AN overview of how I made a quilt from a favorite photo

1. The Making of
“Granddad’s Tote Bag Rides”
July/August 2017

2. Started with a favorite photo

3. Blew it up to approximately 40” x 60”
in B&W – two pieces with an overlap

4. Merged the two halves of the photo
and taped them together

5. Made extra copies of the three faces,
in case I wanted to attempt them

6. Sewed the background from two pieces of
orange fabric and taped it to the floor

7. Taped the photo onto the background & aligned it with
the line where the wall and the floor meet in the photo

8. Close up of the line where wall and
floor meet

9. Cut away the background on the left side and
inserted the yellow fabric for the curtain

10. Wingback chair copied in B&W as a dark blob, so found
a similar chair, positioned at the same angle, online

11. After replacing the wingback chair with a fabric version,
cut away the lamp & table and did the same

12. Cut out Jimmy and, using my sliding glass door
as a light box, traced the lines of his pajamas

13. Used the tracing as the pattern for his
pajamas

14. Built the pajama top piece by piece

15. Built the green ottoman and put the pajama’d
Jimmy on it (still missing his hair & hands)

16. Next, made Jimmy’s hands (looks a bit
voodoo)

17. Added Jimmy’s hair & hands, Stevie in
the tote bag and Dad’s left hand

18. Next, onto Dad’s head, shirt and pants

19. Added Dad’s face, shirt and watch; needed
to trim the hair fabric into his hair cut

20. Approximated his hair and started
work on his pants

21. Finished Dad’s pants and belt

22. Fine-tuned Dad’s haircut

23. Added the soffit on the upper left, the green chair
behind Dad and removed the rest of the B&W photo

24. • With all the elements of the quilt top
completed, now they had to be affixed in
place to the background
• Using two-sided fusible web, ironed strips to
the edges of all the fabric pieces
• Then arranged all the elements on the
background and pressed with a hot iron

25. Next, layered the quilt top on batting & bleached
muslin and pinned the three layers together

26. • Took the pinned-together layers to my sewing
machine to zigzag over every single edge of
every single element with clear thread
• Pressed again, the second time with steam,
activating the fusible web
• Layered the quilt top, batting & muslin on a
backing fabric and once again pinned the
layers together – this time for quilting

27. Close-up of the quilting

28. With the piece quilted, next needed
binding, a hanging sleeve and a label

29. Added the binding & hanging sleeve

30. And the label as the final step

31. The end product

32. So, in summary, took a photo…

33. … to blew it up and selected the major
elements…

34. … made pattern pieces from them…

35. … and sewed them into a quilt!