LEARNING FROM MISTAKES

Someone online told me that she used Oxyclean to take dye runs out of a red and white quilt that she had hand quilted, only to have the red run. So I soaked my mini in a bucket with half a scoop of Oxyclean.. or the supermarket brand.. because I couldn't find the original. Anyway, It looked pretty bad when I pulled it out of the bucket several hours later. There was a lot of blue dye in the bucket. I figured 'what the heck' I threw it in the washer with my regular laundry soap that comes in a big bucket from Sams and Clorox 2. When all of that was done, I blocked the quilt and let it dry.

You know, this morning, all of that blue dye haze that was all over the cream areas is gone, and the quilt is cream again! I would have taken a little more care quilting it if I had known I would save it. Lesson one learned.

Lesson 2..I used this stuff for the piping. It was drapery cord or something recommended by Susan Cleveland who makes this nifty little tool to make piping. Anyway, I did pre shrink it like she said. But it is not cotton, so it didn't shrink at the same rate as the wool batt I used did. So you will see in the picture above, the piping is wavy. Next time I will try the #3 Pearl Cotton for piping like Ricky Tims uses for his piped binding. I got to see it close up in a class I took with him. At least I know I can pre-shrink cotton.

Lesson 3... Although, it isn't as noticeable as it is in my pineapple, I should have done a continuous piping around the edge instead of doing 4 strips. I got knocked for doing it by the Judges in Paducah. From now on I will do it continuous.

Lesson 4.... I have never done this, but I noticed when I got closeups of Ricky's quilts (Dad's Lone Star, and Bohemian Rhapsody...yes, I got to touch them, and look at them closeup. All I can say is Wow) and Sally Collins small scale quilts, they were thin, flat, and weren't puckered like most quilts. This intriged me. I found out that both pre-wash their Hobbs 80/20 Batt. I have never pre-washed batt. A lot of it also depends on the density of the quilting. I can tell the difference in the thickness between my 2 minis. The flying geese mini is thin.. quilting is dense. The pineapple is not thin and you can see the quilting design more prominately. That is because the quilting is farther apart to create the star design.

So, you see, even in a quilt that might be full of mistakes. Mistakes that draw your eye every time you look at it. You can learn so much, so that the next time you spend hours making a quilt, you will know what new things to try to make it even better.