I have used the clear, pure aloe too Betty Jo with some of my painting and it works very well. Less color bleeding and kept fabric supple.

I've used Prisma color pencils and Inktense with success. I seal them with Jaquard's colorless extender #100. It's the consistency of face cream and a very little goes a long way and disappears into the fabric. Basically, it's the base for their acrylic fabric paints without pigment. I found this hint on Sandra Leichner's website several years ago and have used this exclusively since then. It does not make the fabric stiff.

Windytips wrote:
Oh I know that must have been disappointing! You didn't say if you prewashed your fabric, or how hot you washed it. I always prewash, to get any chemicals out that may interfere with the painting, and wash my quilts in cold water and dry them flat. Not sure if any of that helps or not. I also don't wash the wall quilts unless I need to, but I usually do wet them in cold water for blocking, except for the silk quilts.

I'm extremely disappointed with my efforts , as i designed and quilted a wall quilt. Upon completion, I proceeded to paint this quilt with the Derwent inktence pencils: it was beautiful to say the least , I used also aloe Vera gel as the medium then I (heat set it ) by ironing it. I was happy with the results it was trying at times the ink ran some places but I fixed it. HOWEVER the disappointment really came when I washed the quilt and dryed it . The color ran through the whole quilt, totally distorting my efforts. I bought golden 900 to try with the derwent pencils. But now I'm totally hesitating. I would greatly appreciate any advise on where I went wrong. Thank you for your time.

Thanks for sharing this. Good information. Sometimes the fabric gets a bit too stiff when we paint on it

For fabric painting I use Golden textile medium with acrylics then heat set with the iron when it dries and it works really well, allowing me to get small details for faces etc. I paint directly onto pre washed cotton fabric then layer and quilt, there is usually a slight degree of stiffness to the fabric but I have to say the medium really softens painted fabric compared to painting on fabrics with the acrylic diluted with only water.
Best Wishes Pam

Thank you Betty Jo!

Valerie...If you are going to exhibit your quilts in shows they need to be tough, and yes, sometimes they do stack them. I think, given that show quilts have to be shipped through all kinds of weather, and even though the shows usually try to take really good care of them, it is really important to make sure they aren't going to run or rub off if the weather gets damp and hot. The show gurus can't control the weather, though some of them are pretty resourceful.

kayakbabe wrote:
Thanks for this! I have kind of been thinking a lot about that myself. I want to make essentially paintings on fiber...so they are quilts technically because I will incorporate some quilting for texture...but I think of these pieces more as artwork. But here's what concerns me and makes me think I should probably fix these colors in some way so they are waterproof - I like to exhibit and show my work. How do they sort quilts at fiber art/contemporary art quilt shows? Do they stack them like in traditional shows? So if I have a quilt with paint that has the possibility of running - does that limit where I can enter the work? I am finding I work better with a goal, and shows really give me that push for completion. I went to Quilt National a few years ago though and the quilts were so broad and different there...if they stacked them they would probably ruin a good portion of them. So I wonder if they come out directly from the box to hanging? No idea...but some insight on that process might help me......

Hey, kayakbabe - any chance of pictures, please!

I prefer the liquitex textile medium over the golden brand.
I use the liquitex with regular watercolor pencils on fabric and they work find together. I don't wash too often, but it doesn't seem to bleed or fade. Basically i use the textile medium instead of water to make the pencil drawings wet.
So i use the pencil on the fabric, dampen my brush with textile medium and rub it into my pencil marks.

If I want to use the 'wash' effect of using dry pencil on wet surface, then I mix textile medium with water in a half and half solution. I dampen my fabric with it and then dry pencil on top of it.

You can be really creative.
To thicken and slow the flow of the dissolving pencils, I have also tried using aloe vera gel. I have aloe growing in a pot and I just snipped of a peice and squeezed the gel out of it it. I think you could use anything water-based and thick. I have found aloe from a bottle is usually pretty runny and doesn't work for what I wanted. If you dye fabric you might have things like maybe carageenan, agar-agar around, and they will work too.

By the way, if you really get into this form of art quilting, The Derwent Inktense pencils are the bomb. You don't actually ahve to even use textile medium with them. Though if you are going to use it on a bed quilt that will get washed.. you will probably want to. I have a small quilt done with Inktense and I've washed it quite a lot.. maybe 20 times so far.. and not had any problems with fading or the pencil coloring washing out.
Have fun!

Lookee here I made it to the new forums finally!

Thank you all for the new tips - I have been so busy with long arming quilts I haven't done much with my painted quilts but I did manage to work on one for a while...I will share photos when I get some time!

Thank you for all of the help!

Hi, I have used aloe..just pure, no perfumes or anything...like you get from the drugstore to mix in with acrylics. It is fairly satisfactory....prevents the acrylics from making the fabric too stiff. Then heat set them. After a while, you may decide to invest in some Setacolor inks. They are divine...permanent, after they dry and you heat set them, and they don't change the hand of the cloth.

If you are near a Michaels, or JoAnns, or Hobby Lobby, they sell textile mediums in their "Fine Arts" departments, and you can use a coupon. I know they sell the Inktense pencils and have Golden and Liquitex brands of mediums. When I wanted to start using mediums in my crafting, I would buy one bottle of something I wanted to try, using a 40% or 50% off coupon. I usually would get one bottle a week or month, depending on what I wanted, and what coupons I had, and how much I wanted to spend on craft supplies that week.