Britta-
At our church, for Pastor Appreciation month, someone came up with the idea of making quilts for all four of the Pastor/Associate Pastors. We were asked to participate, and given four blocks to "quilt" and another lady would sew them together. I said no at first, I don't have a clue how to quilt, but she told me I could stamp on it! I practiced on some other things, and used Mini Mates and Say It W/Scriptures, the first three blocks came out perfectly, and SO pretty with the chalk pads! The last one, though, I had a small error stamping and couldn't fix it. It was crooked!! I washed and washed and washed the piece, the color didn't want to come out. I scrubbed several times with some heavy detergent, making most of it come out. I was able to incorporate the parts that didn't come out with the background so you couldn't tell, but I was SO scared at first because I only got four squares to work with!!! I ironed the material after washing it, but it didn't look any different than the first three squares that didn't get wet at all. So, Lessons Learned:
1) Careful with that Dye Ink, it dries quick and is HARD to get out, even wet
2) It looks GREAT on fabric. When I was experimenting, my first try was to use some good Pigment Ink Pens and colored on the stamps, but coverage was spotty. With the Colorbox, I got complete coverage of the stamp on the fabric, nothing spotty at all.
3) When practicing, best results were using a Paper Towel to stamp on. The look on the paper towel was the exact same as it looked on the fabric, so I could see how it would look on the square.
I didn't pre-treat or heat set because it didn't occur to me - Duh!
I guess that would have been smart. But, truthfully, after that last square and trying to get the image out, I don't think I would have needed to. I did make a note that washing one first and then ironing it didn't make a difference in the appearance afterward, it was exactly like the others. I didn't take any pictures "before," but after the quilts are all sewn together I plan to take a picture of the whole quilt, and then a closer pic of what I stamped. I'll post it in the gallery, it will be next month, though! Hope this helps - learn from my mistakes!!
Debbi
Petal Point Chalk Pads
