfer the image successfully, your local T-shirt shop at the mall may be willing to let you use the heat press for a small fee. Be careful when you pull the paper from the fabric after pressing, or the image may get distorted.
In order to get more images on a sheet of paper (so the cost is less), you can crop your photos before you have them transferred to remove extraneous backgrounds, or overlap the pictures, covering up unwanted portions with white paper. The copy machine can enlarge and reduce the image so that your photos on fabric are just the size needed for your project.
There are many mail-order companies that will transfer your photos to their cotton fabric. Select the clearest photos you have that show the subject large enough to see. Remember, a photo transfer on fabric will never be better than the original. Check the resource list for mail order companies and sources for the heat-transfer paper.
You can use photos on fabric as you would any other fabric. The projects below show just a few of the many possible uses.
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