Mrs. Starbuck's Quilt

Mrs. Starbuck's quilt is finally done!

You may remember that it is a charm quilt, with the pieces all coming from my scrap basket.

For the binding I used a variety of different dots & stripes -on-black-background, all taken from my box of scrap bindings. I cut bindings 2.25" wide, so all the left-over ends will sew together nicely. This is especially fun on a scrap quilt, of course.

You may also remember the real batik backing on this quilt.
When Cherry-Cherry was helping to baste it, she inquired as to whether it had been washed.

I said no.

She wasn't so sure if it would be safe...and, as usual, CC was correct!

As I was stitching down the binding, I noticed my white T-shirt had a new purple stain, courtesy of just rubbing against the backing!
So I finished the binding, and decided it might be a good idea to wash this baby.

COLOR CATCHERS to the rescue!

These saved my bacon on the Summer Garden red and white quilt...so why not for this one?

All the art & mixed media quilters are talking about using the sheets after they have collected the excess dye. So I was looking forward to some nice purple material!

This is what I got:

One from each of the 3 washings (with multiple sheets). The first is absolutely orange!
The quilt came out just fine, the bright yellow sashing is not carrying any dye marks from the backing.

I like the Color Catchers made by SHOUT (a Johnson & Johnson product), but I will never

forget the original Color Catcher that was a long piece of terry cloth with a stuffed end that made it float through the washer and around the fabric! It was supposed to be good for at least 30 washings.

This was a one company buys another sort of loss... now we have these sheets that are to be thrown away. They do not always come out looking like anything you'd use in your art...it depends on the amount of dye they have to catch.

I use several sheets when I am trying to rescue a quilt from my bad habits, the largest amount of cold water possible, and repeat 3 times, changing out the sheets each time. Then I dry the quilt. Once it has been exposed to the heat of the dryer, there is nothing more you can do.

So, if you are recuing a quilt from a stain or excess dye from "forgetting" to pre-wash, do NOT put it in a dryer until you are sure the marks are as gone as you can get them.

Air drying would be OK, if you have somewhere to do that.

If you click on the link above you will go to a site that will show you more about doing laundry than you ever want to know!

For Patchwork Pie fans who have been reading all along, you will be happy to know I am REALLY going to Paducah next month for the AQS Show!

You will avoid being subjected to the sad posts I did last year about Not In Paducah, and I will try to get plenty of the pictures you really want to see!