Here's a special Christmas gift from a very proud granny! All of those blocks in Linda's quilt are reproductions of her grandson's art projects from school. Isn't that so fun? Linda said her grandson's art teacher takes pictures of all the kids' projects and uploads them to a website. Parents and grandparents can then go to the site and order mugs, potholders, shirts, and so much more with their child's artwork printed on them. Linda had the very clever idea of ordering her grandson's artwork on fabric so she could make a keepsake quilt for her daughter. I'm not sure where Linda ordered her fabric, but there are a number of ways that photos and drawings can be transferred onto fabric. There are companies such as Spoonflower.com who will do this for you. You can choose from a variety of fabrics, such as Kona cotton, silk, and even Minky, to have your pictures printed on. You can purchase printable fabric sheets, too, which run through your home printer. These are usually backed with a paper backing that is peeled off once the printing is completed. With either method, you can usually choose visual effects such as black and white or sepia tone to further enhance the art. These can make gorgeous memory quilts. In this case, no enhancement is needed! Linda's grandson Johnny is quite the artist. There are blocks with various animals, one with a heart version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and even a Lego minifigure (although he's much bigger than life size). There is SO much going on! Linda was of course worried about too much quilting on the printed fabrics; the focus is Johnny's art, not the quilting. To minimize interference with the art, I quilted this quilt with a skinny 60 wt thread in a neutral tan. The pictures were large enough that they required some quilting, so I outlined objects in the pictures to help them stand out. This quilt is a gift for Linda's daughter. Linda, ever the proud grandmother, is already collecting Johnny's artwork for next year!