Coming Clean

You can edit a bad book but not a blank page.

Quilting

Things have been off around here since the end of August. Whenever one issue ends, another begins. So DH was sick, then gave it to me. Then he caught another infection, then I did. Mine led to vertigo which meant I couldn’t read or even sew much. 

Fortunately I’d almost finished the SING quilt. It just needed binding and a gentle wash. This is where the saying at the top of this post fits because I forgot to put color catchers in the wash and it bled. The black and white binding became black and pink. It took many repeated rinses with oxygen bleach, Shout, and detergent to get it out. And I couldn’t stand up long much of that time - just long enough to get it out of the machine, check the stains, and reapply products. 

Now that I’m better there are other quilts with issues. For example, Strippy Nine-Patch from 2019 had the same problem only worse. The solid red backing bled all over the light pink and white floral turning it dark pink. Oddly, none of the red set on the Kona Snow. It was so disheartening I washed the quilt once and put it away because our place in California had no room to lay out a quilt for drying. It ended up on the kitchen floor, sort of scrunched. 

This time I washed it with four color catchers which came out bright red. Repeated with another four. Then moved to the tub and soaked with oxygen bleach and even more color catchers. I put it in every afternoon, swished it occasionally, then let it soak overnight.

It’s not perfect but much better. The color catchers are only the lightest pink at this point. Hopefully a few more tub soaks will lighten the floral where some of the white shows again.

Shadow Star didn’t bleed but the binding shredded in the final wash. That happened once before when some black fabric completely washed away. This time, the binding shredded very neatly along the stripe. I cried and set it aside because of all the work removing the binding, straightening the edge, prepping new binding fabric, and sewing it on.  My guild has a show next year so this was the time to fix that. So now there’s a similar light blue binding. 

I’m still adding a sleeve and a label. I quit using labels years ago and simply sew my name in cursive on the finished quilt. 

Enjoy the day, Ann