Abstract: Variegated composite designs (11) are printed on a surface of a length of fabric (12) by a two-stage printing process in which first, sharp, unmodulated color background portions (14) of the design are first applied by a conventional contact printer (13) such as a rotary screen printer in one example. Next, the partially printed fabric is advanced to an airbrush printing station located downstream from the final stage of the contact printer, where a plurality of airbrushes (21) are selectively operated to apply variable color tone portions or features (22) to the fabric adjacent to the background portions previously printed, in either the same or contrasting color or colors so as to produce a variegated composite design including the airbrushed portions superimposed on and embellishing the background sharp color portions previously printed. Operation of the airbrushes and contact printer is synchronized (FIGS. 1, 2-24, 27; FIGS.