Thrifty Designs

• Family photos (these will need to be loaded onto your computer somehow, either with a scanner, for old photos, or a memory card from your camera.) Don't choose photos with faces or other important pieces within a 1/4" of the edge of the photo. You'll understand why later.
• A color inkjet printer connected to the computer (no need for anything special. It just needs to able to print color in a decent quality)
• Always have some spare ink for the printer (I always end up starting this kind of project with minimal ink and need to run out and buy replacements, so I would love it if someone could benefit from my mistakes)
• Backing fabric 6" wider and 6" taller than you would like your finished quilt to be (note: these quilts are intended to be wall hangings, not bed quilts, so you can keep them rather small)
   for those who are planning for a rod pocket you must also have a second piece of your backing fabric that is 12" tall and the same width as your first piece of backing fabric.
• Printable inket paper like this:

Given that 5 8 1/2"x11" pages of fabric are in one package, you need to use your math skills to determine the number sheets you will need. Just add 1" to the width and height of each image size.  (if math is not your strong suit, I would recommend printing out all of your pictures that you intend to use with 1/2" border added around each and lay them on 8 1/2"x11" sheets of paper to determine how many you will need.)
Note: In my experience I have chosen one standard height for all pictures so that when they are sewn together you can treat them as strips rather than small pieces of a puzzle.

• Now this is optional, but the quilt I have pictured has a curtain rod and a rod pocket sewn into the quilt so you need to decide before you start how the quilt will hang.  I recommend stores like Ikea or Walmart for this sort of hardware because it will be much more cost effective.
  
• Hopefully at this point you've noticed that you will need to get the correct thread color that matches your chosen backing fabric and not the printed fabric or the colors in your photos. It is always good to have some thread that is an obnoxiously bright color to use for highly visible hand baste stitching as well as hand sewing needles
  
• Pins, Pins, Pins!
  
• Last, but definitely not least, you will need batting.  I recommend low loft batting which will give your quilt form but keep it reasonably flat and easy to work with.  You can find this at any fabric store and most Walmarts (not all have a sewing section.)

Now, if you've made it this far in the post and attained all the necessary tools, then I think you have the patience and stamina to keep up (don't panic).

1. As mentioned above you need to print your photos with the required 1/2" space or blank border around the image.  This represents your sewing allowance (no, you don't get any money out of it)  Print all photos before moving to the next step. Follow printing instructions on product packaging.  There should be a paper backing on this paper fabric, DO NOT REMOVE THIS! Yet.  (it is easier to work with, if the backing remains until just before sewing)

2.  Cut the pictures out leaving the 1/2" border with the photo.  In my quilt I chose to organize my photos chronologically (by date) so it tells a story.  Another idea would be to organize them by person if you have multiple children, then each child could be represented in a section.

3.  Find a reasonably clear area on the floor or on a table and play with your composition or layout.  This is the time to really make your decisions.

4.  After everything is laid out to your satisfaction and you have made sure that each row is pretty much the same length, place each row in a pile with the top photo turned face down and mark the paper backing with the number of the row. Set each pile aside as it is easier to deal with a single row at a time.

5. Take your pile of row one to your sewing machine (wait, don't sew yet)  While keeping your photos in order, remove all paper backings.  Take the first two images, put them photo sides together and sew a 5/8" seam with the second photo faced down on top and sewing on the right side.

6.  Continue through the row until your little pile is all sewn together.  Continue this through all your piles so you are left with several strips of photos.

7.  With your first row photos facing up, flip your second row face down. (If you had x-ray vision the row on top now would be upside down) sew the same 5/8" seam along that bottom and you will see as you continue all of your rows you are getting to a real quilt!

Note: Do not iron anything! This fabric paper is multi-purpose (sew on and iron) on so if you iron any of it, it will instantly bond to any surface you are ironing on including your iron if you iron the back side.

8.  Lay out your photo patchwork face up on top of your batting and cut along the photo patchwork raw edge which should still have that 1/2" border

9.  This is sort of the tricky part. Lay your photo patchwork face up on top of the batting on top of the wrong side of the backing fabric.  It should have 3" of backing showing on all edges of quilt.

10.  Fold the 3" edge to overlap about 1/4" of the border on top of the photo patchwork.  While holding this fold, fold again the outermost edge to cover 1/8" of the photo edge and pin in place.  Do this for all edges if you are not using a rod pocket. If you are using a rod pocket do the left, right and bottom edges leaving the top edge open.

11. You may wonder what to do with your corners, not to worry.  This is the beauty of pins, if you mess up or don't like it, you can just unpin and redo.  All of your edges should be pinned to approx. 3" or 4" from the corner point after we miter the corner, you can go back and finish pinning the edge so it has a nice finished edge to meet the corner. Okay, so here's the miter part. Take the raw corner folding it onto itself by about 3/4." Then fold again so you have two lumps in the edge and fold those to meet each other, creating a nice mitered corner. It may take few tries but you'll get it and don't forget all your pins.

 12. Now use your obnoxiously bright thread to hand baste (a long straight hand stitch that is easily removed) through the quilt along the edge in a way that when you remove the pins the quilt will stay in place in order to machine stitch, it doesn't have to be pretty as you will remove it later.

13.  Use your sewing machine and matching thread to stitch a straight edge stitch approx. 1/16" from the inner edge of the wrapped around backing.

14. Now remove your basting stitch and Voila! you have your family photo quilt. Unless you are doing a rod pocket in which case read on.

15. The second piece of backing fabric (which we will refer to as your rod pocket) should be hemmed on its 12" sides to the width of the finished quilt. You can do this on the sewing machine or by hand but be sure to use your matching thread.

16. Fold your rod pocket in half the long way wrong sides together so that the raw edges meet.  place the raw edge of the rod pocket to line up with the raw edge of the top of the quilt.  Sew 5/8" seam along the raw edge but holding the backing of the quilt away from the needle so that it does not get sewn in this seam.

17.  Flip the raw edges inside the quilt and fold the back behind it and pin so that the rod pocket is now in its finished position with the backing folded over and pinned to the rod pocket. Baste stitch with the obnoxiously bright fabric along the bottom of the rod pocket so that you catch all layers of fabric and batting.

18.  Now its time for the finishing stitch with the machine along where you have previously basted. After this machine stitch remove your hand basting stitch.

19.  Now you can gloat and grin about your new quilt but there is nothing worse that creating such a master piece and leaving stray little threads or basting stitches.  Whatever your do, don't pull! just take a pair of scissors and carefully trim these danglies at the surface.  Even if it is the obnoxiously bright basting stitch, if you trim closely enough, it will just disappear.  And there you go!

Keep in mind there are no stupid questions.  If you find yourself lost just shoot me an email and even send photos if you want and I will try to help you out of any jams you may encounter with this project or any others you may be working on.