Quilt squares in a rainbow of colors and designs are above and below a white strip of the design that has the Spoonflower brand name and logo to the left-hand side and says Cheater Quilt design-a-long to the righthand side.

Join us for a multi-week series with Becka Rahn, co-author of The Spoonflower Handbook, on learning how to transform your favorite photos into the perfect memory quilt. Each week, starting Tuesday, November 17th, we will share a lesson or two on the blog with instructions on how to execute a bite-size piece of the project. We used Instagram photos and a polychrome theme, but you can use any special photos and color palette. Share your progress using hashtag #Spoonflower along the way using the social media platform of your choice! (Note: This group design-a-long has now passed, but you can join it at your own pace by following along with all of the posts at this link!)

Becka Rahn stands with her cheater quilt, which has a gray background and six large squares. On the top row from left to right, the squares are purple, then blue and then green. On the bottom row from left to right, the large squares are red, then orange, then yellow. Inside the large squares are five rows of five blocks. The purple block has 25 smaller designs that also have purple in them, etc.

When I look at my Instagram feed with its grid of squares, I can’t help but think of a patchwork quilt, and that was the inspiration for this project! We are going to design a photo “cheater quilt,” which means instead of piecing together all of the different fabrics, we will print the patchwork style design on a yard of fabric and use the whole cloth for the quilt. The finished quilt will be 56×36 inches; a nice kids- or lap-quilt size or great for hanging on the wall as an art quilt.

This quilt design is made up of 6 photo patchwork squares—one in each color of the rainbow—on a neutral colored background. Instead of choosing random photos for each patch, I curated my collection of photos and grouped them by color. The subjects of the photos really are random (from rubber balls to dragonflies to bubble wrap), making the quilt almost like an “eye spy” game.

A closeup of a cheater quilt, a quilt comprised of small blocks of designs printed together in a quilt block format. The blocks most close up are of some small green designs, some florals, some geometric, some botanical, grouped together in blocks. On top of the green blocks and to the right side are strips of gray fabric. The edge of groupings of orange themed blocks are to the top left and some blue themed blocks are to the top right.

Happy creating!

+Becka