Disaster Averted

One of the guilds I belong to was collecting 12" blocks to put together a quilt for one of our members who is having some health challenges.  I used the tutorial from Bonjour Quilt for this "Adori Block".  I was really happy with the end product and decided to give it one last press with some of my favorite Best Press before calling it a day.

OH NO!!!! The center turquoise fabric bled on to the white, and look what it left on my pressing board!!!!

I could have just chucked it and started over, but I decided to try and save it. I stay stitched 1/8" all around the block before I did anything else.  

I have followed Vicki Welsh over at www.colorwaysbyvickiwelsh.com  for years.  She is a master fabric dyer and has done many experiments regarding setting and removing stray dyes.  She has a fantastic article called "Save My Bleeding Quilt", which is the info I used to work on the block.

I soaked my block overnight in HOT water and a generous amount of blue Dawn dish soap.  This was the color of the water in the morning.  Amazing when you think of how little of that fabric is actually in the block.

 I am happy to report that all of the bleed on the white fabric came out, and all of the excess blue dye stayed in the water.  I soaked it a second time just to be sure and the water stayed clear!

I hung my block to dry, pressed it flat and was pleasantly surprised that the shrinkage was minimal.

This picture shows the original offending fabric placed on top of my rescued block.  Definitely lost the dark element.  

Even though I had a near disaster, this is not going to change my mind about prewashing fabrics.  I don't think a quick trip in a small amount of water in a washing machine is enough to ensure that ALL dye is removed from a fabric. Most commercial fabrics are great, but every once in a while you get a problematic one.  I have heard many stories of quilts not running until the 3rd or 4th wash.  If you haven't already do take the time to read Vicki's article.  It has saved everything from a single lowly block to a show quilt.

Sherry's Fancy Foxes

Sherry made this adorable version quilt for her grandson's second birthday.  The fox blocks come from Elizabeth Hartman's Fancy Fox pattern, and the layout is Sherry's own.

Sherry requested my freehand wood grain quilting, and I just love the final product!

And a cozy grey flannel backing is just the right finishing touch.

Love Links

Amy brought me this fun quilt to work on.  The pattern is called Love Links by Studio 180 Designs.    Amy made this quilt for her niece's graduation, and we discussed some of my more modern pantograph patterns but nothing seemed quite right.  

The idea of all over "Loose Feathers" came to be the design of choice.  I didn't do any marking for this design.  I just let the feathers flow organically across the quilt.  It was a fun design to do and I am really pleased with the final look. 

Amy's niece loves the color pink and is a cosmetology student so fabrics were chosen accordingly.

I love to find a way to add a touch of personalization in the quilting when I can.  Adding the recipient's name in among the all over design seemed like the right touch.

Tony the Turtle

  

Reneta made these two darling baby quilts using the Tony the Turtle block from Elizabeth Hartman's Awesome Ocean pattern.  Both Reneta and I couldn't decide what quilting design idea we liked more so I decided to do them differently, one freehand and one with a panto.

The green turtle quilt was quilt freehand with a design I refer to as "Dwirling" that I learned from a book/video by the Pajama Quilter.  I love the addition of the lucky baby's name to the quilt top too.

For the blue turtle quilt, Reneta chose one of the new pantographs I just added to my collection and it is called "Curl and Swirl."

These are the eight new pantographs that I recently added to my collection.  I have also updated the pantograph page on my blog to include photos like these of all my pantographs that include a measuring tape across the bottom to help my clients get a better idea of the scale of the pantographs I have.

Scrappy Trip Around the World and International Exchange Round #2

This is another beautiful quilt that Reneta has made from her scraps.  She followed Bonnie Hunter 's "Scrappy Trip Around the World" free pattern.    For this one Reneta dug into her scrap flannels.  It is amazing how all of the different theme fabrics work together in this format.  In this little section you can see pine cones, flowers, Noah's ark, trees, bugs, fish, plaid.....

All this quilt needed to finish it off was a nice even textured panto.  You can't see if too well on the front, but the Lithe panto is a very nice compliment to this quilt.

If you dig into your flannels and add this many seams, the quilt will feel quite heavy for its size!

March 1st meant it was time for the reveal of out second blocks in our International Exchange with our Australian friends.  The theme this time around was Dredens.  The only requirement was the the floral fabric was used somewhere in the block.  

This is the one I made.  I don't usually go quite so scrappy, and I was excited to find 20 different fabrics to use in the Dresden blades.  I used our focus fabric in the centre.  I had never tried doing a Dresden with points on both ends, so this was fun.

Deseley made this one. I always love when someone does something I could never dream up!

Kathy and I were once again on similar wavelengths!

And Bronwyn used a mix of curved and pointed blades in hers.

Looking forward to our next assignment - Flying Geese!