A Surprise 30th Anniversary Photo Quilt!

In a recent post I referenced a quilt pattern, 30 Stars for 30 Years, that I purchased especially to make a quilt as a remembrance of our 30th anniversary. I intend to do that this fall. However...

Little did I know the girls were planning quite the surprise for us with a quilt of their own. When we returned from our trip this week, we were presented with a 30th Anniversary Photo Quilt that Hannah and Sarah made while we were away. The final stitches were sewn just a couple of hours before we arrived!

Jonathan was part of the surprise, too, and he donated money to help out, contributed ideas/scriptures for the quilt, and basically gave support to the girls as they burnt some midnight oil finishing the quilt before we returned.

Here we are outside holding the treasured quilt:

In the four corners are pictures from our wedding in 1980. Each of the other pictures is a photo taken of us from each year of the 30 years we've been married.

As the girls were scouting through old albums looking for pictures of us as a couple, there were no pictures of the two of us together to be found anywhere for years 1984 and 1985. They opted for a photo of me with baby Hannah in 1984 and Tom with Micah, Hannah, and baby Jonathan in 1985.

So...make sure you find time to take a picture of you and your spouse each year as you grow old together. You never know when you might make an anniversary scrapbook or when someone will need those photos for a quilt! :)

Here are some of the ideas and scriptures written on the quilt:

• "You place importance on spending time together as a family."

• "You have set a godly example of fulfilling your Biblical roles of leading and following."

• "You highly value prayer and pray faithfully for each of your children."

• "Mother dear, thanks for homeschooling us and writing us welcome-back-to-school notes!"

• "I appreciate your desire to maintain Biblical convictions in our family even though they may be against the flow of the world."

• "For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations." ~ Psalm 100:5

And 20+ more blocks are written within the quilt for us to read and treasure. I wish you could see it in person! I am thrilled to have this remembrance! I love the whole idea! What a wonderful gift!

Now Hannah will describe below how she and Sarah went about making the photo quilt.

~Deb

We had just over a week to bring to fruition our idea of making a photo quilt for Mom and Dad while they were away. A trip out to the local quilt store to choose our fabric and we were ready to get started. The pattern we used was from the book Block Explosion. This site and this site written by experienced quilters helped us understand the process of printing photos on fabric.

Most of our photos were old prints that we scanned, corrected, and cropped into squares. We had to force ourselves not to reminisce too much as we searched through old albums so we could keep on schedule! Each photo was printed on a square of fabric that had been backed in freezer paper, allowing a stiff printable canvas to be put through our inkjet printer.

To ensure the printer ink becomes permanently dyed onto your fabric, the fabric squares first have to be soaked in a special solution called Bubble Jet Set 2000. None of our local stores carried this product, so we ordered it online from the company that makes it. This method is much more economical and gives better results than the pre-treated sheets you can buy. I wish I had a photo of Sarah and the mounds of bubbles as we hurriedly hand-washed the finished printed squares in the sink.

After the important prep work was done, with 2 sewing machines whirring we put together the quilt top in one day. Here I am hand-lettering the Scripture verses and 30 things we appreciate about Mom and Dad.

Sarah and I took turns quilting the layers together the next day, adding stippling around the borders. We finally completed the binding and label on the afternoon our parents returned. Making this surprise to honor them was worth the pressure!

~Hannah

Comments

[Angelina Fracchiolla]

What a beautiful Quilt..I made one similar about 3 yrs ago and presented it to my parents on Christmas..I will have to try to get a photo of that and share it with you..I am happy to hear you all had a wonderful trip..We just signed papers today for the offer on the home so Lord willing we will hear something back soon..Clete also passed his certification test and now has to take one more...Oh I also like the diaper post..we cloth diaper..but I must admit I bought all of mine ( to lazy to sew them myself ) we use 3 different kind..Bum Genius, Fuzzi Bunz and Green Sprout..You did a great job in the making of ALL those diapers. ( I believe it was Sarah )

Many Blessings
Angelina

[Lisa Q]

Oh, how simply beautiful! They did a wonderful job; what a proud mama you must be.

Happy 30th Anniversary!

Lisa Q

[Rose]

You and Tom must be so proud of your delightful, clever and grateful children. The quilt is just beautiful.

[Bet]

Love this! Good work, Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah! Can't wait to see it in person.

[Leslie From VA]

A round of applause to Hannah and Sarah!!!!

WOW.....it is beautiful!

The fun thing is that you actually surprised your Mom!!!! :-)

[Chris]

Beautiful! What a sweet gift, the thought that went into it and the hard work...soooo special. I agree with Leslie from Va, surprising Deb was fun! :) Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah, how many tears did your mom shed? :) You kids are truely a blessing to your parents. Again, a very thoughtful gift.

[Tonya]

What a wonderful example you have been to your children. That spills over in this beautiful tribute to your marriage.

I stumbled upon your blog today...and can't wait to follow along.

We homeschool as well (do you realize how many quilters in blogland do?) and I am intrigued with your homechurch link over on the side...heading there now!

[Tammy]

Oh! It's beautiful! What a special gift!

[Islandsparrow]

Such a sweet gift!! And what a wonderful anniversary surprise! It is sure to become a family heirloom. How lovely!

[Tammy]

What a nice surprise! I am very impressed that they made this in one weeks time.

Enjoy!!

[victoria]

What a beautiful picture of faithful parents bringing up faithful children. I'm sure that quilt will be a treasure for generations to come.

Victoria

[Kathie]

What a wonderful gift idea! That sure was a lot of work for one week. I am amazed that you pieced your quilt together...and THEN wrote on it. What if you'd goofed?!

Thank you for sharing. Such an heirloom treasure for sure.

[Susan]

It's beautiful! The girls did a great job! I showed your picture to Wes and he was pretty impressed with it too. I suddenly realized that he'd never seen a picture of the two of you!

[Dorothy]

What a wonderful gift! How exciting it must have been to have such a surprise made in honor of your 30th anniversary! Hannah, Jonathan & Sarah...you done good. :-)

[Janice]

what a beautiful idea and an heirloom of memories

[Carrie]

This almost brought tears to my eyes. As a quilter, I know how much time and effort goes into a project like this. And how much fun going through all the pictures! Congratulations on 30 years and rearing such thoughtful children.