Markers

Problem Solving Tools 2: Markers for Satin

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Markers, Quilt Journal, Show Quilts, Techniques, Tools / 2 Comments

Marking satin for quilting and placement has been a BIG barrier to making some quilts.  I want to make several quilts using polyester crepe-back satin and have been working on figuring out all the techniques that come with this.

First I made this sampler pillow top, in which I figured out what batting and backing to use, what paints to use, what background quilting I wanted for one of my projects, and markers.  You can read more about this in Satin Sampler blog below, but there is more to know about the marker.

When I refroze the sampler, the marks came back and then I soaked it with Dawn and Oxiclean all day long (9 hours).  the marks did NOT go away at all.  The marker test failed (I have ironed away the marks in the photo above).

Sew I thought about this a bit and began to wonder if there were any pens that were designed to wash out of clothing or go away with water for kids to use.  When I searched for such pens online, I came across Crayola’s Washable Gel pens.  So I ordered a package from Amazon and yesterday I ran a test on the markers.  To my delight, my test worked!  The pictures aren’t great, but here they are.

Before (note the clear marks that are smooth and thin. The ink did not spread at all.  The ink glided over the satin without pulling the weave of the satin like pencils do:

Here is the after picture.  I washed it in cold water with Synthrapol by hand (with a three minute soak).  The ink you see is a Sharpie to keep up with what the sections were…one was not ironed, and one was ironed.  There is not one bit of the gel pen marks.  Today I froze the fabric for a while just to make sure the marks would not return.  This is the result…no marks:

For me and the projects I want to do this is a HUGE breakthrough.  I can now proceed in marking my current project and design the others. I will note that one of my quilty friends said he had used this pen and had them bleed some splats, and some of the colors were less washable than others.  He also noted that if you accidentally get water on it it may spread like watercolor. He lives in California and his water may be different or some other difference.  I have not used this much either, and he probably has. Also, I have not tested this on cottons or silk. So I don’t think I can fully recommend this marker yet–perhaps in the future after I use it more–but I am going to use it.  Even the occassional splat (that washes out) is greatly preferable to the pulling from a pencil that occurs when trying to mark satin that way.  Therefore, I suggest if you are going to use this that you run a test on your particular fabric and wash with your water with Synthapol before marking your quilt.

One of the cool things about my sampler is that the paint was untouched by all the attempts to remove the marks…it survived it all.  The paint is a combination of Jacquard’s Lumiere paints and Setacolor paints that were dried and heat set.  I also like the general concept for the background quilting.

Sew happy everyone!  Remember to test your techniques and products before investing those hours into your project.

 

 

Satin Sampler

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Design Work, Embellishment, Fabric Review, Fabrics, Food for Thought, High-Tech Studio, Machines, Markers, My micro-business, My Studio, Quilt Journal, Techniques / 2 Comments

OK.  I have been working out a satin sampler to test markers, techniques, threads, paints, and background designs for several projects, one being my Mom’s memory quilt.  The cool thing about this is that I am making it with polyester crepe back satin.  It has a lovely beefy hand and I wanted to test it for future projects.  Why?  Partly because I can get a 58 inch wide piece for about $5 per yard for a lighter hand up to $8 a yard for a heavy satin instead of the $17 to $40 a yard for 43″ wide fabric, and partly because there are some wonderful colors available in the polyester that don’t run when washed.  I am using the heavy polyester crepe back satin for this sampler.  I will be making it into a pillow top for my bedroom since I can tell I will like it when finished.

Sew I have layered it with a cotton backing, and a double bat of Quilter’s Dream 80/20 select loft on bottom and Quilter’s Dream wool on top.  I marked it with a heat-away gel pen (see my blog on marker testing for this satin) that I do not recommend unless you are prepared to go through a removal process that requires much effort and time.  This ink returns when frozen (such as in the airplane when you check your luggage or ship it someplace). Also, my marker testing is incomplete, because I want to finish the sampler, freeze it, and completely test the removal process again on this sandwiched piece. I am quilting it with 40 weight Superior Magnifico and, where needed, 100 weight microquilter.

I painted this sampler with a combination of Setacolor and Jacquard Lumier fabric paints in order to get the colors I wanted.  Their steadfastness will also be tested in the freezing/washing test.

Here is a little look at my work on this little sampler thus far.  I am really having fun with this.  While most of the stitch work has been on my Bernina Q20 sitdown longarm, some very small amount was done on my new B 880 Plus machine, just to see how it quilts.  LOL

 

 

So my conclusion about good quality polyester crepe back satin as a quilting fabric…it works, it’s beautiful, and it both paints and quilts well.  I do back it with a very light weight pellon fusible to make it behave well.

* * * * * * *

Something I didn’t tell you all earlier is that just after I got Odette all sorted out with a new machine from Bernina because the first one seemed to have a serious problem, I made a mistake in threading it and got a huge glob of thread nest in it that I could not remove myself.  So I had to take it in to the dealer to get it fixed.  It made me weep. I was really gloomy when I found that Lew, the magical tech guy, was out for two weeks and so I had to wait.  He fixed it almost imediately when he got back and I got it safely home on Tuesday and have done considerable sewing and embroidery on it since then.  It is clearly a wonderful machine.  It was my mistake, and I have since figured out what I did wrong (with Lew’s suggestions).  I didn’t want to whine again or have people tell me I was wrong to buy it in the first place because their prefered brand works so much better they think.

Anyway, that meant that I was without my main sewing machine for nearly three months with the exception of a day or two twice!!!  So I did a lot of sewing on my little Bernina 350 and a lot of free motion work on my Q20, and a lot of non-machine prep work for future projects, and stacked up quite a bit of work for the new machine.  I will, therefore, be missing a few deadlines I had tentatively planned on.

I have begun attacking the stack of work and have been having a huge amount of fun and the icy fear of further machine problems has begun to melt away over the past week.  In addition to some “regular” sewing, I did some in-the-hoop embroidery last week that came out so perfect and beautiful that I was nearly weeping again, this time in joy.  You should know that I seldom cry for anything much, and am known as a “tough old bird” as one of my former colleagues told me.  But this machine saga seems to have loosened a few tears from me.

Sew happy everyone!  May your stitches be beautiful and your machines play well with you for many years.  Hugs to you all!

 

Marking Satin Fabric

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Art Quilt Techniques, Design Work, Markers, Quilt Journal, Reviews, Show Quilts / 2 Comments

Sew today I decided to begin working on the satin pillow top that I am making to test some methods I plan to use for my Mom’s memory quilt.  I am using polyester crepe back satin, a beefy satin that I have tested previously for quilting with great results and I am trying to figure out the marking method for my Mom’s quilt, because it has a LOT of detailed stitching/painting lines to produce the designs.

I used it as the border on one of my favorite quilts Pendragon because I could not find the right color in a natural fiber under twenty dollars a yard. I only used it on the border though.

Pendragon
34 x 45

But for this quilt, I prestitched, painted, then constructed, sandwiched and quilted. I over-quilted the border with monopoly, which gave me the opportunity to bring out the over and under characteristics of the Celtic border designs.  I used quilting paper with temporary adhesive dots for the marking.  This works fairly well, but when you use really small details, it may break away at an awkward place or may be really hard to remove after stitching.

This may end up being the method I use for Mom’s quilt, but I really wanted to use the border method I did for Canterbury Silk and Canterbury Knight, where I appliqued on a few things, quilted it, then painted the quilting designs. For both of these quilts I used Radiance Cotton/Silk blend, not polyester.

practice pieces for Canterbury Silk

I marked those (and remarked them, and remarked them before all the original marks quite disappeared along the way) with Fons and Porter’s mechanical white pencil.  It doesn’t stay on the satin very well, but was the best I could find at the time.

Mom’s quilt will be made with off white polyester satin and two blues of beautiful polyester dupioni (I LOVE these fabrics), and of course, the pieces of crocheted lace squares I found in her workbasket after she died.

I want to mark it in a way it will stay, I can actually see it, and then I can get rid of the marks completely when I block it.  Is this a dream?

So today I tested multiple markers.  The blue marker many of us use immediately bleeds all around the mark, as does the crayola washable marker I frequently use.  This blurs the lines so they are not usable for this quilt.

I tried marking pencils, which I know go away as you work through it on satins, in particular, though I can kind of see it.  The pencil pulls the fabric as I mark it, and I have to hold it really carefully.  It sort of put slight pulls in it in places, and the detail is kind of hard to see under the light of my machine.  In other words, it’s not really what I need.  Colored chalk comes right off after just a tiny bit of stitching.  Clearly not the winner.

Out of frustration, I am trying  pen similar to Frixion, which works so well for seeing it, doesn’t go away as you work through the construction, and disappears when ironed.  But it comes back when frozen (i.e. when shipped to the quilt show in an airplane or transported in the winter).  I am testing to see if there is a way to get rid of this marker without destroying the work I do on the quilt.

I am still testing that one, however.  If I can figure out a way to use it and then remove it completely this would be almost ideal.  So I have ironed off the test piece and have it in the freezer to have a sample to try really removing it.

I say almost ideal because I would probably have to remove the marks after I have all the stitching done and then do the painting.  But I am going to test that too.  IF I can remove it, and NOT remove the painting, then I would say it is ideal.

Anyway, I completely marked the pillow sample top with the gel pen so I can practice the quilting/painting method I plan to use, and then try to remove the marks so they won’t come back.

Let me say that I would strongly not recommend this marker for most quilts.  It does come back when frozen, while all the other markers…Crayola washables (my favorites), blue markers, chalk, and marking pencils come nicely off either by washing or erasing.

But this is a special case, and something I would use a lot if I can come up with a good marking method for light colored satins.

Next I will have to test the paints.  I’ll let you know how all this goes in my next blog post.

Sew happy everyone!  Test your techniques, fabrics, markers, threads, tensions, needles, paints, markers BEFORE you invest all those hours (and money) in your projects to prevent frustration.  Also, I highly recommend you prewash your fabrics.  Except for machine problems, there are few things in your studio more frustrating beyond completing a beautiful piece and have it get ruined (or nearly ruined) in the end when blocked.  Have a great week everyone!