ncredbird

I am sorting out things that I have acquired over the years from family members and came across 3 different sets of art pencils. Not being an artist I was wondering if any of these could be used on fabric and remain permanent or fixed in some manner such as ironing.
I have Prisma Color 24 color set of Professional Quality soft thick lead pencils
Carb-Othello 48 Pastels "the colored charcoal" by Schwan-Stabilo
and finally an Art Kit containing TS-Oil Pastels, TS-Crayons, colored pencils and colored markers. I am sure these are things my mother and aunt acquired in their years as school teachers. I thought some of you here might know more about them so I don't dispose of something that could be used for quilting. Thanks, Ann in TN

Jan in VA

The only art pencils I use on my fabrics are by Derwent (English), General (USA), and Caran d'Ache (Swiss) and they are ALL water washable. There are different hardnesses of leads - these are all graphite pencils - and I use the HB and 3B ones. I mark my quilting designs with these and then they wash out when I launder the quilts.

Jan in VA

ghostrider

It depends entirely on what you want to do with the quilts you might use them on. Many art quilters use Prismacolor pencils, oil pastels, colored markers, crayons, and even pastels on fabric. All can be sealed with one type of acrylic medium or another to make them more stable, though none are suitable for heavily washed bed quilts. It's easy enough to find examples online and then decide if you'd like to try something similar. It's quite fun actually.

Suze9395

I was trying to figure what to use to color some pictures/blocks one time. I ended up purchasing several different kinds, then I tested them out on a pre washed piece of fabric and heat set them with an iron (I used brown paper sacks underneath and over the top while pressing). I made a note by each sample of what they were. I tried all colors since I was concerned they would not al,l respond the same(they didn't). And then, I laundered it. Some were good,
some were ok, some didn't take at all.
Try it!

petthefabric

I've used Prismacolor Pencils on art fabric quilts. They work fine. Don't know the others

egranger3809

You can make them permanent by brushing on "Textile Medium" over the colors, letting them dry then ironing. Try a sampler to test this method. Irina Blume makes whole cloth quilts with the colored pens and teaches the process. She is an award winning quilter.

BellaBoo

I've only used Dewent Intense colored pencils. They work great. I use clear aloe vera gel instead of water.