My Bleeding Heart

Hello!  Sorry for the delay I ran away to Las Vegas with my daughter and I came home to a quilting trip.

 Some of you may wonder how in the world this happened.  I generally use a spray bottle to remove the blue lines as I quilt.   All was fine until I hit that fabric which is a little older and obviously had not been pre-washed.   ooops.

 The first thing was to take off the bleeding bird.  I carefully removed it with a new sharp seam ripper and tiny scissors.  At this point I am grateful I outlined quilted the bird because it stabilized the area.

To spot treat the area, in a small bowl I made a mixture of:
Few drops of Dawn Dish washing Liquid
Oxi Clean
Water
I BLOTTED the stain with a white washcloth and let it sit.  I watched it carefully and checked it often, then blotted it with clean water.

Here you can see the the Dawn mixture on the stain. 

I treated this problem for 3 days!

Uh Oh!!  now I have a water stain but you can see that the bleed is coming out.

After it is dried, it looks good to me.  I still see a pink shadow and  water stain but feel (hope and pray) it will come out in the tub.

Ta-Da! Here is the new bird which has carefully been appliqued into the space.  I did have re-quilt the outline a little, but it was a good fix.

okay, into the tub.  (See the process in my last post)  During the first rinse there was a release of other reds but it all went down the drain.  Yay

After I gently squeezed out all the water I could, I carefully loaded the wet quilt into a plastic laundry basket to take it down to my washer so I wouldn't put strain on it.  A wet quilt is very heavy!

I loaded it into my washer and used the rinse and spin cycle, no detergent and let the washer spin out more water.

(BEFORE you dry it, check it for any other bleeding.  If you have any, back to tub you go for a longer soak.)

I put it in the dryer on low and literally stood there to make sure it didn't twist or ball up.  I let it tumble for about 10 minutes until it was damp dry.

 I placed a clean sheet on top of carpeting and spread the quilt on top tugging gently and smoothing to block it.   I usually set up 2 oscillating fans on the floor to help in the drying.  I check often to make sure it is keeping its square shape.  (I have done this in the basement and spare a bedroom where I can close the door because; coco and nutmeg)

It  may take several days to dry.  I flipped it over and dried it back side up too.

Here are a few more process photos.  The quilting lines before I decided to double them.

It was worth adding the extra lines.  I like so much better!

I like this photo as it shows the bird before it bled.  As you can see it is a prominent place.

 A lot of people have commented on my clamshell edged border.  It's funny I thought I was first to use them this way, but I recently saw a quilt on line with this design made before mine.  There you go; nothing is new.
Here is how I lined them up.

I sew basted them in place (by machine) long the edge.

I hope that answered most of you questions, if not just leave me a comment and I'll answer them.

I took Coco to the Beach Saturday.  I love a cloudy gloomy day at the Sound.  We had the beach to ourselves.

I wonder how old this shell is.  It was crusted with tiny shells and other sea bits.

It really demonstrates how the tides and time works on shells.

This poor jelly washed up.  I very carefully rolled it back into the water.  I hope it lived.

Thanks for so many of the nice comments on my quilt and have a great week!
xo