Cashew's Photo Quilt

Background: So my best friends Matty and Cassie are having a baby. With all the rage of celebrity monikers, I decided to combine their names and call them Cashew as a couple (Cassie + Matthew), cause they are both nuts! Boom tish. Now the awesome name has been passed down to their unborn babe. Or as Manuel calls it 'our baby'... Meaning his and Matts baby... Cause they've 'been together' for more than 10 years now............ 

Back to now: Cashew had his/her first grand party - a baby shower - over the weekend, and although still in utero, he/she partied like it was soon to be his/her birthday... probably.... I mean, there's no way of knowing for sure.

So I wanted to made the present to end all presents - A photo quilt featuring pictures of Cashew's family. Babies fucking LOVE quilts......! Right??

Here's what you need:

1m canvas material (to print pictures on at the screen printer - I used 8 photos).

1.5m x 2m material for back - I used gingham cause it's totes my fav for quilts.
1m x 1.5m wadding.
Lots of different quilting fabrics.
Sewing machine, scissors, cottons etc.

Because we don't know the sex of Cashew, I couldn't do it blue or pink themed, so I decided to make a vintage style quilt so Cashew can feel like a hipster baby - everyone will want to Instagram the shit out of him/her.

I scored all these awesome vintage quilting fabrics from a fabric store. Cut the pieces of material into squares about 12cm x 12cm (or however big or small you want them).

I started by mapping out where I wanted each square to make sure the patterns were evenly distributed, leaving space for where I would put each screen printed photo.  It just makes it easier to power through the sewing part.

Start by joining each square together in their horizontal rows making sure the seams are on the right side.

 Double stitch everything and zig zag stitch the edges as well so it doesn't fray or come apart. And ironing all the rows helps. I used Manuel's new $90 pink iron that is super masculine... and it worked a treat.

Once you've sewn each row, sew the rows together one by one until you have a quilt! Sew the quilt on to the wadding leaving a border. The backing material is then folded over and sewn as a border around the finished quilt panel. Like so.

I got the photos screen printed at a place in Carindale but it wasn't the size I wanted so I had to stitch the fabric photos onto quilt squares to incorporate it, but it still looks cool. Feel free to use photos of your own family though as it would just be cray-cray if you used these pictures.... Here are just some of the pics.

 Mum and dad!

 Baby Matty!

 Baby Cas! On the toliet with floaties so she doesn't fall in. Rofl-copter.

 Aunty Kate and Uncle Manny

Matty testing out and clearly loving Cashew's quilt. Feat: finger from Manuel....

Beautiful Mumma Cass (minus a ham sandwhich) beaming with sheer delight at her new family heirloom guaranteed to be passed down to future Howland generations. You can always stitch on more photos for the years to come!

Can't wait to meet Casheeeew.

Tricky xoxo