[JacarandaTree]

Today I was looking through the various templates on the site and thinking about how people in quilting are making their own fabrics. Then I thought, the designers should use quilt patterns to make templates for photos etc. But the more I looked at the templates I started thinking that these digital papers could be printed onto printable fabric and incorporated into quilts.

My quilting is going in two new directions. One is landscape quilting. Making these custom fabrics is perfect for landscaping fabrics. Because in landscape you don't use a yard of fabric but tiny bits to create the scene. You cut them randomly and then you sew them. For an example of this you can see my latest project - Old Tampa Bay on my Flickr site - karrelbuck - my almost finished version is the last picture I uploaded.

The other thing is something brand new. Our quilt guild is having a challenge - Sunshine & Sisterhood. My idea was to do a scrapbook page with a picture of my two daughters at the beach (interpreted in fabric applique) as the focus and then other elements on the page. Here is a bad picture of the work in progress.

I am going to continue making scrapbook page quilts similar to this and printing my own fabrics and elements onto fabric is going to open my options up. I will still use real buttons or empherma where I want, but I will also be able to print coordinating elements and sew them in.

Them beauty of these quilts is - you don't wash them, so if you perserve your fabric correctly and keep the quilt out of direct light the colors will fade very little.

Think of the art quilts you could do!

[MaryJo]

I'm not sure if I understand you correctly, but let me try. I too am a quilter, and many times, I scan a piece of fabric into my computer to use in a LO. I also do Landscrape and other 3-D quilting, so I understand the scrap part of it.
I do alot of dyeing of my own fabric to use in my quilting, its a very involved process,time consuming, but well worth it. When I use something that I scan into the computer , I use the Cloth paper from Printed Treasures. It is the best on the market to date. I hope this is what you were asking, if not let me know and I'll try to answer it. HTH

[DDecker]

This is an interesting idea. Please remember you need to purchase commercial license products if you are going to be offering the quilts for sale. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[CRS]

I've created two layouts and printed them on the fabric paper MJ described. Then I "framed" them in hoops. I love the way they turned out. Definitely a huge opportunity for creativity in scrapping and quilting!

[DeniseDSM]

Best way to preserve the photos is to use the best fabric printing "fabric" you can buy. Printed Treasures is it, but it is expensive. Very little fading and photos are true color.

[kerryveale]

this is a very exciting discussion. I love art quilts!