Quilt in a Day Forums

I was wondering if anyone has ever painted your fabric? Recently I read on another quilting blog about someone who painted her older fabric rather then discard it. It sounded very interesting to be able to use fabric that we have fallen out of love with, and I wondered if anyone has tried this. Is it hard to do?

piecemaker1

I've done it and, no, it isn't difficult at all.
I like to "highlight" bits and pieces of my quilt squares. You want to be sure to test your paint before you do it on your quilt, in case it 1. runs 2. doesn't dry 3. cakes 4. isn't permanent

I started out by buying a child's watercolor paint set. You can make some gorgeous fabric out of that by wetting your white fabric, then painting with lots of water. I then use that fabric, once dry and heat set, for making faces, arms, etc., on my Sunbonnet Sue blocks. It's especially great for getting a skin color that's realistic. Then I graduated to markers. From them, to acrylic paints. It's a lot of fun to play around with. I made apples in my trees with a kiss of yellow. Also good for making fabric look like woodgrain, if you need that.

So, you're just planning to use it to refresh the color on old fabrics? I'd be careful using old fabrics. Ask me how I know that they deteriorate faster than new fabrics. :=(

Joanne

I've never tried it, but am very tempted to give it a try at some point. I've been reading a lot about it here lately:

http://paintedthreadsprojects.blogspot. ... l/Painting

Wow Judy Perez is an artist. I was thinking more of painting the fabric. I have seen where Setacolor has been mentioned a few times when painting fabric. So that is what I was going to try. Joanne, how did older fabric deteriorate for you? Was it something that you painted? I have a lot of pinks in my stash that I know I will never use, so I was going to try to see if I could maybe turn them more brown (??!?!) Any suggestions.......

Gel pens are great for fabric painting. I bought a 100 piece set at Sam's Club of graduating colors. Here is a beautiful book for coloring fabric and what to use:

Quilts of a Different Color
by Irena Bluhm

I have also heard of overdying. where you dye the whole piece to change its color family. dying blue fabric to made it more green or purple yellow to orange or lime. I asked about older fabrics in another thread and was reminded about feed sacks and antique fabrics that hold up well in quilts. There are a lot of fabric paints at the craft stores now also

I bought a beautiful antique quilt at a garage sale in my younger, stupider days. I brought that beautiful thing home and threw it in the washer and dryer. I know you don't dry clean batting. Anyway, the squares that were a beautiful green either were completely gone, or had turned brown. It wasn't even THAT old. The old lady I bought it from said her aunt had made it and it was about 50 years old.

Of course I didn't use any bleach, and my water was cool. I was so disappointed, but those lessons are the ones we remember longest.

Joanne

Over-dyeing, yes. Did you know that if you have to fabrics that just are HORRIBLE together, you can make them compatible by giving them something in common. Over-dye with grey. Artists do it all the time with their paints to tone them down and make them go together.
Just a little trick I learned many years ago from an artist friend.