photos on quilts

[Fran K.]

As a new grandma, I'm working on an I Spy quilt - the intent is for this quilt to be played with, dragged around, washed frequently. I was thinking of having one block with my granddaughter's photo on it - will this photo block fade faster than the other fabrics with frequent washing? Is it perhaps not practical to do a block like this in this type of quilt? Thanks.

[Jeanie S.]

In general, inkjet printed photos will fade faster than commercial fabrics when washed as often as you describe. I always tell people that inkjet fabrics are washable "to a point". If you treat them as you would a delicate fabric, then it would most likely be OK. But that's not what you've described.

If you have an HP printer, you can lengthen the life of the print by adding fabric softener to the rinse water, but the prints will unfortunately still fade faster than the commercial fabrics. Also, the HP inks are dye-based (not pigment), so they will be more susceptible to fading from light.

If you have an Epson printer with DuraBrite (pigment) inks, I have had very good luck washing the EQ Printables Cotton Lawn. Yes, that is a very specific ink/fabric combination, but I think there is something about how smooth the fabric is that helps the pigments to adhere to it. If you then spray a 1:3 ratio of FabricMagic* to water on the print, let it dry and heat seal it (medium heat since high heat causes the DuraBrite inks to yellow), I think that is probably your best chance at getting as permanent a print as possible. The FabricMagic will change the hand of the fabric some, but it may be worth it for the increased longevity of the print. I should mention that my testing involves washing a print 5 times. In my experience, most fabric/ink combinations show marked degradation in just five washes. The combination I mention here showed almost no degradation in my testing, though I did start to see a little bit, so it's not a perfect solution.

The other thing that will make a huge difference in the life of the print is the detergent you use to wash the quilt! I have tested washing inkjet prints in a few different detergents and have settled on Synthrapol as the most gentle. Definitely stay away from any detergents that contain bleach or brighteners (such as Tide)! But I've even had trouble with Woolite for Darks which supposedly contains neither of those. I would say that if the person you are giving the quilt to hopes to just throw it in the wash without thinking about it, do not include an inkjet print in the quilt. They really do need to be treated with special care.

*FabricMagic is a fixative that was designed to be used with colorants and painted/stamped/stenciled onto fabric. I decided to try using it as a post treatment on inkjet fabric. It has not been successful on all fabrics, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results when I used the Epson DuraBrite inks on EQ Printables Cotton Lawn inkjet fabric. That said, I have not washed any of my test prints more than 5 times, so your mileage may vary.

FabricMagic is made by Earth Safe Finishes. I have no affiliation with this company - or with EQ for that matter. I'm just always looking for solutions to make inkjet prints more washable and this definitely shows promise - though to be really thorough people all over the country would need to test this since different water supplies can make a difference too.

[Fran K.]

Thanks SO MUCH for this info - sorry to ask this question, from one very inexperienced in photo printing - do you treat before or after printing the photo? Are you saying that you purchase specific inks that are different than the normal ink used in your printer? Thanks very much for sharing your experience.

[Jeanie S.]

The FabricMagic treatment is applied after printing the photo. (In fact, it is best applied after setting the ink according to the inkjet fabric manufacturer.) Of course, the EQ Printables Cotton lawn fabric is already pre-treated as well. (This pre-treatment is what makes dye-based inks, such as HP inks, not wash out as soon as the fabric hits water.)

Printers and the inks in them are designed together by the printer manufacturers. While you can purchase 3rd-party "compatible" inks to use in your printer, I don't recommend doing this if you want to print on fabric. Unfortunately this means that if you want to use the Epson DuraBrite inks, you'll need to purchase an Epson printer that uses those inks. (The DuraBrite inks are used in their line of office printers.)

Having said all that, I can't in good conscience say that you need to go out and purchase a new printer just to print one photo for this one project. I just wanted to let you know that there is a possible solution for you, but it is with a very specific set of parameters (Epson DuraBrite inks printed on EQ Printables Cotton Lawn treated with FabricMagic after printing) - and though I'm very encouraged with my results so far, it has not yet been fully tested. More importantly, if you don't have this very specific set of parameters, you may be disappointed with the results of using an inkjet print in the particular project that you've described. I know that sounds like a lot of hedging, but the amount of washing that I imagine this quilt will need is a bit of a red flag for me.

As a side note, I don't know if you saw the classroom series that I did on Printing Photos on Fabric last July. If not, you might want to take a look:
learn/classrooms/

Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

[Fran K.]

Thank you so so much! I have both Epson and hp printers already. I'm a real photo person. A few years ago I did a photo quilt on printed treasures - what a disappointment in the quality of the photos! I have purchased some jacquard (brand) ink jet printing cotton - it was either at Road to California or Long Beach - but I haven't tried it yet - I will review your series on TQS, thanks- I think I will restrict photo quilts to wall hangings, which I still want to do, as I love photography as much as I love quilting.

[Jeanie S.]

I have not had very good luck getting vibrant colors with an HP printer on Printed Treasures. Is that the printer you used?

I too love photography - which is why I love printing on fabric! Have fun!

[Fran K.]

The first time, Printed Treasures is all I knew about - NEVER AGAIN! Thanks so much for your advice. The one quilt I made this way can be viewed on my TQS profile - the photos are DREADFUL, but sentimental. The recipient was thrilled, but didn't know better. I threw many out because they just didn't print up usable at all, even though they were decent photos when printed on photo paper.

[Fran K.]

perhaps this would be an option, I googled custom fabric printing and this came up. http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome http://www.karmakraft.com/default.aspx or http://www.jumpcolor.net/ each of these sights present promising options. Congratulations on the new addition!

[Jeanie S.]

It is almost always disappointing to compare photos printed on fabric to photos printed on glossy photo paper. The gloss of the photo paper increases the contrast and intensity of the colors that can simply never be achieved on fabric. If you want to compare photos printed on paper and fabric, then use Presentation Paper or Matte Photo Paper for the paper. Both of these have a flat matte finish and it is a better comparison. This is not to say that the photos in your quilt could not have been improved with a different inkjet fabric - I think they easily could have been. But no matter which fabric you use, it will never be comparable to the quality you get on glossy photo paper - it is physically impossible because the two surfaces reflect light completely differently.

Re: Spoonflower & other online custom fabric printing sites... These sites are great for printing yardage of graphic designs - that is their main market. That said, I tried sending some photos to test the printing at two different sites and was not happy with the results of either. I have not yet had time to modify my files and try again. I sent the same exact images that I use when I print photos on fabric with my inkjet printer, but they were printed much, much darker and lost a lot of detail in the dark areas. The Spoonflower site will tell you that their process does not handle gradients (i.e., subtle variations in color) very well; the images that work best have a high-contrast (i.e. graphic designs with lots of solid colors.) I did test a couple of graphic design images as well and was much happier with those results than I was with the photos that I sent.

[Fran K.]

i think it may be fun to make my granddaughter a fabric book, that could include photos - this would not need to be laundered as much as a quilt that was dragged around - she'll get a quilt too, just not with photos.

[Margo C.]

i think it may be fun to make my granddaughter a fabric book, that could include photos - this would not need to be laundered as much as a quilt that was dragged around - she'll get a quilt too, just not with photos.

That sounds like a good plan!! Have fun!

[Jeanie S.]

Sounds perfect!

[Jeanie S.]

Great idea. Don't forget to post pictures!

[Diane F.]

i think it may be fun to make my granddaughter a fabric book, that could include photos - this would not need to be laundered as much as a quilt that was dragged around - she'll get a quilt too, just not with photos.

I like the fabric photo book idea. My first grandchild is due next month and a photo book would make a great gift (perhaps a little later though, still have to finish the quilt.)

I finished a two session workshop with Jeanie this week. She has lots of great information. She cautioned me about my printer and boy was she correct! I will have to think about sending my images to a company or purchase an Epson pigment printer.

I hope that TQS will ask Jeanie to tape more classes; she has lots of great information.