EQ8 Design for Sublimation

I was recently made aware of sublimation.  Sublimation is a process that  mixes specialized ink within the fabric fibers.  Think of it as a variation of printing and/or using vinyl on fabric.  However both of these other examples put the material on top of the product.  With the sublimation the product is infused into the material.

I am doing a deeper dive into the process in  the TKQ Masters class this month.  However I though I would share a simplified process in this post.

• Select a "blank" that will serve as the canvas for the design.   Polyester is the preferred product for sublimation.

• Determine the size of the "bank". 
• With EQ8, create a quilt with a few colors.  The size should be compatible with the blank.

In the video, I decided to decorate  a 9 x 7 cosmetic bag.  I had purchased some cosmetic bag blanks from Cricut that I used for this project.
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Since I own a Cricut Maker and am most familiar with Cricut Design Space, I will include information at the end of the tutorial on my process for transferring the design from EQ to Design Space along with the process for cutting out the design and using an EasyPress 2 heat press from Cricut for the actual sublimation.  

The one area that did not work super well for me was the actual transfer of ink from the transfer sheet to the the bag.  In hindsight, I should not have included the zipper the pressing area.  That caused heat to escape and I ended up needing multiple transfers to finally get the ink infused on the bag.

Here is my infused cosmetic bag.

Sublimated Cosmetic Bag with an EQ8 Designed Quilt

Do you have experience working with infusible ink or infusible transfer sheets?  I would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations on the process. 

If you chose to create a sublimation friendly design in EQ8, please fee free to share in the dedicated post in the Learning EQ Facebook Group.

Happy quilting.
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Kari

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