Sunday, April 7, 2013

Photo Transfers

                                                     Photo Transfers

Transferring images onto fabric and using these images in your quilts personalizes your work like no other technique. There are many ways to transfer images/photos and we experimented with prepared fabric sheets from Printed Treasures and Jacquard and while both worked well, the Jacquard gave the cleaner, sharper images on a smoother sheet of fabric. This is our observation, and we would use both brands again in the future depending on the outcome desired.

We also tried printing on silk, which gave us a lighter, paler image which is appropriate in some circumstances.

It is possible to use any fabric to print our photos onto and we ironed fabric to freezer paper to use as a carrier in the printer. This is particularly good if you are making your own labels and want them to blend into the backing fabric better. It is also good to use if writing labels, poems, names, dates ...Images will be reversed so you need to prepare for that

Other methods include the use of Transparency Film and Transfer Artist Paper, which will be the choice of method if washability is important.


Photo Transfer - Sue
Sue had recently attended a hot air balloon event in New Smyrna Beach FL and had taken some bright, colorful pictures that worked very well for this technique. She combined the image transfers with the Printing on Ribbon technique that we had played with, and framed the transferred photos with black fabric for more definition before adding a couple of gold appliqued stars. 
                                                                              Sue

Then Sue transferred a photo of her Mother onto silk which resulted in a more delicate, ethereal look. She added a few gossamer leaves and some yarn to complete the piece.

                                                                       Sue



Photo Transfer - Claire
I used a photo I took along the York River in VA while visiting friends and transferred it to prepared fabric sheets. Transfer Artist Paper was used to transfer the butterflies to fabric and I found that product easy and fun to use. After adding strips of fabric to fill the piece out, I added beads and buttons for embellishment and ended with a traditional binding.

                                                                           Claire


Photo Transfer - Joyce
Joyce used two types of fabric sheets on this piece - the brightly colored garden photo on the right was transferred with prepared 100% cotton fabric sheets and the photo of the iris on the left was done with silk fabric and then both were stitched to a white framing fabric before being hand-stitched to the floral background fabric. Joyce opted to combine techniques in this piece by Thread Painting the large flower in the lower right corner. She is in the process of hand stitching the edge with a buttonhole stitch to finish it.

                                                                            Joyce

Photo Transfer - Joyce
This piece contains fruits transferred to fabric using both Inkjet Transparency Film and Transfer Artist Paper, some in color and the small strips in black and white. A small branch is machine stitched and finished with silk leaves and tiny fuzzy balls for apples. Beads, bugs and a barn are added embellishments and large rick-rack finishes the edges. I was not happy with the colors produced on the fruit using these methods.

                                                                                    Joyce



Photo Transfer - Candy
Candy chose five of her grandchildren to star in this piece, with the words "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream" printed on ribbon and illustrated with a luscious looking ice cream cone. The edge is finished with ribbon.

Candy

Photo Transfer - Annette
Annette made this piece in a class with Liz Kettle, one of the authors of the book we are working with. She transferred an image onto fabric and built a collage with it as the focal point. Note the hand stitching in larger stitches as a design feature.

Annette

1 comment:

  1. Hi All,

    These four pieces are great. My photo transfer was the map in the words with ribbons piece that was already posted. I am doing a number of pieces that are multiple lessons.

    Donnie

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