Look, if you have quilting friends, what better way for them to show the love than to make you a quilt block or two? In our last quilt group project, I had my friends make me big, half-square-triangle blocks...I showed you the top when it was done - and while I agonized over "to border or not to border" I ended up sewing on a border with some fabric my friend Helen gave me - she said it would work and she was right. Well, now it's done...cue the drums...
Isn't it just wonderful?!?! I love it - love everything about it - even those few "pinkish-white" triangles! As you know, I do not wash my fabric before sewing - I just have faith that when it comes to washing the quilt the colors won't run...unless I'm washing reds...(Reagan to Gorbachev, Trust but Verify) you just can't trust reds not to run...so I got out the color catchers!
Shout Color Catcher has 24 "color grabbers" in a box...for the first wash I used 8 of them. You can see just how much they picked up! So I did a second wash (actually both times I just did a rinse with cold water, and no detergent) and you can see the results from the 2nd batch of 8 color grabbers...still pink but not as dark. So I did one more rinse...and I forgot to take a picture of the last 8 color grabbers but they were a very, very pale pink. One more rinse probably would have come out with the color grabbers being white but I was out of them! The box says to use one or two...but I always use more, especially for a big quilt.
This is the first quilt I've had professionally quilted in a very long time and only because it was too big to fit in my machine. Ida Flynt did the qui$ting and I th$nk she did a grea$ job even if it wa$ pret$y pr$cey! Oh well, it's done now and so what if we can't afford to buy food for a few days, it was worth it!
I'm planning on wrapping myself up so tightly in this quilt that I won't feel the hunger pangs! The backing is a sheet that was given to me (thanks Joni) and it seemed to work perfectly so I used it!
This is my new favorite quilt - I love that my friends "made it" for me...surely this will become a family heirloom...oh wait, my DIL only likes purple and green quilts, the boy doesn't give a rip, the girl only likes quilts that match everything around her and unless they're made from stainless steel and concrete the SIL doesn't like them either! Godfrey! What's a quilter to do?!?!!
