AboutConnie Hester Expertise Quilting and applique expert.Can advise on the following topics:quilting, art quilts, quilt design and construction, machine and hand quilting, paper foundation piecing, machine piecing, hand piecing, raw edge applique, turned-edge applique and fiber art.
Experience Winning awards in international fiber and art competitions since 1983; http://www.conniehester.com/
BS,MS
See my work and books at http://www.conniehester.com/
Question I'm a first time quilter. I am going to attempt to use the Quiltsmart double wedding ring photo quilt software and Printed Treasures fabric sheets. Do you have any suggestions or helpful hints for me?
Using the photos, cropping, etc., should not be a problem, but I wondered about the printing on the fabric (going through the printer, fraying of the fabric, etc. I saw a question from one of the other quilter's regarding fading of the colors. Do you recommend using the sepia or black/white tones for the photos? Going to attempt a pillow and table runner. It looks like great software and have seen it demonstrated.
Any suggestions or hints for a first time or use of photos, etc., would be greatly appreciated.
Answer Some tips for printing on fabric:
1.) "Scour" your cotton fabric first. To do so, put 1-6 yards through a hot wash cycle in your washing machine with about 1/2 cup soda ash (or washing soda) and about 2 teaspoons synthrapol (or, "Dawn" or "Joy" dishwashing liquid). This removes any invisible grime and surface finishes that may prevent adherence of the ink.
2.) Iron fabric to freezer paper, then trim the fabric-freezer paper to 8 1/2" x 11". Put a strip of scotch tape along the top edge of the fabric-freezer paper. This should be enough to make it easy to feed through your printer. If you do have any trouble, when adding the tape, include a sheet of printing paper under the fabric-freezer paper for strength/stability.
3.) I am not familiar with Printed Treasures' fabric sheets enough to know what they include specifically in their product. IF they simply have Bubble Jet Set solution in them already, and that is all they have, that will make your printed photos water-resistant, but that will not help the lightfastness of the product. Epson Durabrite and Ultrachrome inks are the only printer inks currently on the market which are "pigment-based" inks and maintain both water-resistance and lightfastness. All Epson printers do not have Durabrite inks, but many folks who are printing on fabric are using the low end "C" series printers (including me) to great success. The current model is the C86. With coupons, it is available for less than $100 (for reference). While Bubble Jet Set makes HP's "dye-based" inks water-resistant, it does not affect the lightfastness, and in fact, exposed to light, the printed fabric fades readily. I have had this experience myself. That is why I bought an Epson C84 printer specifically for printing fabric.
4.) I have had great success with both color and black and white. The color of the ink is no issue.
5.) As pigment-based inks sit on the surface of the fabric, I would recommend that you spray a VERY fine, VERY fast mist of spray clear acrylic paint over the surface of the printed fabric to kindof "seal" the surface and prevent "crocking" which occurs on "pigment-dyed" items from abrasion over time. (actually "pigment-dyed" is a mis-nomer, as pigment is not a dye, it is more of a "paint" which sits on top of whatever it is applied to) This fine mist is not enough to change the drape of the fabric.
