digital fabric dying

[Betty J.]

I just made an interesting discovery on something that you all may find useful. I used my new digital tablet and CorelPainter11, but I suspect this will work in most computerized drawing/painting packages. I had been unable to find exactly the right thing to go in a sky-spot on a landscape background I am making for my knight quilt. I discovered that layering on fabrics just didn't look right for a particular light spot in the sky. So I painted a soft sky space with the clouds parting for a lighter spot in the sky and printed it on 11 X 17 tabloid sized fabric. I haven't put it into the sky yet, but I think it will work. I just wanted to share in case someone out there needs a particular fabric that can be painted and printed digitally rather than with ink or paints. I'm not set up for dying or inking my fabrics. I can add touches of highlights and small bits of paints for faces or some such, but not a real dye job like this would require. Anyway, here's a jpg of that sky spot. Cheers.

[Paula D.]

GENIUS! 8) 8) 8)

[Betty J.]

:lol: Thanks (actually I just stumbled onto the idea). Another arrow in the quilter's quiver. Here's the printout now piecliqued into the sky and surrounded by the parting clouds. You can barely see the outline of where the tip of the sword is going to be in the light section. This is just plain fun!

[Karen M.]

That is Awesome looking.

[Karen M.]

I am so glad you have found the joy of digital fabric design. I have been printing my own digital designs for a long time. Ricky's Convergence book has two of my small quilts that are made with fabrics created digitally in Corel Draw. You will find a whole new world of possibilities have opened up for you. Have fun. Your cloud piece is stunning. Betty Ann

[Betty J.]

Thanks. I hope others try it out.

[Betty J.]

Brilliant!

Maggie in E. Central Illinois

[Jill B.]

Well I have read about Digital fabric Dying on the forum before and have to admit that I must be Jill the Dill as I have no idea what this is about, but it sure sounds interesting, can ayone give me a run down, and Ialso will go to the web and see if I can find out more. :? :? :?

[Betty J.]

Well I have read about Digital fabric Dying on the forum before and have to admit that I must be Jill the Dill as I have no idea what this is about, but it sure sounds interesting, can ayone give me a run down, and Ialso will go to the web and see if I can find out more. :? :? :?

Jill, it's not too complicated...it is just making a picture (or in this case a sky blob) using any one of the drawing/painting/photo editing software packages, sizing it to the size of printer fabric you have (in this case Tabloid, 11x17 inches that I ordered from Electric Quilt), and printing it out on an ink jet printer, following the directions on the package. I rinsed it and heat set it with the hot iron and thus I had my piece of fabric ready to use in the quilt. I just hadn't thought of using it to "paint" a piece of fabric to fix a problem spot in my art quilt before...it was cool to find I could do it. I suspect most anyone with a computer and an ink jet printer can also do it. Probably most of the TQS folks wonder why I didn't figure this out earlier, :shock: but I have been using fabric photo prints for some time and just hadn't thought of making the fabric design myself. ops: Kind of neat, huh? :lol:

Cheers, BJ

P.S. I DID have to play around with the coloring and "brushes" settings for about an hour to get the colors and softness right. It was a matter of learning how to manage the software and preprinting on paper a couple of times till I got it right.

[Jill B.]

Hey BJ thats great and I new about the printing a photo on fabric but had not thought of making a photo up so to speak like you did, such a learning curve for us beginners like myself here on TQS 8) 8) 8)

After thinking on what you are doing with your cloud (what a great idea) I just had a thought, does that mean if I made a small quilt and or block on EQ7 and sized it to the fabric sheet or two/four per sheet that you could then print it out and put it on a card or such..... ops: ops: ops:

[Jill B.]

WOW, that is so beautiful and I can't wait to see the finished quilt top. No wonder here as why it took you so long to figure this out. I am still in the photo process and will be putting corel on my Santa list. If that doesn't work, then it will be on my birthday list. Congratulations, and keep us updated on your progress.

[Betty J.]

Hey BJ thats great and I new about the printing a photo on fabric but had not thought of making a photo up so to speak like you did, such a learning curve for us beginners like myself here on TQS 8) 8) 8)

After thinking on what you are doing with your cloud (what a great idea) I just had a thought, does that mean if I made a small quilt and or block on EQ7 and sized it to the fabric sheet or two/four per sheet that you could then print it out and put it on a card or such..... ops: ops: ops:

That is exactly what this means. I think the TQS classrooms on printing on fabric by Jeanie are a wonderful help in understanding all of this and how to get the intensity of color and all we want to get from this. She really helped me get the colors right especially.

[Betty J.]

WOW, that is so beautiful and I can't wait to see the finished quilt top. No wonder here as why it took you so long to figure this out. I am still in the photo process and will be putting corel on my Santa list. If that doesn't work, then it will be on my birthday list. Congratulations, and keep us updated on your progress.

Thanks. I am sort of anxious to see how it all comes out myself. :shock: I've been working on the mountains this afternoon.

I have really gotten to like CorelPainter 11, and I only have only just begun to learn how to use it in conjunction with quilting. If you could get Santa to bring a Wacom tablet along with it, I think you would enjoy that too...there is a learning curve for all of this.

[Betty J.]

Brilliant!

Maggie in E. Central Illinois

ops: awww, thanks. I'm kind of excited by this discovery. Cheers.

[Betty J.]

I am so glad you have found the joy of digital fabric design. I have been printing my own digital designs for a long time. Ricky's Convergence book has two of my small quilts that are made with fabrics created digitally in Corel Draw. You will find a whole new world of possibilities have opened up for you. Have fun. Your cloud piece is stunning. Betty Ann

Cool! I haven't seen the two small quilts, but that sounds terrific.