DIY Network

Family Tree Wall Hanging Keep your family close with a photo-embellished wall hanging. From "Uncommon Threads" episode DUCT-156

Shannon Okey creates a family tree wall hanging (or baby blanket) with family photos.

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Family Tree Wall Hanging

Materials:

family photos and scanner (or digital photos)
inkjet printer
cotton quilting fabric
cotton thread
embroidery thread
quilt batting
needles and sewing machine (optional, if you sew by hand).

1. Gather family photos and make a rough sketch of your family tree on paper. This helps determine whether a vertical or horizontal layout makes more sense.

2. Scan the photos and crop as needed in your favorite software program.

3. To print the photos on cotton quilting fabric, iron the fabric until it's extremely flat. It helps if the fabric is new and still has sizing in it; if you're using previously washed fabric, you may want to spray it with a little laundry starch. Cut the fabric into standard paper-sized sheets (8-1/2"x11") and carefully feed it, sheet by sheet, into the inkjet printer. You may want to do test prints on paper first to make sure the photos are printing at the size you want.

4. On a large table or workspace, lay out the background fabric for the blanket and cut out a tree shape from the darker fabric (figure A). Iron the tree shape down with fusible interfacing to attach the two together (figure B).

Figure A

Figure B

5. Arrange the family photos that you printed on fabric (figure C) (in Shannon Okey's example, they're cut into apple shapes). Attach them with fusible interfacing.

6. Stitch around the "apples" with embroidery thread (figure D).

Figure C

Figure D

7. Arrange the quilt backing, batting and top piece and pin together. Sew around the outside of the quilt.

8. Sew down the tree and "apples" around the edges of each.

GUESTS :

Shannon Okey
Website: www.anezkahandmade.com
Website: www.knitgrrl.com