Oh, Those Problem Reds

     I always pre-wash my fabrics, but sometimes that is not enough as I was reminded yesterday. I was just finishing a small UFO of a bird on a branch. I decided to quilt some accents to the bird and leaves. I used a water soluble marker to plan my stitching. When I dampened it to remove the marker, the red ran.  After Christmas I washed my table runner and it had a problem with red also.

     Solution: First, I soaked the pieces in the sink with OxiClean until the red runs were removed.

Next, I rinsed them in clean water and then rinsed them in water with a little Synthrapol to set the dye.

I have followed this process before and the problem was not repeated with that piece of fabric. I probably need to search my stash for any remaining pieces of the offending reds and rinse them in a bath with Synthrapol.

      Here in the finished small wall-hanging “Bird on a Branch”. It was saved from ruin, but I still had to deal with the problem.

The design comes from the book Tile Quilt Revival by Jones and Finley. In 2012 I saw a photo of an antique tile quilt and loved it enough that I bought the book and wanted to try the hand needle-turn applique technique. I soon found that needle-turn applique was not for me. At least I have one small finish for it.

     I took some time to make a couple of Valentine placemats for my GDs. The centers were originally made to be mug rugs.

     

      The next quilt was pieced by my artistic sister, Irene. She asked me to quilt it for her. Of course, it jumped to the front of the line. Here it is with the quilting finished. I will let her trim and bind.

Here is a close-up of some of the quilting I did for it.

Have a great week and enjoy some time sewing and quilting.