Monday, August 18, 2014

The Strangest Fabric Bleed

I was working on a hanging sleeve for Ladies of the Sea and noticed a little dirty spot on the back of the quilt. I wet a wash cloth to clean it and it became larger! A purple fabric bleeding! It is the strangest fabric bleed I have ever seen. The quilt is completely quilted and, thankfully, the bleed is only showing up on the back.

The front is okay, this purple fabric on just this one compass point is bleeding through the batting to the back of the quilt. I had hand washed every single batik I used on this appliqué and rinsed it until the water was clear.

Strange, but again, thankful it is on the back of the quilt. Now a little camouflage is necessary.

With the boat and ocean theme of the quilt I decided to appliqué a little family of sea turtles swimming across the back of the quilt. I though one lone turtle would be a little suspicious of a cover up.

It is a little difficult to appliqué and not go through to the front of the quilt but I think this is going to work. Bleeding disaster averted and Ladies of the Sea is still getting sent to the AQS show.

Cheri

 

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Ladies Of The Sea -an update

I thought it would be fun to enter a quilt into a national show and guess what, Ladies Of The Sea was juried into the American Quilter's Society's Des Moine Iowa show. The show is this October 1-4. The entry process is a little intimidating to a national show but the American Quilter's Society website is wonderful and takes you through it step by step.

Ladies Of The Sea is a pattern by Sue Garman (comequilt.com) and part of the entry process is to obtain designer permission to show the quilt. I sent Sue an email and she very graciously sent me an immediate letter granting me permission to enter the quilt. She even posted these pictures on her June blog entry. (If you have not ever seen Sue Garman's blog - suegarman.blogspot.com - she posts once a month and it is just loaded with wonderful pictures and lots of explanations of her design process).

I almost missed my notification email as it arrived in my junk mail and I had deleted it. I really am happily surprised and honored to have it in the show and can not wait to see it hanging among all the beautiful quilts.

I have been working steadily on Auntie Green's Garden (pattern by Irene Blanck). The last braided border on the center took me forever. Once it was completed I did the bathtub plunge thing and washed all of the glue out of it.

I am happy to say it survived and now is so soft without all of that glue in it . I am now started on the next borders. This is the third background fabric, and it will be used for the final two borders.

My only other stitching I have accomplished this summer was this small blue work embroidery block going into a raffle quilt my small group is making.

Happy Stitching All,

Cheri