If you like this idea but it looks complicated, just adapt it! You don't have to be crazy like me... I did 20 large pictures and a dozen or so smaller ones.
Will's Halo quilt.
Of course, you don't have to make a Halo quilt (unless your "giftee" is a big fan and you know how to get their screenshots on your computer). You can use whatever pictures you want: family pictures, wedding pictures, nature shots, etc.
Before you get your materials, determine how many pictures you want to use. This quilt has 20 screen shots and various other smaller images. I made sure all of my pictures were horizontal, because that was the look I wanted. I don't remember my exact measurements, so once you come up with a design, you'll need to calculate your own.
Materials:
Pictures (mine are 8x10)
Iron on transfer paper (enough for all of your pictures)
Iron/hard flat surface
Pillow case
white cotton fabric to iron the pictures onto
one or two border fabrics
fabric for sashing (i.e., the fabric bordering the picture squares)
fabric for backing
quilt binding (your own or premade)
pearl thread or yarn for tying
thread
printer ink
PREWASH ALL FABRIC
Ok, I'll be honest, there may be a much more efficient/cheap way to do this that I don't know about. This how I did it.
The very first thing is obviously to come up with a design and measurements. When sewing, you always need to make room for seam allowances. On quilts I only use a 1/4 inch seam allowance, so I cut all of my pieces 1/2 inch wider and longer than I want my finished piece to measure. So if I want a 2 inch sashing on my finished quilt, I'm going to cut my fabric 2 and 1/2 inches wide.
Once you know all of your measurements, cut out your fabric pieces using a rotary cutter and being as precise as possible. For the picture squares, I highly recommend white fabric. Why? Because the "light fabric" iron-on transfers work a million times better than the "dark fabric" ones, which I had to go back and sew on because they didn't stick. If you don't like the white border, transfer your pictures first and then cut your fabric with only the seam allowance. You can always add a top and bottom border to make them square (or just leave them rectangular if they're all the same size, which mine were not).
Next, I compiled a file of the pictures I wanted to use, made sure I had extra ink cartridges, and went to town printing out 8x10's. NOTE: Even though I selected "Iron-on transfer" from my printer options, the printer didn't print the pictures as a mirror-image, which is what it's supposed to do, so you need to make sure you use a photo-editing program to "flip horizontally" before you print, and then do a test run on regular paper.
Next, take your squares of white fabric and follow the package directions to transfer the pictures, making sure your picture is centered. The ones I used required you to place a pillow case on top of the transfer while you ironed to avoid melting the picture. I'd use an old one; my pillow case ended up a little scorched after 20+ pictures. I also did the transfers on my counter top instead of my ironing board, because the surface is supposed to be very solid and perfectly flat, which our ironing board is not. If you have a ridiculous number of transfers, like I did, this part takes forever. Do it in a well-ventilated area, because that many iron-ons start to let off some fumes after a while. (I didn't do the "dark fabric" transfers in the sashing intersections until the quilt top was sewn together, but it's the same process.)
Once all of your pictures are transferred, lay out all of your fabric pieces to make sure you like the look of your quilt. Do this before you sew anything together so you can rearrange if you need to.
Sew your quilt top together.
Lay out your backing (right side down), then your batting, and finally your finished quilt top on top. Trim the batting (your quilt top and backing are supposed to be the same size, though this rarely works out for me). Use pearl thread or yarn to tie your quilt, or, if you're ambitious, actually quilt it (I'd recommend not sewing on the actual transfers if you do). Sew on your binding. You're done!
This is hands down the best-received gift I have ever, ever, ever given anyone in my life. I've washed it once and the transfers handled it just fine, but I'm going to try and wash it as little as possible so that it lasts as long as it can, because my husband loves it!
Like I said, this blog presupposes a lot of sewing knowledge. If you have more detailed questions, leave a comment and I'll try to answer them. This was mostly just to show the idea of doing a quilt with pictures.
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