samifel

I'm making a quilt and would like to add a few photos. I can use a color laser printer. I've been reading about putting the cotton on freezer paper and then printing. But I understand that I need to put some "ink fixitive" on the fabric. Has anyone done this? What kind of fixative and where do I get it? Many Thanks!!!!

yayaquilts

I use Printed Treasures, pre-treated cotton fabric-5 sheets (8.5 x 11") to package. The cotton sheets are easy to use, and work perfectly in any printer and the photos come out great. These pretreated sheets are so much easier to use than fabric by the yard that has to be treated by special solutions.

http://www.overstock.com/Crafts-Sewi...tml?cid=123620

QuiltnLady1

You have to use an inkjet printer -- not a laser printer. The ink of the inkjet will absorb into the fabric. Printed Treasures is a great one to use, though EQ also makes a good paper as well.

When you print, if you want vibrant colors, you need to over-saturate the color in the picture before printing (using a picture processing program). Some of the ink is absorbed and if you don't over-saturate the pictures are softer.

I have made a bunch of quilts using pictures over the years using a variety of methods and I have had better success with the commercial printer sheets, the ones I made myself did not hold the color as well even though both quilts were started out as bright and were in basically the same place for five years. I made my first picture quilt 10 years ago, and the fabrics are sooooo much better now.

hobbykat1955

No Lazer...ditto on above...