Photo Memory Quilts

I’ve been wanting to make these for quite awhile – photo quilts. I’ve added photos to other pieces of art, but wanted to make a few that were larger and could be bound like regular quilts or even framed.

This one will be framed. Our trip to Cumberland Lake with Steve and Sharon made a lot of great memories. However, this is one I had no idea I’d do – get on a horse. I found out I really enjoyed the ride.

This was made using my fabric scraps. All are pieces I dyed and/or printed except the fabric right behind the picture. In a weak moment years ago at Joann’s I just had to have it!! This piece is inspired by Lesley Riley’s art. I bought her book Photo Memory Quilts which has a lot of great ideas for creating these quilts. I also took her online class, Fragment Fabric Collage where I watched her process via her videos. When she was selecting fabrics I felt I was with her. I ended up talking to the video – go with that one!! I was amazed that I would have chosen her picks – all but one time!!

Now to show you a bit about my process in pictures. I wanted to make a quilt to show my grandmother, Lillian Haag Schatz and her sister’s relationship. Unfortunately, her sister died before I was born. However, in pictures I see their joy. Her sister has the same big smile in all the pictures I have of her. I think I would have loved her. So I got out some of my fabric. That pink and green piece I printed not long ago with silk flowers. I printed some text and two of their pictures on June Taylor Sew-in Fabric Sheets. Now comes the fun and the challenge.

Here are some of the possible layouts I created. Nothing is fused down, just placed.

Then I did a bit of a change adding the light green fabric and making the dark green fabric smaller.

Then I thought maybe I needed bling. Nope! That doesn’t work!

What about this? No. Let’s go back to square one!

A fellow artist in the SAQA Challenge group suggested that I not have it all squared off. I wasn’t sure what she meant until I started playing with the fabric, and I came up with this.

But it still wasn’t right. What was this quilt about? It’s about sisters who were also best friends. So I made that the title of the quilt.

So let’s get started. I added felt for my batting and added a backing fabric. Then it was on to the sewing machine to sew down the first several layers.

And this is the final quilt. I still need to bind it, but wanted to get this post finished.

It took quite awhile for me to make my final decision on the layout. I’m glad that I spent that time playing with the pieces. I see things I’d like to change, but I’m happy with the final product. A big THANKS to Lesley for her inspirational book and class!

You know how obsessed I am with irises. Well, Schreiner’s Gardens sent me an email about their 2025 calendar. I had to have it for our kitchen. While I was there I ordered a hat for our upcoming hiking trip. I’ve already worn it for our walks in the neighborhood!