31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

I was actually looking for a photo of a quilt I want to tell you about, when I found this picture of a cake I decorated for my boy’s 4th birthday. I had forgotten all about this! Suddenly I knew what the next instalment in my 31 Days of Everyday Quilt Inspiration series should be.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 27

Today’s quilt inspiration source is probably the most simple of all. If you want to know what someone wants on their quilt, just ask! Especially if that someone is a child. You might be surprised by the answer you get!

When I asked my young son what he wanted on his birthday cake, he gave me a very detailed answer about the monster that he wanted. I didn’t understand a word of it. But it was obvious he had a very clear vision in his head.

So I asked him to draw it. And this is what I got:

All I had to do then was adapt the drawing to fit on the cake, ask him what colour icing he wanted (purple!) and the rest was relatively easy. And he was stoked! Absolutely rapt in the perfect cake he had designed himself. Especially after he had helped stick on the lollies.

It strikes me that I could have just as easily adapted this drawing into an appliqué and made a cushion. Or got him to draw me a few more monsters and made up a quilt. He still routinely draws lots of detailed fantasy creatures. I probably could still get him to participate in such a project.

Quilts from Children’s Drawings

Appliqué is one way you can transfer a child’s drawings to fabric. Some other ways I know that you can incorporate children’s artwork into quilts are:

• iron fabric onto freezer paper for stiffness and get the child to draw on it with wax crayons. Iron the piece over paper towel to absorb out the wax and leave behind the colours.

  

• have the child paint you a picture on fabric with fabric paint or acrylic paints mixed with fabric medium.
• use fabrics paints to print the child’s handprints or footprints onto fabric.
• scan the child’s paper artwork and print it onto printable fabric
• copy the child’s drawings onto fabric with free-motion stitching
• have the child draw you a picture on fabric with Inktense pencils or crayons.
• get your child to decorate some fabric with puff paints.

This is not an exhaustive list. I bet you could tell me more methods – let us know in the comments.

And do you know who else would love a quilt with a child’s artwork on? Their mum or their grandparents. This is not an exhaustive list either…..

So maybe next time you are looking for a quilt project, all you need to do is enlist the help of your nearest enthusiastic little helper(s). I guarantee it will be unique, if nothing else! 🙂

P.S. Hopefully I will find that quilt photo for you tomorrow!

P.P.S. Linking up this Friday with Busy Hands Quilts, FreeMotion by the River and Crazy Mom Quilts.