The Baby Quilt is Done!

So the Railroad Tracks baby quilt is finished, all washed up and gifted to the brand new momma. Wowsers, was this quilt a problem child. I haven't had that much trouble finishing up a quilt in years. First, the machine quilting started giving me fits with revealing some bias issues. Always something to be concerned about with improv. piecing, but this one was more stubborn than most.

Always something new to learn!

I had to pin, pin, pin and then re-pin when quilting in the opposite direction. Finally I just started using butterfly pins in all the areas that wanted to push the fabric instead of stitching over and through. An expert I am not, but this one just made me sweat. Thankfully there wasn't any puckering in the back at all and only two or three spots on the front that needed a re-do.

Such a bold, bright looking quilt for me

I also made a rookie mistake {bad girl!} when sewing the binding down and forgot to move the needle over. Something about that walking foot being wider than the average 1/4" foot?*sigh  I rarely ever use a walking foot for binding work, but as you can see from the right side of the quilt, it really needed the help to keep the puckering to a minimum. For some reason that light green block had extreme bias issues {that naturally carried over into the border}. Actually, once machine quilted, I went back and added some hand quilting to just that one block. Most people would never notice, but I thought the 'poofing' was a bit out of control. Oh well, just a baby quilt and all that jazz. Who's gonna notice with a cute little baby around?

It's a true-blue finish!

Uh huh. Then it was washed prior to gifting, like I always do. Go ahead and tell me how crazy that is, but I like to know what I'm gifting. And I love the crinkle from washing and drying, sort of a trademark of mine. We all have our ways... That's when I discovered that there was a major bleeding issue with one of the blue fabrics. If you can't see the remnants of where that blue dye bled right into a white block, then I won't point it out. It's definitely there and so very annoying. Suffice it to say that there was definitely moments of rage and despair 'cuz I always pre-wash my fabrics before attempting any quilt making and these things always take me by surprise.

A little bit of hand quilting

 After three washes and a 16 hour soak, the dye seemed to have stopped bleeding. It was from the same exact fabric in two different blocks--little tiny strips of fabric that literally poured dye into the rest of the quilt with great glee. Once I calmed down from that horrible disaster then I realized that those little pieces were trim-offs from my improv. basket blocks. Woohoo. So I went searching and decided to do a preemptive soak there too. Yeah. Not so good news. The beautiful creamy center turned dingy blue and wouldn't budge even after an 18 hour soak and then later, some good 'ol oxi-clean coaxed even more dye out of the block.*sigh again  Yes, I am currently trying to re-make that particular block.....

A sad looking block

During this time I went hunting for any and all of that same wondrous fabric, only to find two different pieces hanging around. One was the original fabric that I bought last summer--it ended up soaking for between 16-18 hours before surrendering to clear water. The other piece, bought a couple months ago {because I liked it SO WELL, ha!} took over 24 hours before it finally quit bleeding. Different dye batches maybe?

Doing the 12 hour forever soak

Folks, this fun looking fabric is a monster bleeder. Run to the hills if you have any currently residing in your quilts. Just kidding. Immediately try the Vicki Welsh 'Save my bleeding quilt' plan of attack and maybe pray a lot too. She says most dyes will quit bleeding with the 12 hour soak and I've always had good luck with her method. This dye was blue and so very determined, words fail me....

A Melody Miller bleeder fabric

I am so scared of blue fabrics right now, it almost makes me break out in a rash to think of what might be lurking in any of my current ufo's. And to think that I was only concerned about the red fabric in that innocent little baby quilt! Hey, it's all washed up now and presumably all the dye is done trying to escape. What do you think, keep it or toss it? Linking up to sew, stitch, snap, SHARE with Linda and Julie. Regardless of all the trouble with this quilt, it feels really good to have another 2018 finish in. And honestly, most baby quilts get used pretty hard. Better to happen on something like this than something we're more attached to.

My Quarter Circles Quilt and the Big Rescue

I put the last stitch in my Quarter Circles quilt on the evening of December 30th. So exciting! Then, on December 31st, I washed the quilt like I always do. Absolute disaster. There was so much bleeding in this quilt that I could hardly believe my eyes. And yes, of course I used color catchers.

Quarter Circles

So... I threw it back in the washer with even more color catchers. I'm not sure if it made any difference because while some areas looked marginally better, others seemed to look worse. {Was that even possible?} I wish I would have thought to take pictures so you could have seen the before and after, but frankly, I was too traumatized. Anyway, Googling for answers helped me come up with this. It was the best article I could find that didn't involve using Synthrapol, a product I couldn't get to for several days. I tell you, the woman is a miracle worker when it comes to understanding the details of fabric bleeds.

A close up of some details....

After repeated soaks in extremely hot water {something that feels very counter intuitive} and a clean/clear type detergent, my quilt finally stopped hemorrhaging.*gulp  I made very sure that the last clear soak was 12 hours just to be absolutely, positively sure the dyes were finished bleeding.

Looking at the texture...

I am still very sad that my quilt doesn't have that brilliant strip of contrast from that narrow creamy white sashing. That was one of the best parts of this quilt and was also {probably Murphy's law} the fabric most affected by the red bleed. It really, really hurts that my lovely quilt has a small amount of fading throughout and it's brand new. However, I am extremely happy to have found such a good remedy and be able to see all but the tiniest bit of pink tinge completely removed from my quilt. My family assures me that no-one else will ever notice that little bit of pink, but of course I can see the difference and probably always will.

Love seeing the hand quilting on the back.

So shocking too, to have that much bleeding occur when I faithfully pre-wash all of my fabrics before I ever use them. Wowsers was I ever naive! At first I thought that the culprit was my border fabric, but after re-examining the quilt multiple times, I'm sure it was another one (or two or five) of the reds inside the blocks. Besides, I've used that particular red before alongside a cream muslin and never had any bleeding whatsoever. And believe me when I say that I will NEVER 'casually' wash another red and white quilt again. Oh no. A good long soak first, my dear friends, is the only way to safely remove those nasty floating dyes, maybe even at the fabric {pre-quilt} stage if there are reds involved?

That sashing!

So.. As you can see, the quilt survived all the abuse heaped upon it and will live to grace my bed or wherever else I think to use it. Looking at the quilt, I am very glad I decided to stick with the bigger width stitching in the circles and the smaller little squares in the background. The texture just makes me smile.

Interesting how some fabrics fade into the background and some don't.

Which is good because there will always be this little ache of what could have/should have been with this particular quilt. I'm grateful to my husband for being so nice about giving up our master bath for basically an entire day. I think he was afraid that I would cry and he really hates it when that happens.

Just a tiny bit of contrast now in the skinny white sashing....

He even offered to buy me a top loading style washing machine so that my quilts can be washed in a larger amount of water. I think I will stick with the one I have, but gotta love that my husband understands how much work {and love} I put into quilting.

Just to be clear, this is still one of my very favorite quilts I've ever finished. It really feels like a quilt that managed to turn out as well or better than what I originally envisioned--low volume background with subtle contrast, graphic red and white sashing to 'pop', an element of vintage charm in the less-than-perfect circles and of course that older style blend of fabric prints. I do love the slightly romantic, soft, cozy look and feel to to it. Now, of course, it will always have a story attached to it as well. So very glad I was able to rescue it from complete ruination....