Creativity aided by technology

Yesterday I was printing a photo for my nieghbour, friend and quilting partner, Judy, so I tried something I'd read about a few months ago: printing on cloth.



I printed one photo and one graphic on my inkjet



I got the idea from a designer's blog who said she ran a swatch off the computer and printed her own sample cloth so she could display it at a trade show. Using something like linen, you iron it to a page-sized piece of freezer paper - for stability, and print you picture or whatever to the cloth. It's still a little floppy as it's waiting to go through the printer, so you may have to find a way to prop it upright so it will feed through properly.

An old Japanese woodcut, now on fabric

Prior to this, I've been using Avery printable fabric for my quilt labels. This works the same, except it's way cheaper and you have more choice in fabric. For printing, I use an Epson Stylus Photo 2880. It uses Ultra Chrome ink which is supposed to be smudge resistant, water resistant and fade resistant. I let it set for 24 hours and then washed it by hand. No smudging, no running. I don't know how it would stand up to frequent machine washing, but it looks good so far.



Ginger sez, What's next, mom?



There's a Full Moon at 29 Leo coming up late Feb. 17/early Feb. 18 depending on where you live. Full Moons always occur when the Sun and Moon are opposite each other in the sky. Therefore, they will always be in opposite zodiac signs. Thus, the Sun will be at 29 Aquarius at the same time, and joined by Neptune, Mars and Mercury which are also travelling through the constellation of Aquarius. Let inspiration guide you for the next four weeks. Be on guard againt lots of idle chatter with fixed opinions but probably little work. What work there is will likely be either disorganized and disappointing, or of a spiritual nature. Play and experiment with your projects and don't take it seriously if you don't get the results you were hoping for. They may turn out even better than expected.

Until next time,