CONTENTS: Announcements - Ask EQ - Free Stuff - Works For Me - Show & Tell - Quilt University - Printing on Fabric - Quilters' Colors Patriotic Pin - Tips For Printing On Fabric - Linda Franz - Betty Ensz & Laura Jane Quint - Create a Coloring Book.

Bubble Jet Set 2000 Printing
by Judy Fletcher


Judy has generously shared her class handout with us, below.

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C. Jenkins Necktie company, the manufacturer of Bubble Jet Set, has issued the following cautions and directions for Bubble Jet Set 2000:

They say this product could cause eye or skin irritation, should not be inhaled or eaten, and should be kept out of reach of children. They suggest wearing rubber gloves to protect your skin, and having good ventilation, when using the product. But they have assured us the product is not toxic or dangerous, being 85% water and containing many laundry detergent ingredients in it, and thus can be treated like a common household product. Product safety information sheets for Bubble Jet Set and Bubble Jet Rinse are available at the manufacturer's website. They also recommend that Bubble Jet Set be kept tightly covered when not in use, because exposure to air can weaken the product.


Manufacturer's Directions for Using Bubble Jet Set

1. Shake Bubble Jet Set well.
2. Pour solution into flat pan.
3. Saturate fabric in the solution for 5 minutes. Fabric must be 100% cotton or 100% silk for the process to work.
4. Hang dry until fabric is stiff.
5. Iron fabric to shiny side of freezer paper cut to fit your printer.
6. Print on treated fabric and let sit 30 minutes.
7. Rinse fabric sheets well, using warm water and a mild detergent like Bubble Jet Rinse. Heat setting does NOT work, so don't try.

Results can vary with different printers and inks. Jenkins promises permanent inksetting for inkjet and bubble jet printers when their directions have been followed.


My Additional Hints

Here are my additional hints about the product and the methods I use to make this printing process as successful as possible for myself.

The bubble jet liquid produces a chemical reaction with fiber that makes the ink become permanent on cotton or silk fabric. Fabric stays soft and retains its normal "hand" after bubble jet printing, which is more like dyeing rather than a fabric painting or t-shirt transfer process.

Canon and Epson computer printer inks are considered the easiest to make permanent. HP inks are the hardest to make permanent. Jenkins found it necessary to re-formulate their Bubble Jet product in 1999 because the printer companies were changing their ink formulas and HP printing was not being permanent in 70% of the cases. Bubble Jet Set 2000 was developed to solve that problem.

The bubble jet chemicals tends to separate from their host (water) solution, so the bottle needs to be shaken very well before each time you use it. I find the smell to be mild, have gotten a little bit of an "itchy feeling" if I've splashed the solution on my skin and not rinsed it off right away, and feel more secure wearing glasses and rubber gloves when I work with it.

It's best to use fabric specifically labeled PFD (prepared for dyeing) for Bubble Jet printing. I like Fabric Traditions Dyers Cloth PFD. The PFD fabrics don't need to be pre-washed before using them. Some people like to use Pima cloth because it's so smooth. Pima is thicker and doesn't run through my printer as easily or well, but you might find it preferable. I divide a yard of fabric along its selvedge into 3 long strips, to prepare for Bubble Jet Set pre-treating.

You need a flat plan for dipping the fabric into the solution. I use a plastic dishpan my strips just fit into. A marbling tray could be even better. I pour in enough Bubble Jet Set solution to just cover the bottom of my pan. One hint I've found important for this process is - Keep the fabric as flat and smooth as possible at all times. I lay the fabric onto the pan bottom carefully, 1 cut strip at a time, gently folding and layering the rest of the strip onto itself. Then I pour and press and squeeze more liquid into the layers until the whole strip is thoroughly saturated with liquid. I let the wet fabric soak for 5 minutes or so, and then hang it to drip dry. I check carefully for dry looking spots as I hang the fabric, and continue to try keeping it as flat and unfolded as possible. The fabric feels slightly stiff after it's drip-dried. If rushed, you can blow-dry treated fabric to speed up its being ready to use. Don't put it in the dryer.

Iron the dry treated fabric onto freezer paper. The treatment solution doesn't change the color of the fabric or scorch, so you can use a fairly high iron setting. I rotary cut 11" x 17" freezer paper pieces ahead of time. Press the freezer paper shiny side down onto the fabric first. Then turn the fabric over and press that side. Hold your iron down firmly, rather than moving it around frantically, until the fabric is well bonded to the freezer paper. Be especially careful that all the fabric edges are securely fastened down. Cut the 11" x 17" sheets in half to produce two 8 ½ x 11" sheets for running through your printer. Iron the individual sheets once more, to make sure the all the edges are bonded to the freezer paper. Also make sure each sheet is thread and lint free as possible, and has no air bubbles - before you print. Some people have reported preferring to use regular computer printer paper sprayed with re-positionable adhesive (such as 3M Photo Mount) to support and stiffen their treated fabric sheets for printing.

Test the image you're going to use by printing it on paper first. Images print darker on fabric, because it's denser than paper - but they'll get somewhat lighter again after rinsing. It's good to run your printer's cleaning maintenance program first. And check that your ink cartridges have enough ink left. Then run the prepared fabric sheets through your printer, just like paper. Make sure that you have the fabric side positioned so that the printing goes onto it. For my HP printer I have to load my prepared sheets with the freezer paper side up and the fabric side down. It's best to print the fabric sheets fairly soon after they've been prepared. Let your printed designs sit (and "cure") for at least 30 minutes before you rinse them.

Now thoroughly rinse your printed fabric designs. I fill my dishpan about ½ full with warm water and swish a few fabric sheets (of similar colors) around at a time. Remove the freezer paper from them first. The freezer papers sheets can be reused, plus it makes rinsing easier and more effective. Jenkins says a mild detergent needs to be added and used when rinsing Bubble Jet Set printed designs, and recommends using Bubble Jet Rinse. But Dharma Trading told me they consider synthrapol an acceptable substitute. Change the water once and swish the sheets around a little more. I then rinse them under a stream of water from the faucet. Be gentle with these babies - don't wring or squeeze them, and do continue to try to keep them as smooth and flat as possible. Some people suggest running them through your washing machine to rinse them. I've seen that fade designs badly. Plus, such agitation can visibly scratch or bruise their design surface. So I always rinse them by hand.

Once I've gotten my printed sheets thoroughly rinsed, I use a salad spinner to get as much excess water out of them as I can. Or you can lay them in a single layer on a clean dry towel and roll up and squeeze the excess water out of them that way. I then lay each individual sheet flat on a folded towel and iron it until it's totally dry. Just as in dyeing, red inks are the most potent and most prone to try to bleed or overtake lighter colors. Be particularly meticulous about keeping your printouts as flat as possible when they're wet. You need to make sure that the ink doesn't collect and migrate in a fabric fold, or "travel" because of one sheet making contact with or overlapping another, while the ink is still wet.

After being rinsed and dried, the printed designs can be used just like any purchased fabric. Jenkins does NOT recommend using these prints for baby quilts - because they haven't received government approval for such use yet. I wouldn't use them for any project that would be washed a lot. When giving these designs as a gift I'd recommend gentle hand washing when needed - to minimize any future fading. These prints should also be protected from direct sun exposure, just like any other fine fabric.

Caryl Bryer Fallert has some interesting info about bubble jet printing at her website. Her Paducah prizewinning Bubble Jet printed quilt is also shown there. Caryl says that you can process and print up to 34 pima fabric sheets from 16 oz.of Bubble Jet Set. She, among others, also recommends that you use a "best" or "vivid" or photo quality computer printer setting, along with the highest possible dpi, when you print your fabric designs. Using refilled ink cartridges is NOT recommended.

The possibilities for finding designs to print are endless. I've mainly been printing up designs I developed on Electric Quilt software versions 2-4. But I've also used written text, jpg's from the web, photographs I've scanned, photos sold on computer CDs or digitized from print film, and images manipulated and altered in graphic programs like Corel Photo Paint. Please do not use other artists' copyrighted images.

Copyright - Judith Fletcher October 2001



CONTENTS: Announcements - Ask EQ - Free Stuff - Works For Me - Show & Tell - Quilt University - Printing on Fabric - Quilters' Colors Patriotic Pin - Tips For Printing On Fabric - Linda Franz - Betty Ensz & Laura Jane Quint - Create a Coloring Book.

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