I set out the other day to make a little mini quilt for my sweet next door neighbor's baby. I received all this cute printed fabric from a sweet friend & wanted to put it to good use. No more letting favorite fabrics sit in boxes anymore.
Plus I'd promised her a little something & knew I could whip up something in a day. Sometimes it's just fun to make a little something that you don't NEED to make. You know just for the heck of it. I have a list of unfinished & to do that is a mile long. Seriously. I got it all quilted in just a little over two hours & I bound it while I watched a couple episodes of Bones. I threw it in the wash & then headed to bed. When I woke up in the morning I put everything right in the dryer. I planned on taking pictures a little after breakfast so I could post & then take the cute little quilt over to my friends house.
Picture me with a huge smile on my face only to turn into a super sad look of horror as I realize the bleeding of the back fabric all spotted over the front. I didn't panic. I put it in the wash & thought for sure it would all come out in the second wash. No such luck. It was totally ruined. All that hard work & it looked like a mess.
I figured I'd use it as one of those painful learning experiences & know what not to do next time I use red fabric with light colored fabric. First off it was a cheaper red fabric. There's something to be said for spending a little more for the Kona cottons. Next time I'll be using a color catcher whenever I wash a new quilt. Every time.
My only saving grace with this whole experience is that it was a relatively small quilt 27"x27" & I had only spent a day on the whole project. I would have been devastated if it had happened on something I'd spent weeks on. I also had a chance to practice my quilting stitch pattern for the next project I worked on.
There was a good ending to this whole thing. Even after I offered to make another one for my neighbor she told me she wanted to keep it. Have I mentioned how much I adore her? I foresee a new & improved quilt in her very near future. One that doesn't have pink splotches all over it ;)
