Jack did NOT know I was pointing a camera at him. This is from two days ago, when we had some warm temperatures and I put blankets out to air.

This is the commission that I just finished. I would not use variegated thread again in a project like this — I didn’t like it changing up on me when I didn’t expect it to.  Also, even though this is a blanket, meant to be sat under on a couch, I would NOT have rinsed the photos once they were transferred to fabric — the red shirts bled!  So, unlike most of the blankets I make, this one will have to be dry cleaned.  Lastly, I should have added another band of color on the right side.

For the inkjet phototransfers, I used pre-treated and pre-backed sheets of cotton available commercially — I like ‘Printed Treasures’.  They are pricey, but because it is so labor intensive to produce one’s own sheets, I consider them worth the cost.

I have gone the Bubble Jet Set route (which makes fabric more receptive to color), but by the time you’ve washed, dried and pressed the fabric, measured and cut it to just under 8.5 x 11″, then backed it with freezer paper, you’ve invested a LOT of time in something that has a very good chance of jamming in the printer.  Once I learned that you could skip the chemical bath and simply back the fabric with freezer paper and print on it, I tried that, too.  But again, the washing/pressing/cutting/backing and jamming are big headaches in my book.

So, while I wish the pretreated sheets were cheaper, I consider them worth it.