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Dyebased vs. Pigment inks

February 15th, 2010

We get a lot of questions about the relative merits and usefulness of dyebased and pigment inks for inkjet printers. The discussion has been mainly confined to Epson printers, although there is now an HP printer which uses pigment ink. (However, because HP has named both their dye and pigment inks Vivera, it can be hard to tell what you have.)

I’d like to share a post (with permission) from a Yahoo group I belong to. The group is called InkjetFabricPrinting, and a recent discussion was considering the best inks for quilt art. This reply from Steven J. Greenfield was so clear, I asked him if I could pass it on to you.

“Dye based inks (not to be confused with fabric dyes) will wash right out of untreated fabrics. Even a spot of water on it will cause a pale spot. Stick it in a washing machine, and you are lucky if you can see a ghost of the original image. You’ll probably still see the dark blacks if you used an HP or Canon, because most of their printers use dye colors but pigmented blacks.
That’s because dye inks are very water soluble, being color dyes held in solution. The pretreatment provides something for the dyes to soak into and then provide water resistance. When done this way, some excess dyes that didn’t soak into the pretreatment will wash out on the first wash. Or even if you get it wet, so it is a good idea to wash on gentle cycle after giving it a week to dry.

Dye inks printed in this way are -not- heat set. In fact, at least one person here has reported in tests that attempting to heat set inkjet dye or pigmented inks is bad, better to let it sit a week. Inkjet inks contain things such as glycols that keeps them from completely drying out quickly so that inkjet heads don’t constantly clog. They won’t feel wet, but they are slightly damp. Print onto a non-absorbant surface (I also run a Group for printing directly onto copper for acid etching) and you’ll see it takes a long time to get past being tacky.

Pigmented inks are more like paint, in that they are little chunks of pigment floating in a carrier liquid.

Pigmented inks don’t sink in as well, but how thick is fabric? They are not water soluble once dried, but they are subject to crocking (rubbing off) if not post treated with some kind of holder such as acrylic clear.

Same suggestions about no heat treatment, just let it sit a week.

In general, inkjet dye inks are good for things that must be washed such as clothing, where the life of the clothing itself makes the eventual fading of the dye inks moot. And pigmented inks are good for things that will rarely be washed because they are not worn, but which you wish to have a long, fade-resistant life, such as wall hangings, bed quilts, wall quilts, and decorative items.

If I were printing on fabric for something like a coat that won’t be washed much but will potentially be in the sun and rain, I think I’d choose pigmented ink with a post-treatment. Same with something like a tire cover or couch cover, where the slight stiffness of the post-treatment isn’t an issue. But for a shirt, I’d use pretreated fabric and dye inks.

Fabric dyes that are made to be used in inkjet printers and dye sublimation inks for inkjet printers are a whole ‘nother kettle of fish. Their behavior, heat treatments, and future life are determined by the type of fabric dye as some are for natural fibers and even then it depends on if it is cotton or silk. Whereas dye sub inkjet inks are only for polyester/polymer fabrics and require special pretreatments to be applied to anything else, and also must be heat set at a specific temp for a specific time. For those who don’t know, fabric dye inks for inkjets cannot simply be ironed to “heat set”. It is impossible to get them evenly set this way, you aren’t just drying them out. Some require dry heat from a press, some require specialized steamers.”

Here is a link to the group if you are interested: inkjetfabricprinting@yahoogroups.com

Wood-framed fabric photos

January 19th, 2010

The holiday festivities are over, and I finally have time to get back to work on the Paris hexagon quilt. Unfortunately, there is nothing exciting or romantic with what I am doing now. I’ve stitched all the blocks into rows, and now I am stitching the rows together. As you probably know, you can only stitch one side of a hexagon at a time, so I’m just plugging along.

However, I thought I would share with you my method for putting quilted fabric photos in wood frames. Marv and I are especially fond of the way fabric photos look in rustic (or barn wood) frames, and I did several of them for the craft fair we had a booth at in December.

The first step is to cut a piece of 1/4 inch foam board to fit the opening in the back of the frame. You don’t want it too tight, it needs to fit easily. Then I center the piece of foam board on the back of the quilted photo and trace around it. I stitch through the layers on this line, and trim the piece about 3/8 inches from the stitching. Then I separate the front and backing and trim the batting to the stitching. This makes for less bulk at the edges.

I like to use microfiber suede cloth as the final layer that will show on the back of the frame, but I also use muslin frequently. I layer the right side of the final layer with the right side of the photo and stitch them together on three sides about 1/8 inch outside the stitching line I did in the last step. Then I trim the corners diagonally, again to reduce the bulk.

The next step is to turn the quilted photo and the back layer right side out and slide the foam board into it, just like a pillow into a case. I slip stitch the open edge closed. Then I insert the stiff photo into the frame, and fasten it with small brads. This process is easy to do and results in a nicely finished back. Here is a photo of the front and back of one of our recent pieces. Let me know if you’d like more explanation or photos of the process.

Framed photo

Framed photo

Back of framed photo

Back of framed photo

Finally finished one!

November 15th, 2009

Since I wrote last, we have had a three-week odyssey, traveling first to Winter Park, Colorado, for a weekend retreat, then to Santa Clara, California, for the Pacific International Quilt Show, then to Berkeley, for lunch with Marv’s old college buds, then a stop at the Grand Canyon on the way home for some hiking with some of our kids. We got home just in time for nearly 20 inches of snow!

Orange Vase with Sunflowers

Orange Vase with Sunflowers

But I digress. I’ve been working more on my ideas using the EQ Printables Cotton Lawn fabric, and have finally finished one piece. I printed, then cut out a bunch of sunflowers and other flowers that I thought would go well. I also photographed several vases, because when I began arranging the flowers, I didn’t like the way they looked just scattered on the background. Because the orange plastic vase I ended up using was transparent, I added some stems and leaves to it, then photographed it against the background.

By the way, the background was designed using techniques in Piecing With Pixels, the mind-expanding book by Sandy Hart and Gudny Campbell. The original photo was of lichen, and I changed it to basically texture, using Photoshop Elements.

I’ve been experimenting to see how much quilting I like on the images. I don’t really want to thread-paint them, but I do want to add texture from the stitching. I’m finding that if I leave about 1/8 inch between the lines of stitching, it gives them room to breathe. Here is a picture of the finished piece and a closeup.

Quilting detail

Quilting detail

For some of the quilting, I am mostly  using King Tut variegated thread when I want the stitching to blend and not be a focus of the piece. You can barely see the quilting in the background, although it is stippled vertically.

However, once in a while, I want the stitching to be more of a design element, and then I use Madeira rayon embroidery thread for a lovely shiny look.

Fun with Cotton Lawn

October 2nd, 2009

I’m having so much fun with a new technique I’ve come up with, loosely based on a workshop by Phil Beaver. I wanted to try his applique/quilting technique with inkjet printed images. He paints on a high-thread-count fabric to avoid raveling, and with some experimentation, I discovered that EQ Printables’ Cotton Lawn also does not ravel. Here’s a short synopsis of what I’m doing:

EQ Printables Cotton Lawn

EQ Printables Cotton Lawn

Step 1: Print your images on Cotton Lawn fabric. You can delete the background if you like, but it’s not necessary, due to Step 2. (Click on the image to order, I hope.)

Step 2: Cut out your images (just like paper dolls!) and arrange them on your background fabric.

Step 2

Step 2

Step 3: Use a toothpick to make small dots of Elmer’s Glue to hold the applique in place. No problem to move it, just peel it off and reposition, then glue again.

Step 3

Step 3

Step 4: Layer the top with batting and backing.

Step 5: Quilt, using free motion stitching. Begin close to the edge of each image, then add detail as desired.

If you’d like to see a demonstration, come to our booth (723) at Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara,Oct. 15-18. I’d love to show you how much fun the technique is.

PS: Hooray, I finally got photos in the way I want them!

Hexagonal Log Cabin blocks

September 16th, 2009

I have been working on my Paris Toile quilt, which involves hexagon log cabins. Rather than cut out all the pieces required for the pattern (83 hexagons x 6 strips to go around each one = 498), I decided to strip piece them. I added a strip to the side of a hexagon, then pressed the seam toward the hexagon, and trimmed the end of the strip. The angle of the remaining strip was just right for one end of the next log. I continued in that fashion until I got all the way around. I discovered that this was a very economical way to use my fabric, since there were very few scraps.

It turned out to be important when I added the second round of logs. I had purchased French fabric for the quilt at Road to California in 2008, and found a stripe (see photo below) that I wanted for light logs. I thought I had purchased plenty of fabric, but after I had cut the stripes apart and started piecing, I discovered that there wasn’t enough. Challenge #1 was solved by using another one of the stripes, but that led to Challenge #2: The second stripe was not an allover pattern like the first one, but had trim along the edge. I didn’t have enough to use the same edge to stitch to the hexagon each time (since the method for the first round of logs alternated edges), so I just went ahead and stitched whichever side was up next. Fortunately, the finished strips are narrow enough that it’s not going to be very noticeable.

In the photo of the fabric below, I am using the first two stripes for the outer log cabin row, and the center stripe with the yellow border will become the border of the quilt (I think). Below that is a photo of one of the completed blocks.

French fabric for Paris quilt

French fabric for Paris quilt

One of the completed blocks

One of the completed blocks

What will you leave behind?

August 10th, 2009

I’m going to change the subject for just one post here. Two quilters, one my sister-in-law and one a member of my bee, died this summer. Dealing with what they left behind has been a challenge.

I didn’t know Shirley very well, although I did know she was a quilter, loved to go to Houston, had just bought a longarm machine. She and my brother lived on the Eastern Shore, we live in Colorado, but we had a short visit in Texas with other family members in March. I’ll spare you the details, but she died very suddenly after surgery in June. My brother was stunned, and I was unable to get to her services. I offered later to help him deal with her quilting supplies, and he jumped at the offer.

I had been a member of Sue’s bee for quite a few years, and we had all seen her through one round of cancer treatment for colon cancer (get your colonoscopy, please!) three years ago. She had come through it with determination, and we were hopeful of the same results when she had to go through it again this spring. But things did not go well, and she died after 10 days in hospice. Early on, she had asked us to dispose of her quilting things, especially because she was single, and no one in her family would know what to do.

I was very fortunate, in that Shirley was a very organized person. Her fabrics were sorted by color, her projects had patterns and parts and pieces stored together, her magazines had been sorted by title. Even so, it was a challenging undertaking. I’d estimate that I sorted, packed, and stacked about a ton of stuff in three days. Members of her church quilting group agreed to take the supplies; some will go to charity groups, and some will be auctioned for the benefit of the church. Some of her finished quilts will be staying at home, others were given to family and friends.

Sue’s things were not as organized. She made many charity quilts every year, and so our bee’s focus will be using her fabrics and supplies for charity quilts. Our guild has a committee that organizes charity quilts every year, and they will get some of the supplies; we also have Project Linus and ABC Quilts active in our area, along with other more local groups. The next time we get together, we will go through all Sue’s things and decide where they go. It took her closest friend in our bee more than a week to find everything in Sue’s house and move it to her studio.

I guess what I want to communicate to everyone is to think ahead, and talk to your family and friends about what you would like to have happen to your things. Don’t put it off, because none of us knows how our hours are numbered. Those you leave behind will be grateful.

Blocking Quilts

May 8th, 2009

Here goes another try at adding photos to my blog. Our webmaster, daughter Darcey, has updated with the latest version, and I have high hopes! Anyway, I was preparing “We Loved Paris” for exhibit at the Denver National Quilt Festival, and then at the Colorado Capitol Quilt Show, and I noticed that the quilt was not hanging evenly.

This is often a problem when a lot of quilting is added to some areas of the quilt, and not as much to the others. I quilted the borders quite heavily, but not the photos, and so there were places where the quilt kind of “pooched.” The best way I know of to deal with the problem is to block the quilt. Here is how I do it:

Pinning the corner of the quilt for blocking.

Pinning the corner of the quilt for blocking.

 

 

First, I spread a clean sheet on the carpet, then lay the quilt back side up on the sheet. Because the borders were distorting the quilt, I wanted to stretch them out. I started in one corner, and used my big square ruler to get the corner square, and pinned it firmly. I moved to the next corner, pulling the border as I went, and making sure I was keeping the edge straight and square. I pulled the border as tight as I could and pinned again. (I was able to pull them an inch to inch-and-a-half longer.) I continued in this fashion all the way around the quilt. Then I double-checked that each corner was square.

Next, I got a large piece of flannel fabric wet. I wrung it out as dry as I could, then placed it over the quilt in one corner. I plugged my iron into an extension cord, and let it get hot. Then I went over the wet flannel lightly with the iron, steaming the quilt underneath. I repeated this at all four corners.

Wet flannel over the quilt

Wet flannel over the quilt

Then I let the quilt dry overnight. When I removed the pins, it hung much better. To see an image of the finished quilt, check out the previous post.

Some label ideas

April 15th, 2009

Our first Paris quilt, We Loved Paris, is finished and ready for a label. I thought I’d share a few label ideas with you. First, nothing makes a label more special that adding an appropriate photo. Even if it’s the only photo on the quilt, just imagine how delighted future generations will be to find that on the back of your quilt. As you can see from the image of the Paris quilt’s label below, I used a photo of Marv and me on the train to Paris.�

    Second, the size and shape of your label is up to you, but 6 x 8 inches is about as large as I like them. That’s plenty of room to add all the information you want, along with any photos. Speaking of information, you should include your given name (by Grandma is not enough; in a few generations, no one may know who grandma is), where you made the quilt, and the date. If you like, you can add a copyright if it is your own design. It would also be helpful to future historians if you include information on such things as the occasion for the quilt, any inspirations or attributions you would like to make,  maybe even instructions on how to hand it down through the generations if that is important to you. You might want to include information on techniques you used if they are not immediately obvious. (I included the pretreated fabric and printer we used to make the Paris quilt.) You might also want to include a relevant quotation or poetry, or even write a letter to the recipient.  

Photoshop Elements is an easy software program to use to make labels. It will let you place a photo, and add text in any font that appeals to you. It is the program we recommend to students because it is inexpensive, and will do much of what the full-featured Photoshop program will do. Hopefully, you will find a photo of the finished quilt and the label below.                                weloveparissm.jpg               paris-quilt-1-label.jpg

More fun with Photoshop

April 2nd, 2009

As promised, let me tell you how I printed the hexagon images for the second Paris quilt. First of all, I made a template document that had a line drawing of a hexagon in the correct size. See the image at the bottom of the page. Then, when I finished making a line drawing from a photo (see previous post), I dragged the template on top of the photo, selected the area inside the hexagon with the magic wand, and deleted it. I printed three hexagons on each 8.5 by 11 fabric sheet by dragging them onto the page. (Hopefully, there will be a photo at the bottom showing the print page.) My biggest challenge was to print each photo in red, green, and blue, as well as black. I didn’t want a duo-tone, which had shades of black and gray in it.

    1. It took a lot of tries, but here is what I came up with. I added a New Fill Layer, and chose Solid Color, but did not choose a color. I changed the blending mode to Color Burn, and that was where I selected the color I wanted, and clicked OK. I set up a printing page that I could drag the images onto by adding three Fill Layers, one for each color. I hid all the color layers to print in black and white, then opened them one at a time to print the color images. I printed four copies of each hexagon, black, red, blue, and green, then discarded the hexagon layers and added three more to print the next set.  I needed a total of 83 hexagons, so I printed 7 pages of each color, giving me 84.                                                                                                                 hexagon-template-sm.jpg               print-page-2-sm.jpg        �

  • Another Paris Quilt

    March 1st, 2009

    The Paris collaboration I’ve been writing about is at a stage where I just need to keep going. The blocks are all quilted, sections are being stitched together, and borders added. So I thought I’d tell you about another Paris quilt project. While we were in Paris, we visited Le Rouvray quilt shop, near Notre Dame. I copy a copy of the book That Patchwork Place did about the shop (in French, which adds to the challenge), and on the cover was a quilt from one of her staff, a hexagon made with toile fabrics. I thought it would be fun to make, but with the hexagons featuring some of our photographs.

      But then I had the bright idea of making my own toile fabrics from the photos. I used a couple of different techniques in Photoshop to first turn the photos into what looked like sketches. The first technique, from Photoshop Tips & Tricks, started with using a New Adjustment Layer  to desaturate the photo the photo and turn it into black and white. That layer was duplicated, then inverted to make it look like a negative. The blend mode of that layer was then changed to Color Dodge, resulting in a white image. By applying Gaussian Blur to that layer, the sketch appears.

    The second method I used came from Web Design Library. The photo layer was duplicated, then desaturated. A filter from the Stylize group, Glowing Edges, was then applied to that layer (Edge Width - 1; Edge Brightness - 11; Smoothness -5). You can experiment with the settings to get the best lines. Then invert that layer. With both of these methods, I adjusted the contrast to eliminate as much grey as possible. The images below show a photo I started with, and the completed sketch. Next time, I’ll describe my breakthrough method (for me, at least) for printing the final images in red, blue, and green, as well as black and white.  pompidou-web.jpg         pompidou-sketchweb.jpg