ckcowl

for the past 10 years every year a little preschool class makes 2 crayon quilts. I iron freezer paper to the back of white muslin 'blocks' and take them in to the kids, they set about coloring their blocks how ever they want (sometimes the teachers incorporate a theme) when all blocks have been completed I gather them and cure them for at least a day or 2 then heat set them...if a child was a little too light and i can without making any differences i touch up a little and heat set 2 or 3 times...then i cut strips (3" wide) of all my brights, primaries, what ever is going to go with the pictures and a take a little singer with me, each child gets to pick out the strips they like and set down at the machine and frame their block, then i take them home again, sew them together, and finish the quilts taking them back for what ever they do with them

MadQuilter

You can use the fabric crayons or regular crayons. The fabric ones are actually colored on paper and iron-transferred to the fabric. The Crayola crayons, you actually color on the fabric. For both, you iron off the excess into paper towels.

There are also fabric markers that have a brush-like end and a felt-tip side. I bought some from Clotilde's (spelling?).

My preference is to use the Pigma-pens as outline markers and fill in the colors with any of the above mentioned.

No matter what, you have to heat set. ...and I read on my Sharpie Set "not for use on fabric" so if you use Sharpies, be aware, they may not last.

teacherbailey

The Pentel dye sticks will work beautiflly for shading. One of the staff on the old quilt that I mentioned was a REAL artist and did a beautiful square with all kinds of shading and smudging. If you're used to oil pastels and what you can do with them, these are perfect for you. Good Luck!

Tippy

Regular markers say not for fabric for many reasons.. among them.. they do bleed, they may fade and eventually they will cause the fabric to deteriorate. Then you'll have lace not fabric. Also the reason not to use them on quilt labels.

buddy'smom

The crayon's can always be recolored if faded, but markers can not.

The Happy Quilter

I have used crayons on fabric and it will stay if you press it after. I use paper under the fabric and be sure there is nothing but a smooth surface underneath otherwise it will show on the finished product. Good Luck.

The Happy Quilter

Yes these are great. I also like regular old Crayolas and for the price you can't beat them.

martha jo

I have made a quilt with plain crayola and then embroidery around someplaces. It worked real well and washed well but I used domestic for dying that does not have a finish on it. Also, then used an old dishtowel and ironed it well. It is about six years old. I don't wash it often but sometimes and cannot see any change.

2wheelwoman

My quilt class used Crayola brand crayons to color on muslin. We brought in all kinds of textured stuff, like lace, rug backing, screening, anything with texture which we put under the muslin before coloring. You can get some really cool looks doing this, and anything is fair game. We were doing Sunbonnet Sue's and I loved how the straw hat looked textured, etc., instead of just flat coloring. Oh, we heat set it using old dishtowels between the crayon and the iron. No problems with multiple washings. They told us to just avoid the cheap crayons, as there is too much wax in them. Happy coloring. We had a blast doing this.

dljennings

if you like to paint, you can get fabric medium along with those little 2 oz bottles of acrylic paints and paint it. i did some of that on those flour sack towels for my grandmother several...several years ago. she used them all the time, when she passed away, they were frayed out at some of the edges, but the painting was still there, faded some, but not a lot