Quilter Grandma

I would like to know the softest, clearest photo paper. I’m making a very special quilt and would like smooth, quality photos for the quilt.

romanojg

You can also make the photos using wax paper on the fabric. There is a you tube, I'd check it out.

You also want to see the reviews on how it holds up. I used one type, not sure what it was to make name tags for my grandkids clothes and they faded kind of fast.

QuiltE

Paper?
....... or are you asking about the printable fabric?

Iceblossom

While there is the fabric you can buy (rather expensive) you can use any fabric you want, really even printed. You just iron on a piece of freezer paper and cut it to 8.5x11 and run it through your printer. I typically use white Kona cotton. However, you want to make sure that the printer you use has the right kind of ink, I'm out of practice on knowing exactly which printers are better. I know my black and white laser printer prints great labels that do not run, smear or fade.

I need to do a bit of photo shopping to combine a picture I took of my friend's face that I am going to put on a free clip art image of Supergirl. My friend just retired from teaching and I am making an alphabet quilt in her honor (she mostly taught English). It's very simple, just 8" blocks of fabric representing each letter so A is for Apple, B is for Bear, etc. Her name is Suzan and so S is for Super Suz One of the ladies in my small group has a color printer and will print it for me and then the top is all cut and ready to go together.

For others that may be interested in the idea, having spacer blocks at the beginning and ending of the ABC and XYZ rows make the quilt 5x6 blocks. Add a border or two and you have a nice crib/lap sized project. I quilt the letter into each block and then do a meander or other simple quilting in the border.

copycat

Thanks Icebloosom for your info on ironing freezer paper to fabric to run through a printer.

Does anyone have tried and true tips for:

Ink type ? (so it doesn't smear or fade)

Printer type: ink jet or laser?

thank you!

Koller

Ink jet not laser. Make sure your fabric and freezer paper are still a little warm from ironing when you put in the printer. Otherwise sometimes the corners will separate.

Iceblossom

My one big hint is to know your printer and how to open up the pass through for printing card stock or whatever. Most printers have a way to do that, often the door is on the back of the machine so you might not have noticed it. You also need to know/run some tests on what side of the paper is up I just take a piece of paper, write "test this side up" on it and run it through the sheet feeder. If the printing is on on the "test" side, then I know it's right side up!

There are lots of places on line to find out about home printing on fabric. Here's a Wikihow on the freezer paper technique:
https://www.wikihow.com/Print-on-Fab...-Freezer-Paper

Their are more sites that discuss whether individual inks are waterproof and such. It varies greatly. Best always to do tests first.

I'll be talking to my friend in Arizona this week, she's done quite a bit with photo transferring and such and has taught classes in it. I mostly have just made labels.

pegquilter8

There is a product called Pabric that I have used with very good results. Pabric.com
sounds like fun

mindless

There are so many ways to transfer your images to fabric. I've tried most of them.
-Bubblejet
-Citrasolv
-freezer paper
-iron on transfer methods & several brands of fabrics (expensive!)
For me, the easiest, softest and clearest and longest lasting images were prinetd for me by Traveling Designs.
http://www.travelingdesigns.com/home.html
They were a vendor at one of our quilt shows last year. (Not affiliated or connected to them in any way, I just like their results). My only complaint is that the fabric they use is not 100% cotton, and it frayed easily.
This from Electric Quilt also worked easily and has lasted:
https://electricquilt.com/online-sho...fabric-sheets/

If you print from your ink jet, the wrong kind of ink will fade.

Bubble jet works really well, but is messier. https://www.theidearoom.net/guest-post-infarrantly-creative/

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ting+on+fabric