Printing on Iron On Transfer Paper

Hello Wayward Crafters!
I have been staying busy making quilts and being a nana. I have enjoyed reading the blog and plan to contribute from time to time.
This week we had 2 snow days. Snow days in our home usually makes our hearts turn to crafting. In the great blizzard of 2000, all the girls collaborated on what is known as snow day quilt, a snuggly quilt that has kept us warm for many years.
This week I decided to make my own version of an applique quilt that Jaime and I worked on when I visited her recently. It is from Quilters Newsletter August and September.

What I want to share is how I used my inkjet printer to print all the patterns. I realize that you can purchase iron-on printer paper, but it is a little more expensive than what you can buy (usually on sale!) from the bolt. (Get the paper-backed transfer webbing. It is #805 by Pellon.)

Here's how to do it. First, use a program such as Photoshop to move the images from the pattern to a 8 1/2 by 11 canvas size. Flip the images as needed. I always use the bucket tool to fill the images with white so it takes less ink.

Then, cut your iron-on transfer paper to 8 1/2 by 11". It is 17" wide, so you can get 2 8 1/2" pieces across.
The paper is too thin to go through my printer, so I used a piece of glossy photo paper as a backing. I lightly touched my iron across the top edge of the paper so that it was lightly adhered to the glossy side. I also smoothed down the paper, and ironed the bottom corners.

Then, print!

The webbing will pop right off the glossy photo paper, which you can use over and over. Roughly cut out the shapes and adhere them to the back of the fabric you selected.

That's it! It took me half a day to print and about that long to cut out the shapes. I ironed everything on the quilt blocks this morning.

I followed the pattern pretty closely. I added one more poinsettia in the top left block and made them all red instead of having green leaves. Jaime was more wayward and created a couple original blocks. I think it turned out to be very cute. I will tack all the edges with a zigzag stitch using invisible thread. The borders are made of crazy Christmas sweaters! That's next.

This is the template for the sweaters. The sky is the limit on how you make them.