Can anyone refer me to the name brand of fabric crayons that work the best? I am wanting to color an angel to be transferred to a large block for my Christmas Quilt.
I haven't used the crayons yet, so it will be a new experience.
Mariah.

I don't use crayons, I use markers. I don't teach anymore, but I help each year when a first grade class does their projects for the carnival at school. This year I made placemats with each child's art and then the parents purchased them for a reasonable amount. This is an example.

ANy crayons or markers are fine, even the cheapest. I use them all the time with my kids groups. Just be sure to "set " the colors when done. YOu do this by ironing on the opposite side to set colors. I have to pinch wherever I can with so many charity groups. Hope this helps.

Am I understanding correctly that use just plain markers for fabric? Guess I was afraid the colors would run.
Must have dreamed that there are crayons for fabric. Hope so, as they would probably be expensive.
Thanks so much.
Mariah

so you just use regular markers for marking on fabric? Guess I was afraid that the colors would run.
Thanks so much.
Mariah

Glad to know that just the regular are okay to use. Glad also about "setting" the color by ironing on the wrong side.
thanks so much.
Mariah.

I've heard from several other quilters that Prang crayons are best for coloring on fabric.

Hope this helps!

I took a class a few years ago and we used Crayola brand. The secret is to use a dishtowel or something and press it thoroughly each time you change color and before you shade. It holds up fine. Works best on the fabric that doesn't have a finish that is used for dying but I have also done it on other cotton. Then we embroidered the accents and outline with Pearl cotton #5.

I have heard the name Prang for crayons. Can you tell me where they can be purchased? We live in a small community and our choices are limited on most anything other than the usual stuff.
Thanks, Mariah

Tell me if I have this understood correctly. The image is put onto the fabric, then in coloring, anytime you change color, you press it good. Then outline in Pearl Cotton#5.
If you were choosing a picture to transfer to cotton, how would you transfer it so as most of the lines would show?
Would you take a look at a picture I want to use for the center of a quilt? I am thinking I want to enlarge it before transferring.
You can pm me if you can take a look, or my email is;
[email protected].
Thanks, Mariah

I use fabric markers, not regular markers. The markers used in the sample above are sold at both JoAnn Fabrics and Michaels. I have never used regular crayons or markers, but other people do. They sell a lot of different types of markers. Crayola even sells a fabric marker now. Dritz has crayons. If you google you will find many.

I've played with Crayola fabric crayons. Dritz distributes them. I found mine at Jo-Ann's. They're a lot of fun. Thanks for the reminder to get them out and play!

Glad I got it straightened out; Fabric Markers, not regular markers. Sorry, misread it.
Thanks for helping; cute picture of boy done with the markers!
Mariah

I bought fabric crayons for my two oldest grandchildren to color in a quilt for their new brother.
He's 6 now and the quilt's been washed alot and has held up well.

I was in a mini-class for this. We used Crayola brand. We all were told to bring in "stuff" with different textures, like dotted swiss, screening, rubber carpet holders, etc. If you put these under your picture while you are coloring it, you can get some very nice effects, rather than a flat colored picture. We had a blast doing this, and I got my FIRST big box of crayons with the sharpener in it! I'd wanted that since 1st grade. A little late, but fun...

Neat! thanks for the info

Great ideas! Thanks, Mariah.

Don't you have to use some kind of protection for the ironing board when ironing to set the color?

I have used the fabric crayons - sorry, can't recall the brand. With those, the image is colored on paper and then transferred onto fabric with an iron. I found the transfer made the colors really soft and not vibrant at all.

Then I worked with regular Crayola crayons and used them to color directly on the fabric. If I wanted to blend colors, I had to put white crayon down first. The excess wax was ironed off with paper towels.

I also have a set of fabric markers (not Sharpie). They have a sharp point on one side and a brush end on the other. They also need to be set with the iron.

It's a lot of fun - makes me feel like a kid.

This is all new to me. If you were trying to do a really great job on a transfer to a Christmas Quilt with an angel, would you go for the softer look you mentioned 1st, or go with the 2nd--regular crayons?
Mariah

Well PRang is actually a better brand to use than crayola...unless you buy the fabric crayola crayons. The reason is because the original crayola crayon recipe had like 6 parts dye to the amount of wax...but parents kept complaing that stains when crayons got on walls and clothes.....so crayola changed their recipe...prang a cheaper brand uses that kind of recipe..more dye per wax wax....so when you buy fabric crayola crayons..they are actually the original recipe they didn't change anything. My LQS sells prang ...a box of 64 for like 7$ or something...so if anyone needs them I can get them for you. Just PM me.

http://www.crayola.com has lots of coloring pages available for downloading.
It's from them that I bought fabric crayons.

Black Cat Creations, www.black-cat-creations.com, 1110 Baltic Lane, Houston, Texas 77090, 281-587-1363 puts out several different lines of patterns for crayola coloring. They had a quilt and huge display at Houston quilt market a few years ago. I am assuming they are still in business as I am taking this info from patterns I bought from them. They had us draw the pattern with a black .05 Black Pigma Pen and then after coloring, embroidery the outline and highlights with dmc or embroidery.

of course when some companies found out that quilters were using crayons they had to put some out...for fabric...so they could charge more. i was one of the dummies that paid $7 for a box of prang crayons at the lqs...
after making picture quilts with the pre-schoolers, using what ever crayons they had, we found it made no difference, the prangs were the same as the crayolas, and same as the dollar store crayons, they all worked just fine. as for markers, you do need either fabric markers (less bleeding) or permenent markers. water based washable markers will wash out.

Yes, Black Cat Creations are still in business. I know that you can find the patterns at www.itsastitchonline.com.

We did a t-shirt project with my daughter's troop several years ago (she's 24 now), and we used whatever crayons were in the troop box. We had a bunch of children's coloring books that we tore the pages out of, then outlined with different colored permanent Sharpie pens. If you don't want the fabric to slip (as t-shirts do), place a piece of fine grit sandpaper underneath the area you are coloring.

Once you've finished coloring in your projeft, place a layer of newspaper or brown paper bags on your ironing board, then place your colored fabric on the paper. Cover that with a pressing cloth, then press with a medium hot iron. The heat sets the dye in the fabric while it melts the wax away. It also sets the Sharpie ink.

We used transfer (red) pencils to trace the designs from coloring books and ironed on to white fabric. We then iron freezer paper to the back of the square to stabilize it for coloring. After all coloring, and we used plain old crayola, we ironed the square with a piece of wax paper, face down on the coloring. It seemed to set it better. Used laundry markers, cheaper than fabric markers. Kids used to do them at sleep overs, and then they would sign them. I would put them in lap quilts and they loved to see their pictures when they came back over. After doing our squares this way, we have washed these many times, at least once a week for 7 years now, and they have held up well. We did find the harder they pressed and the darker the color, the longer it held up. But I like the look of the faded colors, more vintage.

I love an excuse to play with crayons!

When your ready to heat set you can use a paper towel on the top of the picture. when the crayola melt the paper towel collect it.
Hobby lobby has some nice color pin that we have used to do finer colors
When we first started this we tried the different crayola for fabric and the regular ones we use with the grandkids work the best.
Sept 17 -19 Austin quilt guild had there quilt show. There was a crayola quilt with cats on it. I think its a black cat pattern.
you might can go to the web site for Austin and see it. AAQG.org

I used a paper towel on the crayon colored pic. Set it nicely. Got the directions from a pattern produced locally.

:)

Are your Prang box of 64 just crayons, or fabric crayons?
Also, how much would the postage be on the $7.64?
mariah

I've used RoseArt crayons, they are the cheaper ones at Walmart, set with heat, no steam using a paper towel. Press one the towel, move towel to clean area and press again until no more color comes off. Hope this helps.

some fabric markers DO run - ask me how i know. plain ole everyday crayons work well. just color, turn over, place paper on top and heat set with hot iron - protect your iroing board too. i helped my grandkids color some blocks for a quilt a loooong time ago and after many washings they still hold their color.

save your money - use regular crayons - also a class i took had us iron freezer paper to the back our our blocks before we colored them and it kept them from shifting as much.

So, is everyone coloring directly on the fabric?

When my kids were younger (1970's) they used fabric crayons to color and/or draw a picture on a piece of white paper than then it was transferred to the fabric by using an iron. If you wrote any words on the picture you had to write them as a mirror image because everything was reversed after it was ironed to the fabric.

directly on the fabric.

I did a project just recently that had crayon tinting on it. I thought it is fun and makes a nice finish.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-66344-1.htm#1626371

I have neocolo 1 which is a WATER-RESISTANT WAX PASTEL,they are from Switzerland, and so far I really like them.

I have used Dritz and Crayola fabric crayons. I was hoping the look would be crisper.

Great look Kendra!

I have seen some special fabric crayons from Crayola, but on the package it said they worked better the higher the polyester content of your fabric was, which seemed not a good match for quilting.

I have found this thread very interesting, as I've been thinking some sort of coloring on fabric projects might be good for my kids to do as Christmas gifts.