Hand Print Wall Hanging

While researching this project, I saw a lot of different things I liked.  I considered doing prints with paint on a canvas.  My concerns with this project was that I'd need all participants to be present at least at some point.  Another concern was that I was using the handprints of young children and I worried that it would be challenging to get a clear print.  Though I was a little encouraged when I worked with my 2.5 year old making the handprint tree, she was very patient and we worked together to get clear prints.

My vision of a grandparent gift was to include my three children's prints along with my sister's two children's.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought using fabric would be the best medium for me.  In addition, my sister could just trace her kids' hands and send them via email to me.  It was a win, win situation!

Choosing colors for the prints was another part of the project that required careful consideration.  At first I chose grey prints which would match my parents' house.  When I made the hands out of the darker fabrics, the contrast was too much and rather dull.  My family and sister encouraged me to find brighter fabrics.  At JoAnns I was considering different fabrics for each child according to their favorites.  I went back and forth with solids and prints.  Another fabric would be needed for the hearts and borders.  A multicolored print seemed to be the best choice.  When I found this circle print, I fell in love!  Then it became much easier to fulfill the hand print colors and I opted for all solids.

Close up of FMQ spirals

The assembly was pretty straightforward.  I used a heat and bond to adhere each handprint and the hearts, used a interfacing before stitching around hand and heart, added borders and layered my quilt sandwich.  The boring white background was perfect for spiral free motion quilting.  In the hearts, I made some squiggle free motion quilting.

The next step was the binding, though I knew I wanted to add a wall hanging sleeve to it.  Some methods recommended adding it to the binding, while others added it afterwards.  Adding the sleeve to the binding made the most sense to me.  I got a craft board for hanging and regularly put it into the sleeve to check for size and also for where I should stitch the sleeve down.  I'm looking forward to giving it on Christmas Eve!