Let's Book It June 2016

June is coming to an end so it's time for the Let's Book It link up at Vroomans Quilts. 

This was a busy month and I thought I end up doing something simple, but I've also been feeling the urge to do something different and a little challenging. 

I got back to my stack of magazines and found this, it's Fabric Trends for Quilters, Summer 2007. They don't publish this any longer, the patterns are made from specific fabric lines.

I went right past this one, it's pretty but has a lot going on. The next to last page had the layout diagram which was so pretty I went back for another look. The blocks got lost in that background fabric. 

The original blocks were 9 inches, I shrunk the block to 6 inches so it would be a baby quilt.

Using white made the blocks stand out and the design takes center stage. I drew the smaller block in EQ and used an app on my Ipad called Blockfab HD which gave me the cutting sizes for the square in a square in a square, EQ dropped the ball on that one. 

I stippled the whole quilt and finished it yesterday, pictures with the terrible twins today and it's a success :)

I'm happy to have finished it but no finishes are required to join in, just be working on something from a pattern you already have, magazine, book, actual pattern or even web pages you've bookmarked qualify. I love this link up since it gets me moving on that stack of magazines and basically no rules. Check it out at Vroomans Quilts where Sharon resides, she came up with a great idea with this one. 

For those of you who are friends with Debbie (Stitchin Therapy) she's back in the hospital, please keep those prayers and positive thoughts going for her. 

Later Gators,

Dana

She Did It!

This is a proud mother post :)

David and I went up to Ft. Lauderdale for the big event, his mother came in from N.J. and his sister came from Chicago.

We stayed right on the beach and had our coffee sitting in the sand watching this the first morning.

And this the next morning

Such a gorgeous start to this:

Cori earned her doctorate in Psychology. 

Proud Dad

We did find an amazing dog sitter who texted me twice a day with pictures of the terrible twins. 

Maya had me rushing back to the Vet with an infection one more time before we left, so seeing that smiling face was a real gift.

Brady found the woman of his dreams and is still wondering if he'd rather have his new friend Marcie here or me. 

We celebrated, partied and ate and ate and ate, isn't that what family does when they come together like this?

The robes were hot, but I got her to wear that impressive hat on for a bit longer. 

We are all back to our homes and playing catch up, but I'm still glowing with pride. 

Dana

Update on the "advice please"

I wanted to give you an update on the bleeding quilt

Lisa Marie suggested I try Synthrapol, as did many of you, so the next morning I ran north with three possible places to buy it. First place when I couldn't find it I asked for help but the woman spoke no English and my three years of Spanish allows me to ask your name and invite you to my casa. It was almost funny. Next two places no joy either, so I came home empty handed, except for two Hibiscus bushes, I'm not running north and not buying something.  

Meanwhile Lara sent me this link:

http://www.colorwaysbyvicki.com/save-my-bleeding-quilt.html

which I highly recommend you check out. Bottom line, Dawn Pure may work just as well as Synthrapol, may be easier to find and is less expensive, of course my grocery doesn't have it and I didn't want to run north again. So I did the new backing. 

I ironed front and back of the quilt to get it really flat, added the new backing right over the old one then did stitch in the ditch around the squares. I had done straight line quilting in the borders, so after re-ironing I did the straight line right over the original ones, I thought that would look better on the back. It looks a little wrinkly in the picture, but it's not. 

The front still has all of the original free motion that I did, which I do regret doesn't show on the back, but there's no way I could have followed those stitches. 
When the bleed happened there are a few places on the front that have a pink tinge, it blends in so I wasn't worried about it, but I did wash it in Dawn, nothing changed still pink. 
Debbie at the Quilt Journal told me the secret to having this work is really hot water and a good soak in a tub. 

Lots of good advice and hopefully lesson learned. Color catchers are pretty much useless in this situation, I'll still use them in prewashing just to let me know if there is a problem. 

I think I would have tried the other options if time had been on my side. I've been playing a responsible adult, booking hotel rooms, coordinating
 schedules, and then there's these two:

They needed to do their annual visit to the Vet, two separate visits since one is a problem child.  

The Vet said Brady Bug is perfect :)

Maya, who was at the Vet every month from Dec. through April because of allergies had a broken tooth which needed to be extracted immediately. Surgery was scheduled two days later. She's fine now, on medication and soft foods, which both of them are enjoying. 

I needed to find a pet sitter, we've never left them with strangers. So after lots of research and an interview I found someone. She asked if she could put their picture on Facebook, no mention of who they belong to, and I agreed. Now I wonder if I'll lose respect for my dogs after I see what the two of them post. :)

Thanks for all of the advice, you rock! 

Later Gators,

Dana

Advice Please

I messed up and you guys always have good ideas when I do that, so here goes. 

I had finished the last of the sewing for other peoples quilts, threw it in the washer and caught it before the dryer, here's what I saw

The binding I used bled all over the back of the quilt, you can see how bad it bled along the edge. I immediately rewashed with a color catcher, but no help at all, maybe worse.

This is the front, which has very little of the bleed and what it did get just blends in. 

Here's what I hope will work, I took the binding off and pressed the quilt flat again. I'm thinking of just putting a new back over the old and doing stitch in the ditch around the basic blocks. The original quilting did stitch in the ditch around both frames and outline stitching around the animals. I figure the old back still being there will hold the original quilting in place. 

What do you think? will this work? I really don't want to try to requilt all of it and I really really don't want to try to rip out all of the quilting. 

When I saw what had happened I grabbed the offending red, a pink that I knew would bleed and another red that I just didn't trust and threw them all away. Once I calmed down I remembered that I had this

I've used it the way they say to and it's never worked, but this time I poured it right into my washer and threw the red in with it. Then I rewashed the red with a color catcher.

It worked so well and I pulled the other two fabrics out of the trash and repeated pouring it into the washer. Worked like a charm, but of course too late for my quilt. 

So what do you think? Will just putting a new back over the old one work? Can I get away with just stitch in the ditch to hold the new one in place? Advice? Sympathy, I'll take anything at this point. 

Thanks for being out there you guys :)

Later Gators,

Dana