Sunshine Quilts

Saturday, July 30, 2005

The Red Bear Paw from ______ (fill in the blank!)

I am not a patient person and this story blows my mind. I can't believe I did all this. Back in about 1998 I began a red and white bear paw quilt for my sister-in-law. I like Louis & Eileen a lot! This was my travel project and I never spent a lot of time on it unless we were on a trip. Finally, about 2001 I was making good progress and we visited NY to see Louis & Eileen. Well, they had remodeled their bedroom and she had changed the colors. I must've had this dumb look on my face because she went on and on about how happy she was to get rid of that red and white. I made them another quilt! But I kept thinking I should finish the red and white bear paw. So, I set it horizontal with some sashing. That was kinda boring. I thought maybe I'd set it in strips with wide white rows in between so I took all the horizontal setting apart. Re-did it and that was kinda boring too so I stuck it aside. When I looked at the AQS rules for the 2005 Nashville show, one of the categories was "Traditional Blocks" so I thought . . red and white bear paw. Got it out, took it all apart and re-set it with the blocks on point, and then set in rows with a wide white strip between the rows. Ahhh, heck! The wide white strips were too wide so I took it all apart, cut the strips down, put it back together again and it was great but it needed a border so I made a zillion half square triangles and made a border. Quilting was fun because I love doing that part. It was time to get the blue marks out of the quilt so I spritzed and . . oh, my gosh! I've just spent more than a full week quilting this thing and the red was running! I had washed all the fabrics but this red just wasn't willing to stay red! I began researching and decided synthrapol was my best shot but it said to wash in hot water. I had used Hobbs wool batting with a white Mountain Mist Rose on top so the wool didn't show through. The wool shouldn't be used in hot water. So, I called Hobbs and they said to go ahead and do it. I must've washed that poor quilt a dozen times in HOT water (sometimes even boiling in the microwave to be sure it was HOT). Then I'd wash it with the dye catchers. Went through several boxes of those. The red got lighter but it was still nowhere near acceptable. I happened to have a bar of Fels Naptha soap sitting near the washer so I rubbed it all over the quilt, washed it again and the runs were all gone. Whew! JL

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