Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Diamond Sawtooth Quilt

The following Diamond Sawtooth Quilt is the last in a series of stunning Red & White Quilts I have quilted for Linda Collins of Quilts in the Barn.  This quilt too will feature in the upcoming Quilts in the Barn Exhibition as detailed in my previous post.  As usual, Linda's piecing was incredibly accurate - on this occasion she had paper pieced the half-square triangles resulting in perfect points.


Linda gave me the freedom to quilt as desired, as long as it included feathers.  I spent quite some time designing the quilting elements, using the Divide and Design concepts outlined in Lisa Calle's DVD.  Each triangle was divided and the same element quilted into each triangle either once, twice or four times depending on the size of the triangle.





The border was quilted with a simple undulating feather with straight lines.  The straight lines were quilted using one of the Quilter's Groove Rulers which made the spacing of the lines straightforward.



All was going really well until I decided to remove some of my blue dividing lines with a spray of water.  Being a red and white quilt, I was being conscious of the possibility of bleeding.  I had used the blue wash out pen on the white fabric only and had used chalk on the red.  You can imagine my horror when on spraying the white fabric, being careful to avoid any red fabric, a pink stain appeared - the backing fabric had bled into the top fabric.  At 11pm on a Saturday evening, I took to the computer googling madly for solutions to this problem - I did take some comfort from other quilters who had experienced the same problem.  After a restless night, I rose early to finish quilting the quilt and visited the supermarket to buy some Colour Catchers.  I consulted Linda who confirmed that none of the fabrics had been pre-washed.  We agreed that I would was the quilt, hopefully rinsing out all the excess dye including the bleeding which had occurred.

I tested some off-cuts of the backing fabric in some warm water in the bath - it turned pink!  Eventually, the quilt went in with a whole packet of  Colour Catchers.  Again, the water turned pink.  After a second and third rinsing, all the colour appeared to be gone and fortunately, the stain had washed out as well.  I am not sure how the Colour Catchers work, but they do appear to be effective - each of the sheets started out white.






9 comments:

  1. Well now I am going to have to do some shopping! I love those rulers of Lisa's. Thanks for sharing. You did a beautiful job on the quilt.

    ReplyDelete
  2. wonderful quilting....thank goodness the stain came out, it is always a scary thing when you spray the markings out. It is just beautiful, pat yourself on the back and have a drink. Also congrats on the ribbon at AMQF last weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I LOVE colour catchers!!! I am glad they worked for you! The quilt is lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gosh you must have died a few times seeing that white change to pink. Bit scary eh? I'm doing my red/white quilt, and I've washed the red three times, still bleeds............ I forgot to wash the backing so this is a nice reminder for me. Beautiful quilt Karen, your quilting really shines, only wish I could get to see it at the Quilts in the Barn show. Congratulations on your ribbon this past weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your quilting is stunning! Thanks for the link to the DVD - might have to look into getting that.
    I bet you nearly died seeing that stain. I wouldn't dare make a quilt without pre-washing the fabrics, esp a red/white one like this. SO pleased it came out ok with the colour catchers :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. So glad the colour catchers worked, stunning quilting, Linda should be very happy!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Very nice work Karen. I must come done to Quilts in the Barn to get a better look. Also well done in Adelaide with First Blush.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh Karen, I was feeling for you as I read about the fabric bleeding. I am making a red and white quilt soon, I will make sure I wash the fabrics well.
    I love the quilting on this quilt, I have the DVD from Lisa also and am hoping to have a go soon.

    ReplyDelete

I really appreciate your comments - they will appear shortly.