How do you like my little Chihuahua
friends?  I will be painting them onto
fabric this week.  My friend, Cheryl, sent
me pictures of her little dog, Chico.  Using  
Corel Draw and Corel Photo Paint software
I separated the dogs from their
backgrounds and transformed them into
little psychedelic dogs.  I brought in some
flower pot clip art and now I'm ready to
trace the design onto fabric.  It won't take
long to paint them and then they will be
ready to quilt and hang on the wall.

After your project has been painted be sure and heat set to make the paint permanent.  I like to
embroider around the edges of each shape either by hand or machine.  If you want an aged look
you can tea dye and heat set.

Heat setting tips:
In order to protect your iron and ironing board, place one of these products over and under your
fabric: Teflon sheet, parchment paper, pressing cloth or paper towels.  Set your iron temperature
to the type of fabric used.

Stencil creams and oil paint sticks also work well and need to be heat set.  I have experimented
with water color wax crayons with interesting results.   When I use water color wax crayons, I
always color around the edges first with regular crayons.  This helps keep the water color
crayons from bleeding beyond the border.   I usually  color the fabric with the water color wax
crayons and then blend the shades using a number 2 round brush dipped in water.  Be sparing
with the water, you can always add more.  Heat set.  It is so much fun to experiment with new
products.   For an added surface design effect you can use Angelina fibers, fabric glitter and foil.  
Foil is sold in lots of beautiful colors and adds an interesting touch to your painted projects.  My
creative friend, Cheryl, sent me a box of Angelina fibers, glitter and foil to play with and I am
amazed at the interesting effects it creates.  I feel like this is just like "Altered Art" except on
fabric.   I use a combination of brushes and sponges to apply the paint.  The yellow sponges
with big rounded edges (that are used for grout clean up) stay nice and soft and work well with
fabric paints.  These sponges can be found at building supply stores. Just imagine how much
more we could create if we didn't have to sleep and clean!!   My next quilt I will be using the all
purpose inks with the Aloe gel.  The quilts I've seen using this technique are so beautiful and life
like.