Coloring on Fabric Tutorial

A week or so ago I showed my first "Sweet Nostalgia" block I had finished. I have decided to color mine. Some of you that read my blog asked how I go about doing the block. I am going to explain the process today.

One thing I am doing is reducing my block size. I have reduced it by 75% so that I will have a smaller quilt. My block comes out to be about 7 inches square. After I reduce it I iron on a piece of freezer paper to the back of the fabric. I don't have a light box but my sewing machine extension table works great with my Ott light underneath. I use a brown Micron 005 Pigma pen to trace on the design.
When I am done tracing I take my Crayola crayons and start coloring. I will check the thread colors that are listed to try to match the crayon color. If you look at the block below you will see that I color dark and light. It will depend on the look that you are wanting. You could do shadowing too. Use your imagination. I have written down the names of the crayons I use for some things like the skin and hair color.

You might have noticed something just a little different in my picture. I took out the witch, even though it was very cute. I had my daughter draw an owl because we have lots of owls in our woods.

When I get done coloring I pull the freezer paper off the back. I place a paper towel on my ironing board, then place the block coloring side down on the paper towel. I will take my iron which is set on "cotton", no steam and slowly press the square so that excess crayon will go onto the paper towel.

Here you can see the block folded back and the paper towel on the right side with black crayon from the cat and dog. The other colors are so lightly colored that they don't go on the paper but they are set in the fabric.

After I finish setting the crayon I will iron on some light weight interfacing on the back. I will start in the center of the block and iron out to the edge. I find if I iron it this way I don't get all those wrinkles in the fabric. I use the interfacing to add some stability and it helps with thread tails not bleeding through to the front.

So now you are ready to start the stitching which really brings the block to life.

If you go over to Mama T's you can see her quilt that she colored a couple years ago. I asked her about washing a quilt that is colored. She said that if you are going to make a quilt that will be washed a lot you might want to color the design with more layers of crayon. So you color, iron, color, and iron again. So far I have only made quilts that will be wallhanings and not washed a lot from use. It really is a fun technique and who doesn't love a new box of crayons!

Edit:I did a lot of experimenting with fabric and crayons before putting out my sock monkey book and monster book patterns out there........ Best results for keeping color through washing is to PREWASH fabric to be colored to remove sizing so the the color penetrates the threads the best. Then proceed as you have with heat setting etc. They all will fade about 50% but is about as good as it gets so depends on how hard you color. NOTE: real HEAVY coloring also ends up with faint greasy marks from the wax when you heat set it. Some of it washes out but not all. Just thought I'd let you know in case you want to do something other than a wallhanging.
amother note: "washable" crayons are permanent after heat set too. 

from: Cyndi--http://beetreedesigns.blogspot.com/ 

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Charles Dudley Warner