cleta wrote:

Wow, Cleta! Beautiful!

BJ - are your quilts going to be used as quilts? i.e. - are you washing them? If not, you might consider using colored pencils. I like the control I get for the detail of hands and faces with Prismacolor and Graphitints. From time to time as I'm working, I will press the fabric on the wrong side to set the colors as much as possible. At the end, before any stitching, I spray several coats (lightly! and let dry in-between coats) of a fixative meant for colored pencil.

Depending on how I am working the overall project, I may do the face separately on fine muslin and lightly attach it with bits of fabric glue on the underside.

Am attaching a picture so that you can see how it looks on muslin - cotton and other fabrics would certainly be good, too. This one is in progress - no hair yet - just concentrating on face, hands and feet.

Lol Yes, Margo, I do think that I see a pattern there! I'm sure that your other work is beautiful and will check out your profile later. I think that I'll probably try the artists brushes that I already have and purchase some of the fantastix and the wooden holder if I decide that I want to do more with them after my first project. Thanks for the info to you and Betty Jo. BTW, Betty, I love that verse in your signature!

Thanks for the jukebox link again and reminder about fantastix. I think I will have to try them. Funny...I posted this question long ago. Nice to see this discussion relit. Cheers.

Oh, yeah...I just remembered.... .....I did two other quilts with these fabric inks! I did one complete quilt for Jordanne with just her artwork, and one for Jacob with just his! Do we see a pattern here???

Margo wrote:
Oh, puleessseee, Everything you do is art!

That's the only one I've done and it was just copying the children's artwork, and that's about as artsy as I can manage!! LOL!!!

Thanks for the tip and the link! I will have to go check it out. How long have you been painting your fabrics?

You can order Fantastix from Jukebox Quilts that work with the Fabric Inks. They come in either a round (bullet) tip or a pointed (brush) tip. They aren't really brushes, but more like stiff markers so that you just dip the tip into the bottle and apply the color to the fabric. I found them really easy to work with and especially like the set-up where the Fantastix are arranged in the wooden stand beside the appropriate ink color!

http://www.jukeboxquilts.com/store/inkSupplies.html

Thanks, Margo!! That's great feedback!! There is so little out there regarding that ink, and I was unsure of the proportion of aloe gel to ink. I didn't know to buy their special types of brushes or a dropper, so just using it straight on a paintbrush will simplify things a great deal. I've never painted before, and am very new to art quilting and thread painting, so if there are any other tips like types of brushes, etc, I would really appreciate it. I love your grandchildren's quilt!

Mary

Mary, I used the Tsukineko All-Purpose Inks to do the artwork for my grandchildren's quilt, and didn't mix them with anything! Used 'em right out of the bottle. They have to be heat set, but then the colors stay beautiful even through washings and the fabric stays soft.

I just bought my first fabric paint and fabric ink about a week ago, though I haven't had a chance to try them. The clerk in the quilt shop that I bought them at didn't know much about the ones that I bought, but did tell me that the Tsukineko All-Purpose Ink should be mixed with aloe vera gel and that the fabric remains soft. The paint that I bought was Jacquard Textile Traditionals' set of 9 bottles, and the instructions in the package said that they could be used straight or you could add water or "extender". They had a sample quilt sandwich that had been painted with these that was very soft.

I'm new to art quilting and thread painting, but am part of an art quilt group elsewhere that does swaps about once a quarter, and wanted to add a little bit of painting to my next swap block. Since I haven't even finished creating the design from my initial concept, I still have time to learn more about the fabric paints I got, so if anyone can give me a little advice regarding these two paints/ink, I would really appreciate it!

If you are painting on pfd fabric, it's hard to beat Procion MX dyes for softness and beautiful color. Otherwise, I like to mix regular artist acrylics with Golden's GAC 900, which is heat set. Liquitex also makes a great fabric medium.

Have not tried aloe vera gel, but it sounds a lot like Procion dyes mixed with alginate??

I also like Jacquard Lumiere paints.