have any of you ever used fabric markers on quilts?

I have been asked to draw up a pattern and instructions for an "Art" quilt. by a teen girl who wants her friends to each create a block.

I dont know if markers will be great looking or cheap and fade off. or if it would be better to scan the drawings into the computer and print a photo quilt.

have any of you done this??? what would you do in my shoes???

I see expensive markers and then crayolas... im leaning to the cheap crayolas

If it is permanent markings that you want, then I would use pigma pens. they have a thin sharp line, and will last. Also they, don't run. like other markers do.

they are not recomended for washing, I dont know if there are ANY that are. the crayola SAYS washable after heat setting... I dont know if I trust that

I keep looking....

Lots of us use the pigma pens to sign our quilts with. I have also used them for signature quilts, and they stand up to lots of washings well. Just heat setting, and they will hold up . they are made to write on material with.
Maybe some others on here will tell you about using them :-D

I love my pigma pens and I've never had a problem with them fading or washing out. I do heat set them though, which means I ironed, er, excuse me, I pressed them with the iron after the ink had a minute to dry. I've got one quilt that has had a label for about 10 years and it hasn't faded one bit.

I have to say, when I hear the word Crayola I tend to think of kiddie projects so I have never tried them or payed much attention to them. :oops:

I had the children in my class each create a block for a rodeo themed quilt (being from Houston it was appropriate!) This was 15 years ago. The quilt is still in great shape after many years of display and a couple of washings...one thanks to Hurricane Ike blowing out the window in my classroom.

Crayons will work well if transferred from paper with an iron. Just remember the original has to be a mirror image.

I'm an old Girl Scout leader. I've used just about anything you can thing of for little girls to mark on fabric with. Crayolas are washable after heat setting. I have done many sweatshirts with them over the years. There will be minor fading the first time you wash and then I can say they will still look pretty good after being worn and washed regularly for years.

The crayons for fabric work well also. We've used those in many projects also.

That's for when you use fabric crayons.

I recently had a class where we used regular Crayola Crayons. After you color your picture, you simply iron off the wax into paper towels. You can outline with embroidery or pigma pens.

Is this going to be a wall hanging or a quilt?
If it is something that is going to be repeatitively washed, I would go with fabric markers or pigma pens and heat set. If it is a wall hanging, than crayons would be a great option.

A suggestion is to iron the fabric onto freezer paper either way, to make it easier to color on and put a frame on the right side of the fabric with blue painters tape, to keep everyone well within the seam lines :wink:

My daughter and I made her quilt 15 years ago with precious moments coloring book pages. we colored pictures on squares with fabric markers. It has held up, the blanket binding wore out, but the colors are still nice. They do bleed a little while coloring, , so keep that in mind with your edges. She loved doing it with me, and it has been washed repeatedly over the years.
I also did a Christmas table cloth that way. Each child in the family got to color a picture in the tablecloth. I still use it.