Hi, am making a quilted wreath and in the center am doing pictures on muslin with inkjet printer. Am using Iron-on stabilizer for Ink-jet printers by Mountain Mist and muslin for material. My question is do I need to wash this muslin first before applying it to the stabilizer so ink penetrates properly.I do know I heat set it after I am done with printer. The instructions only say to pre-treat material. Thank You for your time. Dana

Pre-wash just in case.
I'd like to hear more about the stabilizer you mentioned. Is it supposed to be washable? How does it work?

Hi, thanks for the reply. I had thought maybe I should wash before using the stabilizer. I bought the iron-on stabilizer at a quilting shop. It is a temporarily stabilizer for fabric to feed through an ink-jet printer. You press material on stabilizer sheet then remove after processing picture and can use several times. This will probably do about the same as freezer paper for making material go through the printer. We now have a new printer but the old one we had would not take the freezer paper and material. So will have to see how this works. Thanks again.

Pre-wash your fabric twice, rinse 3 times
Pre-treat with Bubble Jet Set 2000 (per bottle instructions)
Iron out the wrinkles while it's still ever-so-slightly damp
Then use your stabilizer to run it through the printer

Otherwise the ink will all come off in the first wash

When printing on muslin, or any fabrics, I was told to use the cartridge for photos, as the ink is stronger, and does not fade as easily in the wash.

I've read something somewhere that said the photo cartridges lose about half their brilliance in the first wash.

The big "breakthrough" was supposed to be the new pigment based inks. Supposedly more permanent than the old dye based. So I switched to a new printer. I haven't gotten a decent result since. I was beginning to think I must be doing something wrong, although I could swear I'm doing everything exactly the way I used to with the old printer. Until I stumbled across this article on the internet ...

http://softexpressions.com/help/faq/FAQbjs.htm#c82

Pigment based inks are more water resistant, but NOT more durable when actually washed. So, I'm going surfing TODAY to see if I there are any printers left on the market that still use the dye based ink.

I'm so glad I found that article. I was on the verge of "upgrading" to a wide format printer that used the pigment inks. I'd have wasted several hundred dollars!

Thanks for the web sight on bubble jet set 2000 and bubble jet rinse. Found allot of interesting things about printing on fabric as well as washing quilting material. I just ordered the bubble jet set 2000 from Nancy's Notions and now think I will order the bubble jet rinse from this sight, as is cheaper. I won't know how they work until I get them and then will try. I use to print pictures on muslin sheets before and heat set with iron and think I was ok. I see now that I was wrong. Again thanks for the info.

Dana, I just used BJS for my first time, when I rinsed it the first time I lost a minimal amount of ink but it seems to be stable now. Good luck.
kathy

What did you use when you washed your chickens the first time? Did you use the Bubble Jet Rinse or something else?

That is a scary thought to loose allot of the color. I am unsure until I receive them which does what and which to use first the bubble set or bubble rinse. Says the rinse is a detergent also and can wash your quilting fabrics in it and also wash your finished quilts to keep color. Have to wait and see. Thanks for response.