Anyone ever color on their fabric?

A couple of years ago I saw a demonstration on how to use Derwent Inktense pencils on fabric at my machine quilters guild. I bought the Inktense pencils (they come in stick form too) and then wasn't really sure what to do with them! After my sis borrowed them to work on a piece of embroidery work (which I'm sure I'll quilt and post a picture), I decided I wanted to do something with them. I got a yard of Michael Miller's COLOR ME Christmas fabric from the Lil Red Hen and started coloring. My plan is to use the colored fabric as the fronts on Christmas stockings for the g-boys.

(now if you know me you are probably awed that I've actually started Christmas stuff before Oct!)

To use the Inktense pencils with fabric, you color on the fabric and then set it. If you want to blend the colors, you can use either water on a paint brush or cotton swab (what my sis did on the embroidery work) or if you want a more intense color, you can use PLAIN aloe vera gel--not lotion, applying with a paintbrush or swab. Or if the muted color, without blending works best for your purposes, you can simply heat set. Frankly, I'm not sure how washable it is over the long run, but probably you would not be using it on an item that needs frequent washing.

I've attached a picture of the yardage I'm working on and you can see that there is a part that I've already set with Aloe Vera gel. It does take a bit of time to do, I can see me using it more with quilting projects where I'm trying to add highlights or shadows or just small bits of color to an art type quilt more than the way I'm doing this Christmas yardage. In fact, next post, I'll attach a small, "whole cloth" I did for the my other guild's challenge where I used thread to "paint" the picture and the Inktense to add color to parts of it.

With this heat wave we are having, I'm staying in the A/C and quilting--and my garden shows it! Happy Quilting!