From picture to fabric

Last week we showed you the quilt block Thimbelina's Quilt Shop created for the upcoming Scenes of Montana-themed Big Sky Shop Hop (click here read more about that block or head here for Shop Hop info.). We based our design on a picture taken by Livingston photographer Keelia Islay of Islay Photography. Julie LaDuke of Jule's Jewels Patterns helped us create a quilt focused on Keelia's photo.

We love the idea of using special photos for a really cool, meaningful quilt. Just think of the possibilities! A quilt with pictures of the kiddos for Mom or Grandma for Mother's Day. A wall hanging with photos of different generations for displaying at a big family reunion. A quilt with images from your town (like our Livingston block!) as a going away gift for a dear friend.

It's pretty simple—and affordable—to get your photos ready to quilt. Here's how we did it: First we got permission from Keelia to use her photo. Then we used Photoshop to turn the picture in a 5-inch square, just right for basing a block around. We put the image file on a little flash drive and headed to Insty-Prints of Livingston.

Insty-Prints printed the image onto iron-on transfer sheets. We took those to Mountain Air Sports of Livingston where they transferred the images onto blocks of Kona white cotton that we'd cut.

After that, we were ready to round out our image with flying geese in gorgeous batiks. The whole process of getting the image ready and processed by the two shops took about a day—super fast for such a great, unique result. We created about 60 image blocks to sell as kits during the Shop Hop. The cost per photo block worked out to be around $1 a piece. So creating your own picture blocks for a great project would be budget-friendly way to add a really special touch.

If you make a photo quilt, be sure to stop by the shop to show us your neat project! And don't forget to put the Shop Hop on your calendar: April 25-May 10.