WASH YOUR FABRIC!

Yesterday the Hawaiian quilt that was up on the living room wall fell down. It may have just fallen of its own accord or maybe one of the cats tried to climb up it. (It is easy to blame most problems on the cats.) Even though summer isn't over in Japan (HOT! HOT! HOT!) it seemed a good time to put up a different quilt and so I pulled a very old Carolina Lily quilt out of storage.

Oh dear, this doesn't have a label on it either... One year we made a similar quilt for the kindergarten bazaar and a couple of us decided to use the pattern to make our own quilts. This must be at least 15 years old now... Anyway... When I made this I figured it was a good chance to learn how to use the Celtic strip metal ware for making strips though not long afterward I learned how to use Bias Maker with iron on Hot and Bond tape. My Celtic strip maker lies forgotten in some drawer these days. This was also in the days before I was experimenting with machine piecing and machine quilting so this is all done by hand. I was very proud of myself.

BUT!!! One day I washed my Carolina Lily quilt and look what happened!! The dumb fabric bled! Upset isn't the word! I remembered really liking the dark blue scrap that a fabric store had given me when I purchased other fabric. It had come in a packet of give away stuff and though there wasn't a lot of it (maybe a fat eighth) I had been so pleased when there was JUST enough to make the lily petals...

Yes, I do normally wash all my fabrics but there are times when I get lazy, and there was such a little amount of this blue that I'd figured it would fray away in the wash... A lesson learned...

So up on the wall my quilt went yesterday. I couldn't decide where that stained blue corner got hid the best... On the top it seemed too obvious. On the bottom it is right at eye level. I thought behind the lamp but the light seems to accent the stain doesn't it? Ah well...