I want to make a label for the "Memory Quilt" I'm making, on my computer. I printed a sample text on muslin, heat set it, then washed it....boo hoo... it was not colorfast. Do they make colorfast ink for printers?
I have a Dell Photo 924

Most printer ink is water based ink.

I LOVE your memory quilt! It's absolutely gorgeous!!!

You can treat your fabric with bubble jet set to make the ink permanent or buy fabric sheets already treated at Joanns.

I absolutely love your memory quilt! I was wondering, however, what printer you used to print your photos. If you used the same printer and same fabric you used on the label......... :cry: If that is the case, simply tell the recipient (and put on the label) not to wash the quilt. ;-)

First your fabric needs to be washed, rinsed without any rinse and dried without any dryer sheets :wink: You want it free from anything that can prevent the ink from penetrating completely.

Then using bubble jet before printing on the fabric, it helps the ink penetrate and set... also using something like Retayne afterwards will help make the ink more permanent too :D:D:D

Not really. I buy the sheets with coupons from JoAnns. Other wise you need to buy bubble jet. With coupons the sheets are pretty reasonable and probably more reliable.

how did you print your pictures?

My printer is a Dell Photo 924. One thought was to attach the label by "buttons" so it could be removed if need be.

Another family member printed the pictures using transfer paper that she got at an office supply store. The previous quilt I made at Christmas time, I took the pictures to an office supply store and they transferred the pictures for me onto my precut fabric squares. They had an awesome Photo Shop program so they could arrange-rearrange-crop-enlarge-blurr the edges-etc. of the pictures. It was so cool and easy! Those pictures turned out with less of a plastic feel than the ones in this quilt.

awesome idea

Now I am confused. The transfer paper from the office supply store...Is it color fast? There are some in the market that absorb the ink permanently, but they are usually not available at office supply stores. Your Christmas one: Was the fabric treated to be colorfast after printing?

Your quilt looks amazing, but my best advice is not to wash it, and when hung, keep away from direct sunlight. It could fade very quickly.

Many programs used to alter photos can be used to obtain the quality of these pictures. It really has not much to do with the printer. If the program can adjust the saturation of the ink, increase the saturation when printing on fabric to get that sharp image on the fabric. Sometimes it can be done with the printer software. I usually print on paper with my printer set up to draft to save on ink, but if you set it to high quality, the pictures are sharper too.

There is a relatively new product called Transfer Artist Paper™ (TAP) from Lesley Riley.What makes it different is that the inks combine with the polymer coating on the paper and when heated they fuse into the fabric and become part of it. Other transfers just sit on the surface of the fabric and thus fade over time and with washing. TAP transfers are easy, permanent and washable and it works with both dye-based and pigment printer inks. My supplier sells a 5 sheet package for 10.99. You can learn more about TAP on Lesley's website. http://www.lesleyriley.com/ She's all about getting photos on fabric.

Great. I'll look into it.

I was wondering the same thing. I'm not sure even Retayne would help if the fabric was not pre-treated before printing. I would not venture to guess whether dry-cleaning would work.