thanks Teri for the link it's wonderful

wow how great it would have been to have had a screen for the tv. we weren't that lucky I have never heard of one before, we didn't get tv here in Adelaide until the late 50's. I just loved windydink, still wish we had him, I forgot to add that you don't need to put anything in with the medium, you just use it as it comes out of the bottle, no heat setting, I usually put a sheet under whatever I am working on and the other day I just grabbed a good single sheet out of the linen thinking that if I washed it later with all the appropriate agents in the washing machine it would come out WRONG soooo the pencils and the textile medium are pretty darn good.

Thank you, WinkyDink, for the great information. I'm on it, as they say! By the way, I still remember my WinkyDink screen - anyone else? You stuck it over the TV screen during the WinkyDink Show, back in the fifties (I'm so old!), and you wrote on the plastic as you followed clues they gave you to something - I forget. But ultimately, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who couldn't locate my light green plastic screen cover - and just wrote with crayons right on the TV. How were YOU punished? (In the days before "time out" LOL)

Go to one of my favorite site SandraLeichner.com. She has a tutorial about it
Teri

I have been using Derwent coloured pencils for years and also bought them for my children when they were young, you can use them on fabric quite successfully they have quite a range, I use them on quilts. They have come up with a range called inktense which are very vibrant and beautiful I also have the artist range and watercolor, if you look up Kim Bradley who is a quilting teacher in Australia you will be able to see her "Duckbird" which was created using derwent inktense pencils a sewing machine and textile medium, it's really quite beautiful. The pencils seem to last for years they really are a great investment. Helen Stubbings is from Tasmania and she also uses derwent and one of the quilts that she has done looks like piecing but is just coloured pencils, it really is worth looking at it's called hugs'n'kisses along with others. It's worthwhile to go onto the derwent site to have a look. I use a textile medium called folkart by plaid and you can also use Josonjas textile medium I find the first to be very good you only need a very small amount Helen Stubbins has a CD out which explains how to use them all. I have the ranges in lots of 72 coloursoft is great which is the next lot I am going to get, they can change when you apply liquid as well

I've been watching Sewing with Nancy on PBS and she currently has a series on Landscape quilting. She uses Pastels on her quilts. I've done pastel paintings and pastels are very messy and come off easily. I took her book out of the library and found that she used a permanent fixative (obtained from art and craft store) to seal the pastels. This would also work with colored pencils or crayons. I haven't tried it yet - one of my next projects. Jan

Thanks, my copy of Bluhm's book is already on its way. Amazon canceled my pre-order so I had to go back and re-place my order on Thursday. Hopefully it won't take too long to get here... I held my daughter off for a while by letting her design another quilt, which I then made for her. She was happy with that, but she's already asking again to make her "mermaid quilt" (with colored pencils). We want to color BEFORE the quilting, but hopefully this book will have some ideas for us.
-Tina

I just got my copy of "Quilts of a Different Color" by Irena Bluhm. It is all about quilting first and coloring later. Colored pencil is one of the suggested products to use. Check out this book, it has lots of lovely quilt patterns and information on making pencil permanent on fabric. Betty Ann in Fl

I have no experience with using colored pencils on fabric except seeing some quilts in Houston that were colored. The brand of pencil I heard about most was Prismacolor. I don't know anything about setting them in the fabric, sorry.
Frances in Austin

You do not mention if you are using standard colored pencils or the water soluble ones. If you use the water soluble pencils on damp (NOT wet) fabric, you heat set them by using a hot hair dryer on them BEFORE the fabric dries naturally. Learned this technique from Velda Newman at last year's Quilting Adventures in the Texas Hill Country (GREAT VENUE AND TEACHERS - see<www>) Because the fabric is damp and the pencils are water soluble you can really blend them by rubbing almost like using pastels. I find them a great medium BUT I am not working with a 4-year-old so don't know how compatible the two are Best luck with your project! Printmaker turned fibre artist (junky?)

You might consider Fabrico markers. They are for fabric and are acid free. They are also a dual marker. Fine tip on one end and medium tip on the other end. Yummy colors, too! The drawback might be the price.
I got mine here. The prices are better than most places I looked.
http://softexpressions.com/software/paint/Fabrico.php

Barbara

There are several different types of gel mediums out there. I've used one called Gesso and it dries to a transparent finish - I think it comes in glossy or semi-glossy. I think I have a semi-gloss and it does change the color tone a bit but the bigger difference is in the hand of the fabric. It doesn't need to be heat set, but it does make the fabric stiffer - great for art quilts or things that aren't going to be used to snuggle up with. You might try a sample of your medium on fabric with the colored pencil just to see what the results are. You could also just experiment with colored pencil on fabric and heat setting it, then throwing it in the washing machine to see what happens - good luck!

Thanks Kaijin and Florence. I had thought about crayons, too - they're supposed to be fairly permanent unless you plan to wash often, so that's good. But my daughter doesn't really like to color with crayons all that much. She likes colored pencils - she's very particular about her methods. So I might check into those lightfast artists' colored pencils. I just don't think that scanning and printing her drawings would satisfy her need to "make a quilt."
I'll talk to her about all her options and see what she decides...
-Tina

What about Crayons? They make something called Fabric Crayons, so my guess is there's some permanence there, but I also had a project that called for regular crayons, heat-set with an iron. Unfortunately, that one's waiting to be given to my sister so it hasn't yet been washed so I can't tell you how it's held up... but maybe worth a try. Florence