Today is the monthly link up for the Sweet Land of Liberty SAL from Lori at Humble Quilts. I made the heart, couple, and checkerboard blocks when I first started this quilt (many moons ago) so all I had to sew was the snails trail blocks. (Which I didn't make until yesterday. . . )
I wanted to progress on this quilt so I chose to do the block that goes underneath the snails trail. It's not finished but I made some headway. I didn't put the doves close enough together to get the cherry stems to cross. But, I wasn't going to do them over. The original block has victory written on its bowl. The doves said, "Peace" to me, so that is what I decided to write. It hasn't been pressed yet.
I've been working on the Roseville quilt too. Or you could say I've been re-working the Roseville blocks. When I rinsed out the water-soluble marker from this block the red fabric in the stems bled profusely.
I don't know if you can see the bleeding from the front side on the picture below after I unpicked all the stems
But, you can see the bleeding very well from the back in the next two pictures.
I read somewhere that bleeding isn't necessarily caused by fugitive dyes - sometimes it's caused by over saturation of the dye and if you just continue to wash it - eventually the water will run clear. So I took the piece of fabric and washed it. (I had pre-washed it but evidently I wasn't very vigilant.) It took 7 times before the water ran clear.
I checked out the rest of the quilt to see where I have placed this red Kaffe fabric because I figured I would want to unpick the parts and replace them.
I unpicked the stems (of course) and replaced them with brown. I have brown stems in all the other blocks. I don't know why I suddenly decided to make the stems in that block red. As it turns out, I like the brown stems better than I did the red.
So, I need to replace the bird bodies on these two little birds and the large red tree in the top panel below. While I'm not too excited to do this tree over again, I'm grateful that it isn't one of the wavy trees from the bottom border and that there isn't any more red pieces in my blocks that I need to replace. This is very doable.
I've been sewing at a friend's retreat the last couple of days. We are going to meet to sew again this morning. I've been assembling a quilt from the "Rising Sun" blocks I hand -pieced last year. It's turning out so nicely. I'll take pictures when it's done.
I am enjoying the lovely (hot) summer weather but am distressed to hear about all the wildfires.
I pray for the fire fighters.
Robin
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9 comments:
Your Sweet Land of Liberty is looking great :0)! Happy Sewing, I do detest unsewing sounds like you take it in stride :0) Enjoy the rest of your retreat.
Love your Liberty and Peace basket! Your doves look great!
Bummer about the red!!
Oh, Robin, how sad to have to unstitch all the red pieces. I have read that other quilter bloggers who have had the same problem use color catchers to remove the color and sometimes use original blue Dawn dish soap to do the same thing. Maybe you could try one of them before you unstitch? (When I read your post title I was imagining a health problem! So glad it isn't.)
Your Liberty blocks look great. I was going to omit the stars on the checkerboard block but after seeing yours and Kim's blocks I realize that I want to add them. I just have to choose color and fabric. I love your "Peace" block. I think it will be another challenging one for me, but fun, too, of course.
I find Snail's Trail blocks confusing to put together. I always seem to get some part turned wrong and have to un-sew. Sometimes more than once.
Such beautiful stitching! It's a shame to have to replace bleeding fabrics :(
So glad you were able to fix the bleeding issue without heartbreaking damage. It's so frustrating that fabrics don't have a better agent to lock in the dye! Love seeing your applique work!
Your Liberty blocks are so pretty!! Love them...and you are all started on the next month! Bravo!!
I'm loving your liberty blocks. I like the word "peace" better than victory. Great job. I never prewash I just hope for the best.Ha
I love your liberty blocks. Changing the words to make it your own--it totally makes sense with those doves flying overhead! How disheartening that you need to do all that reverse sewing. It's so frustrating (and scary) when a fabric bleeds like that.
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