Product we use

Partners: - This is where to go to get the things you need!

www.fabricphotoprinting.com - The "one-stop shop for all your fabric printing needs". This website has it all. They carry products from almost every manufacturer of fabric printing related items. Good pricing and good service. The best general store in the business and if in doubt...you can usually buy it here.

Software:

HP Creative Scrapbook Assistant or Pixel Magic - this is the software Joe most commonly uses on TV to create collages, manipulate photos and is required to create the photo double wedding ring. The Quiltsmart Photo Shapes is an add-on software to the HP Creative Scrapbook Assistant. I use this to create the double wedding ring and many other popular quilt shapes. For CD clipart and vintage artwork I use CD's from The Vintage Workshop and Scrapsmart. The CD's are easy to use and have fantastic artwork for all kinds of fun projects. Electric Quilt is great for designing your quilts and Kaleidoscope Creator is the software use for exciting kaleidoscope projects.

Fabric Photo Printing.com - www.fabricphotoprinting.com - The "one-stop shop for all your fabric printing needs".
Digital Scrapbook place - www.digitalscrapbookplace.com the place for digital scrappers and art enthusiasts. They are the creators of Pixel Magic software.
QuiltSmart - www.quiltsmart.com manufacturer of printed interfacing and software that makes quilting a snap! This is the unique software for Double Wedding Ring quilts
Electric Quilt - www.electricquilt.com makers of excellent quilting software and printable fabric sheets. They have peel and stick fabric sheets, large format fabric sheets, applique template sheets, and foundation sheets for paper piecing.
The Vintage Workshop - http://www.thevintageworkshop.com makers of printable fabric sheets, vintage artwork CD's, patterns, and associated products.
Scrapsmart - www.scrapsmart.com creative CDs and crafts products for quilter, sewers, scrapbookers, card creators, and art community.
Kaleidoscope Creator - www.kalcollections.com A fantastic, fun to use software for scrapbookers and sewers.

Printable Fabric

Fabric Photo Printing.com - www.fabricphotoprinting.com - The "one-stop shop for all your fabric printing needs".
Color Textiles - www.colortextiles.com 14 different kinds of printable fabrics. Silks, cottons, linen and many more. They sell any size cut-sheet fabric and rolls. This is the ONLY supplier of printable silk and printable fabric on rolls that I will use.
Electric Quilt - www.electricquilt.com makers of excellent quilting software and printable fabric sheets. They have peel and stick fabric sheets, large format fabric sheets, applique template sheets, and foundation sheets for paper piecing.
The Vintage Workshop - http://www.thevintageworkshop.com makers of printable fabric sheets, vintage artwork CD's, patterns, and associated products.
Printed Treasures - www.printedtreasures.com Very nice cotton cut-sheet printable fabric sheets. Excellent hand, good washability and consistent quality.
C. Jenkins - www.cjenkinscompany.com makers of Bubble Jet Set 2000, the chemical used to create your own printable fabric sheets.

Printers

All-in-one's: These are my favorite type of printers. They can scan, copy, print, connect to your digital camera and some of them even fax! In fact, you can use them without a computer! That's right...many of my projects are completed without using a computer at all! Expect to pay no more than $299 and some are available for as low as $129...shop around.

#1 - Hewlett Packard - My favorite is the Photosmart 2610 - it does it all. Unfortunately, HP no longer makes this printer. You can still buy it on the web from other sources for a reasonable price. Do a search on yahoo, google or the search engine of choice to find it. The newer all-in-ones such as the Photosmart 3210, 3310 and 2575 are an excellent choice with only one drawback - they no longer print banners. If you need to print long lengths of fabric (over 24") then you will need to choose something else. However, the new HP's have individual ink wells and the best print quality I have found. Older HP all-in-one's such as the 2410, 2210, and the 2175 are all good choices. HP printers are easy to use and are my number one choice.
#2 - Epson - The Epson all-in-one's are good products but you should know two things about them. First, they only print banners up to 44" in length and second, make sure that you buy one that uses either Ultrachrome, Ultrabrite, or Durabrite inks. These inks have the least color shift and are the most washable inks I have found. They beat the HP's in washing tests. A few other quirks...many feed from the back and I have had some feed problems due to that and the scanner has a shorter depth of field than most of the HP's - this means if you try to scan 3D items like rocks, flowers, toys etc., the Epson can only "see" things that are within about 1 inch of the glass. The HP's can "see things" that are farther from the scanner bed and that is kind of nice.
#3 - Cannon, Lexmark, Dell, Brother and everyone else - rate a close second to HP and Epson but they have nothing that causes me to choose them over HP or Epson. They are good and you will be fine if you use them...just not as nice as the HP or Epson's.

Regular printers:

Same as the all-in-ones, my number one and two choices are HP or Epson. I always recommend using printers designed for printing photos since this is mostly what we are doing when printing on fabric. The newer the printer you have - the better. ANY inkjet printer will work but the newer printers have better ink, speed and quality. If your printer is over three years old, you might consider replacing it. These printers run about the same price as the all-in-ones. The low end models (you get them free with a computer purchase) often lack sophisticated features such as banner printing, poster printing, or they can't accept digital camera cards on the front.

Wide format printers:

Wide format printers will allow you to print up to 13" x 19" and that seems to suit most of us quilters, sewers, and scrapbookers. Quite often they are not displayed in retail stores and computer superstores so be sure to check the web to find the deals. Once again, it is HP and Epson that lead the pack with the best models and quality. For HP there are a few choices. Older deskjet 9650's are good but the current Photosmart Pro B8350 and 8750 Photo Printers are an excellent choice at around $349 - $499. HP also has a pigment based ink printer in the wide format category called the Photosmart Pro B9180 Photo Printer. It has individual ink wells and should be excellent on washability. I have not personally tested this printer yet but it looks good. Price is around $699. If you have an old wide format printer...fear not...they work well. For Epson, the R2400 is a great choice and has an edge over the HP's because of the Ultrachrome ink. However...you pay for it. It retails for about $849. Epson has a wide selection of nice wide format printers but they all go up in price from the $849.

Books

Patterns by Jean Boyd - http://www.uppercanadaquiltworks.com/jeanboyd/index.html Jean is the author and creator of many fine books and patterns.
Photo Fun and more Photo Fun - Joe is the technical director on these books. Full of good information
Wearable Art - by Any Barrickman from The Vintage Workshop - http://www.thevintageworkshop.com