Since I've completed the Solstice Challenge quilt top, I've been spending my time piecing Nearly Insane blocks. There are 11 blocks in this row. The half blocks are already completed.
Here are the blocks that have been pieced so far.
This block is my favorite block of the row. She also has the most pieces with 73 pieces.
I did make a change with the direction of the HST's on one side. I can't believe she really intended for 1 row of HST's to be backwards. I think it was a case of better done than perfect.
I had planned to put the same flowered fabric that is in the center, into the pinwheels but I didn't have enough. Sure enough, after the block was pieced, I found more fabric.
I'm not very fond of this block. I think she would look better if I had made the very center strip alternating just yellow and white strips instead of scrappy. But I can live with this block and she is not going to be remade.
This block is made with older fabric and is a softer blue. She is a quiet, gentle block and adds contrast to her darker sisters. She also has my favorite design, paisley.
There are 2 dark fabrics in this block. The outside fabric is a dark indigo blue while the center star points are a little lighter dark blue. I don't know if the camera picked up that subtleness or not. This block is my #2 favorite block of this row so far.
This block was more tricky to piece with the diagonal pieces in the center and the different corners. The white triangles in the corners will show up better when the yellow sashing and blue cornerstones are attached. It was fun to see the pieces come together.
This is the bottom end piece. Her twin has been pictured here on my blog before, but it would have been way back in January 2016 when I first started piecing Nearly Insane.
There are five more blocks in this row. I have the next four blocks prepped, but the fifth block looks rather challenging. I'll let you know next week how that goes.
I won't have time to sew the rest of this week. The Pennsylvania grands are coming to visit for several days. They're bring their parents along too so we will have an full active house.
Linking to - My Quilt Infatuation, Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Show Off Saturday, Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework, Quilters Monday, Fiber Tuesday
Last fall I decided to wash the king sized double 9-patch quilt that we have on our bed for the first time. So into the washer (on gentle cycle with cold water) she went along with 5 color catchers.
I have read about other quilters having problems with their high efficiency washers when washing quilts. I also have a HE washer. I don't know if it was the washer or what but my red border bled, really bled.
Some of the color catchers were pink but basically I think they were useless. They sure didn't catch the red color in this quilt!
I rinsed the quilt several times in cold water but it didn't do any good. I hung the quilt on the clothesline to dry and I've used it anyway.
What is interesting, to me, is how the white fabrics in the 9-patches didn't absorb the red dye and turn pink. But the white fossil fern fabric squares in between the 9-patches just sucked it up.
And see those red streaks on the blue fabrics, this is so annoying!
Last winter, on another blog, I read what they did to save a bleeding quilt. (Sorry, I thought I had the post bookmarked but now I can't find it!) They said to soak the quilt in HOT water with Dawn Pure dish detergent for 12 - 24 hours and NOT to use color catchers.
I checked at several stores, but I couldn't Dawn Pure, so I bought a bottle of Dawn Ultra Platinum. The label says it "Power Clean" - "powers away 48 hour stuck on food in seconds". Great, but can it remove red from a quilt?
I've had the bottle of detergent setting on my kitchen counter for several months. I had to wait until it was warm outside to try this. I certainly can't soak it in the washer, I can't soak more than 20 minutes in my HE washer. And I don't have anyplace in the house to soak it other than the bathtub and I didn't want to tie up the tub for several days.
Monday was the day. I scrubbed a empty mineral lick tub, placed it on my garden cart and pulled it up to the milk house door. The hottest water on the farm is in the milk house because you need really hot water to wash the pipeline and the bulk tank.
I pulled the hose through the hose port and started running the hot water. The instructions said to add a good measure of dish soap, a good measure? What's that? I dumped approximately a cup in the tub, that should do it. I cringed when I put the quilt into the tub of hot water, because I never wash quilts in hot water, but into the hot water she went. I had a wooden spoon I used to push the quilt down into the water because this water is HOT, you aren't sticking your hands in there.
When the quilt was covered, I turned off the water and pulled the wagon into the garage to soak for 12 - 24 hours.
On my way out to the barn this morning, I pulled the wagon out of the garage and up to the milk house. She was looking good. I filled another tub with cold water and placed the quilt in it to start rinsing out the soap. I let it soak, went and did some of my morning chores, came back, swished it around and put it in a different tub with cold water. I did this for 6 rinses. When I was done with my chores, I squished the quilt into a 5 gallon pail, took it into the house and spun the excess water out in the washer.
When I hang a quilt on the clothesline to dry, I always hang it so the right side of the quilt is on the bottom, out of the sun. And yes, the backside of the quilt is from mom's stash. Mom bought yardage, not fat quarters.
I ran errands while the quilt was drying. When I returned home an hour later, it was very windy and the quilt was about ready to blow off the clothesline.
I brought her into the house and she's back on our bed.
She looks so much more like the original quilt I made. There are some 9-patch blocks that have pink fabric in the blocks but the white fossil fern fabric actually looks white again. And the light blue sashing is blue, not purple!
The pink did not disappear from this block but she looks better than she did in the picture several photos above!
What a relief, my quilt looks lovely again.
So what did it? Did the hot water or the soap make the red dissipate?
I hope I never have this problem again, but if I do, I'm going to try soaking the quilt in hot water without the soap to see what happens. Rinsing a wet king sized quilt is not the easiest thing to do much less doing it 6 times!
***Monday evening update - Karen left this link to Save My Bleeding Quilt. I remember reading this information when I read the post on the other blog about a bleeding quilt. Just in case you need the information.***
Linking to - Quilter's Monday, Fiber Tuesday, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Show Off Saturday
I'm finished!! I finished the 182 Day Solstice Challenge quilt on Saturday, May 20! This challenge started December 21, 2016 and goes through June 2017. I assume it goes through the 21st since that is summer solstice. Pat Sloan is releasing a block a week for a total of 25 blocks.
Before I started this project, I had decided that this would be a charity quilt. She needed to be 60" by 80" and I wanted to make something different than I normally, something bright, cheery and modern. (Sounds like the quilts I normally make are dull, dreary and old fashioned!)
About the time block 5 was released, I had decided I wasn't really interested in making this quilt but I kept accumulating the patterns. Every month I would power sew the patterns collected the prior month or two. If I didn't like a block I didn't make it but I added a block that wasn't one of Solstice blocks. And yes, I did make duplicates of several of the blocks.
This is my quilt flimsy and she is very different than the type of quilt I normally make. The top measures 60" by 84" and will be donated to the MCC Comforter Bash held in October. Yeah, I don't have to quilt her! I feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment that I persevered through and finished this quilt top.
Which block was my favorite? This one.
Why you ask? Because it did NOT have a single HST in it.
Which block was not one of Pat's blocks? This red and yellow Carpenter's Wheel from Quilter's Cache. She measured 24" square and replaced 4 of the 12" blocks. My son thought she didn't really blend with the rest of the blocks. Too bad, I put her in anyway.
Please don't think I'm criticizing or bashing Pat Sloan, it's not her fault I don't like the quilt. I might as well accept the fact that I personally don't like quilts that have all the blocks set next to each other. They're just too busy for me. And yes, the obvious choice would have been to put sashing between the blocks to break them up but sometimes you just have to say done is better than perfect.
Also, I set the blocks my own way. If I would have made all the blocks and set them Pat's way, the quilt would have looked very different indeed and have been larger.
So what am I going to work on now? Nearly Insane of course.
Linking to - Quilter's Monday, Fiber Tuesday, Sew Some Love, Sew, Stitch, Snap SHOW, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, TGIF, Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Show Off Saturday, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework
The 6th row of white blocks are finished along with the bottom points on the row 7 churn dash blocks.
I know the pictures all look the same each week, but this is what I'm working on.
The left side border with the first quilted white block.
The next two blocks. Actually there are 4 blocks with this design in this row but I'm just showing you 2 of them. The other 2 blocks look exactly this these.
The right side white block and the right side borders.
Back view of the quilt in the frame. Notice the blue square-in-a-square border. After that border gets quilted, there is 9" more of border to be quilted. I'm getting closer to being finished. It also looks like there might not be enough batting! No problem, I'll whip stitch more batting along the edge.
Before I'll get to that pieced border, I have to finish the center of the quilt. Two more churn dash rows and a row of white squares.
Linking to - Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Show & Tell With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, Quilter's Monday, BOM's Away, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Sew, Stitch, Snap SHOW
I appreciate all the kind comments you all make each week. I don't always respond but they are appreciated anyway.
Yes, every stitch is that much closer to be finished. I have been enjoying my quilting time which is good because you just can't speed up hand quilting.
I've finished row 6 of the churn dash blocks and the bottom half of row 6 white squares.
The right side border, ready to be rolled then start the journey back to the left side.
The quilt is rolled and ready to start the quilting again. Whoever designed this quilting frame was brilliant. I love my Grace frame!
I made some purchases at the resale table when I was at the Jane Stickle Retreat, to make crib quilts with. Two of them are finished.
These two flannels remnants were sewn together to make an easy crib quilt that measures 43". I did an easy straight line quilting.
The red flannel pieced with the yellow flannel is perfect for the backing.
The binding is a red cotton. I personally don't like to use flannel for bindings.
The 2nd crib quilt was this animal panel. She was quilted with spiral quilting.
I like the spiral quilting and I pin the layers together closely but my spiral quilted quilts always end up a little wonky. Oh well, it will still keep a child warm.
The quilting shows up best on the back. Again I used pieced flannel for the back. I think striped bindings look so nice. This fabric gives an illusion of bias binding but it's not. The fabric was printed with the stripe already on the diagonal. She measures 41" by 52" and is a charity quilt.
Isn't it wonderful to see green grass again? I'm so glad spring is here even if I don't have as much time to sew anymore.
Linking to - Let's Make Baby Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Quilter's Monday, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, BOM's Away, Fiber Tuesday, Sew Some Love, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Show Off Saturday
The RSC color in March was red but I made green blocks instead. Now it is May, the color is green so now I am making the red blocks.
Nine little 4" finished star blocks. The stars are for the Star Dance quilt. Of course I'm making the quilt larger than the pattern calls for.
15 4-patch blocks are completed.
I finally took the time to figure how many blocks I need in a row, 15. So I pieced the additional purple and teal blocks I need. I may need more later but at least I have the minimum amount finished.
Linking to - Quilter's Monday, BOM's Away!, Sew, Stitch, Snap SHOW, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Scrap Happy Saturday, Show Off Saturday
