Anyone who has been to a quilt show or picked up a quilting magazine recently has seen some of the gorgeous effects fabric artists are creating these days with fabric paint. Who wouldn’t be proud to make something like this?

"Autumn Field" by Lesley Riley, author of Fabulous Fabric Art with Lutradur

Or this?

"Sunset Safari" by Gloria Loughman, author of Luminous Landscapes

Even if you’re more of a plain Jane quilter (like me), you can still use fabric paints to add color, texture, and excitement to your quilts. It doesn’t take years of art training or a lot of expensive equipment.

Here are the answers to some common questions quilters ask about painting on fabric.

Which kind of paint is best for fabric painting?

Acrylic fabric paints are our favorite choice. They aren’t terribly expensive, they clean up with soap and water (no toxic solvents or chemicals to deal with!), and they are available in a whole rainbow of beautiful colors.

Acrylic fabric paint consists of pigment suspended in an acrylic medium specially formulated to be easy to work with and wear well on fabric. Look for a paint that doesn’t need to be heat set, steamed, or chemically fixed to be permanent.

Some paints are stiff enough to show your brush strokes on the finished piece, while others come as a thin liquid that can be brushed on like watercolor paint. Acrylic fabric paints can be thinned and made softer on the finished fabric with a fluid called fabric medium. Another fluid called gel medium can give the paint glossy or matte finishes.

What types of fabric are good for fabric painting?

You can paint successfully on just about any fabric. Loosely woven fabric allows more of the color to penetrate the fibers.

Some of our authors’ favorites include cotton and cotton/poly blend quilting fabric, flannel, quilt batting, rayon, linen, canvas, silk, organza, Timtex®, and Lutradur®. You can also paint on cotton knits, suede, terry cloth, velvet, velveteen, leather, and most synthetic fabrics.

In other words, you’re bound to have something in your stash that can serve as a canvas for your creativity. When in doubt about whether a particular fabric will take paint well, do a test on a small piece before plunging in to a whole project.

How durable is fabric paint? Is it washable?

Fabric paintings are much more durable than you might think. I have some t-shirts that were painted at family camp years ago and washed many times in hot water. The colors are still vivid, even though the fabric is now full of holes.

Fabric paints are washable after they are fully dried and cured. Hand washing and drip drying instead of machine drying will help the paint last longer, but if the fabric is machine washable, the paint can be machine washed in warm water on the permanent press cycle. Ideally, painted items should be washed inside out. Fabric paints can also be dry cleaned. Avoid spot cleaning solutions.

If you want to iron painted fabric, use a low heat setting.

Do I need other equipment or supplies to paint on fabric?

You’ll probably want a few good acrylic paintbrushes in different sizes. For thicker paint, use a stiff-bristled brush. Soft-bristled brushes work well for washes and watercolor effects.

Of course, a brush is just the beginning when it comes to painting on fabric! You can apply paint with a dipping pen, a Q-tip, or the end of a chopstick. You can also stencil, stamp, dye, stain, airbrush, or marble fabrics with paints. One of my first paint projects was carving a potato into a stamp featuring a pair of lips, then dipping the stamp in green metallic paint and stamping “kisses” all over an old t-shirt. It looked great!

How should fabric be prepared before painting?

If the fabric hasn’t been washed, prewash it to remove any sizing, which can keep the paint from sticking to the fabric. You should also put the fabric on a piece of cardboard to keep paint from getting on your work surface.

Check back to this space soon for more on painting on fabric.