Have you ever received a card that you wanted to cherish forever, but for whatever reasons, it got destroyed, or lost, or what have you? Well, I have a solution for you. Do you quilt? Would you like to learn how? At least give it a try? Quilts are kept as heirlooms, and are never pitched, rarely lost, and passed down as cherished and loved by many. So, if you have a card that you would like to keep forever, make it into a quilt.

I have never put much into saving or keeping greeting cards; birthday, Christmas, whatever. I just don't have the space to keep them, and it is unlikely that I would have time to look at them again at a later date. But, there are those that have really caught my attention. One friend gave me a card and I was just delighted. She was puzzled at my excitement. :) It was just a card, not a gift attached, but she gave me the best gift you could give a quilter. It was a card with the Drummer Boy and a sheep. It was perfect for another charm quilt, as I delight in the idea of a project that involves lots of pieces. I put it away for the time being, but kept it in my quilting folder. I took it out 4 years later and have the top completed. It still isn't quilted yet, but I plan to get to that soon. For now, it is a top that I have waiting for its final stage.

There are many techniques that you can use to go from greeting card to quilt top; piecing, applique, embroidery, embellishments, etc. And, you can find many books on quilting and how to do each of these techniques, and many more that I haven't mentioned. There are even subcategories; like hand piecing versus machine piecing, hand applique versus machine applique, and so on. So, I will just get to the meat of what I am describing here.

First, you will probably want your top a lot bigger than the greeting card itself. My first card that I made into a top was pretty much graphed out, as that was the way the picture appeared, like hand dyed fabric, sewn into small squares, sewn into horizontal rows. I didn't do much calculating with it, because it was already graphed out for me. I did need to decide how big I wanted my quilt. According to how many squares there were vertically and horizontally, I decided that I wanted a 1.5" finished square. The quilt top went from being 3"x5" to 48"x63". I had to use a combination of machine piecing and hand applique. I plan to embroider the face as soon as I get to quilting it.

The next card I started, was a picture of the Holy Family in a manger with all the animals, shephards and wise men outside. I graphed that picture out, by using a light sharpened pencil to break it up into small squares that I could separate into different colors. I marked it at 1/16" intervals, and found that even if I used a 1" finished square, the quilt would take up my whole wall, or I would have to break it up into three bed sized quilts. That would be too big, so I did it a little differently. I decided on a 1/4" square, but that I would cut the squares all out of my scrap bag, and glue-stick them to a graphed out material. I would have to overlap them, and put a net over the pieces to tack them down by machine with transparent thread. That is still a work in progress. :)

The other idea I have for that one, is to use the graphed out picture, as a guide to make the pieces larger for an applique quilt. So, I would then use a 1-1.5" graph to hand draw the pictures out like we did in art, and those fun activities pages on long trips when I was a kid. Make them into applique pieces using freezer paper templates or something of that nature, to complete my wall hanging. I used this technique for a wall hanging that I made for my father in law, of a tractor in a farm scene. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of that one.

The really fun and maybe difficult part of the progress is in fabric choices. For my drummer boy, there were so many hues that I had to hand dye my own fabric, (or there are fabrics you can buy online), to have all the different blues and purples, pinks and browns, etc. A lot of time you can use the scraps you have available, as you want it to look like a quilt, your inspiration is the card itself.

After making the quilt top, you want to finish it by quilting it, of course. I am not so good at that, as I love the creating through piecing and applique, but  I get to it eventually, or have been known to send my tops out to be machine quilted by a professional. But, that will make it the heirloom you want it to be. Be sure to add where you got your inspiration on the quilt label, along with all the other important information like your name, address, and year it was created and finished.

If you have any questions on copyright issues, as I was a little concerned over this topic, you can find the card maker and ask permission to use their card for your quilt theme, especially if you plan to duplicate it in its entirety. Maybe you will get lucky, and they will want to promote its picture into another greeting card. :)