Free customized family photo quilt pattern - LUCAS pattern

Here is a patchwork pattern for beginners to make a quilt or contemporary patchwork blanket with your family photos. The effect is so pretty that experienced quilters looking for a quick personalized photo project might be tempted...

This easy pattern is offered with several variations: with or without strips between the squares, with or without a large photo. It is also an excellent quilt project to use up your fabric scraps!

The materials needed to make this customized quilt of your family photos

The quantities indicated correspond to a quilt of the model's dimensions: 80 patchwork blocks for a total size of about 130x160 cm. This project is very easy to enlarge or reduce, just add blocks.

• A photo panel of 13x13 cm printed on cotton fabric for patchwork that you can easily create in the FibraCreativa Prints shop.
• A large photo printed on fabric measuring 42x28 cm. You will find in the shop a 45x30 cm photo, to be slightly trimmed to fit the dimensions of this quilt.
• About 70 squares of 13x13 cm of assorted printed fabrics (matching each other and the photos). It's time to dig through your drawers...
• White fabric for patchwork (about 1 m)
• Fabric in a matching color for the binding, plus fabric for the back of the quilt (about 140x180 cm).
• Batting for patchwork (140x180 cm approximately).
• Cotton threads for sewing and quilting.

How to make LUCAS the customized photo quilt

 Seam allowances are 5mm. The instructions are given to optimize machine sewing. Of course, the quilt can be sewn and quilted by hand.

Cutting the patchwork pieces

• Cut 13x13 cm squares from the printed fabrics.
• Cut the photos (13x13 cm)
• Cut white fabric strips 3 cm wide. 

Top sewing

• Arrange photos and printed fabric squares of 13 x 13 cm along a fabric strip so that the right edge of the squares aligns with the white strip. Sew, then press the seam open, and trim the squares. You get blocks made of squares with a white strip sewn on the right side.
• Repeat this operation to prepare all the blocks. Attach a white strip to the right side of the large photo in the same way.
• Distribute the blocks harmoniously to compose the quilt, spreading out the photos and printed colors, and placing the large photo wherever you want.
• Once satisfied with the composition, sew together the blocks of each horizontal row.
• Then assemble the rows together, paying attention to the vertical alignment of the blocks to get clean intersections. 

Borders, finishing, and stitching

• Cut strips 12 cm wide and the height of the quilt from the white fabric, and sew them on the left and right edges. Then add the top and bottom edges in the same way.
•  Make the sandwich with batting and backing fabric and quilt to your liking. Yes, I know, we all hate finding this expression in instructions that leaves us puzzled... So here's a suggestion: this pattern lends itself well to grid quilting, 1 cm from the seams, as shown in the detail photo. Easy to do and a nice effect.
• And there you go, all that's left is to place the binding, sew the label on the back, and your personalized photo quilt is finished!

Composition variants for the customized LUCAS quilt

Here are some variations based on the same pattern: 

1. Replace the large rectangular photo with a square photo 28x28 cm or 42x42 cm (print 30x30 or 45x45 cm respectively). This is a good option if you want to place the photo in the center on a square quilt, with a medallion layout.
2. Remove the large photo, the quilt is also very pretty with only small photos (image below), and the composition will be even simpler.
3. Eliminate the white strips between blocks. Simply sew the squares directly together.

To further personalize your patchwork blanket, you can add printed squares with personalized texts as in our example. It's very simple to do when you order your photo panel.

How to adapt the dimensions of the LUCAS patchwork blanket

To create a larger blanket, 2 options:

• add blocks until you reach the desired size. You can also vary the dimensions (wider, longer, or square blanket). For a very large quilt, consider adding photos so that the photo/printed fabric ratio remains roughly equivalent. Bonus, this allows you to include more people or situations. 
•  make larger squares, for example by choosing a 20x20 cm photo panel and cutting the other printed fabrics to the same size. Your project will grow faster and be less laborious than using small squares. Larger blocks look great on a large blanket, and moreover, the faces will be more visible!

Some tips to better succeed with your photo quilt

Take care of color harmony

Color harmony is one of the factors that determines the success of a quilt.

If the photos are in similar colors, it greatly facilitates the choice of printed fabrics. Just coordinate the fabrics with the photos. For example, with the photos below, one could choose prints in beige, gray, and steel blue tones.

But what to do if your photos reveal a potpourri of colors? Here are 2 tips to achieve a harmonious result: 

• choose prints that are also very varied and include most of the colors present in the photos.
• convert photos to black and white (or sepia) before printing them on fabric, as explained in this post.

Happy sewing!