There are those projects that are destined to be failures even before they start. This is one of those projects.
On first glance, it doesn’t look like a fail. Looks can be deceiving though.
I signed up for a doll quilt swap back in March (or maybe earlier, I can’t really remember), and had really good intentions about getting something started. Between the combination of lack of inspiration, other projects I was more interested in, and good old fashioned procrastination, I managed to hold off beginning this until about the last week in April. Turns out, if I had read the information (at all) I would have noticed the quilt was due the last week in April. Well crap.
In the meantime, I received my super awesome quilt from Alison. It’s so fabulous. I love everything about it–the colors, the design, the quilting. She did a fantastic job, and sent along a handmade pincushion to boot. She’s so talented, and I was lucky to be her recipient. Did this help me be a better swapper? You be the judge.
But finally, I managed to finish the quilt earlier this week. Since I decided to hand quilt it, it took a longer to finish, but it looked good. I ended up buying a store bought, pre-made bias binding for the edge (which I’ve never done before, but why cut all that fabric when I just wanted a red border?) and at that point, thought I was ready to go. A quick toss in the sink, then a run though the dryer and I’ve got a soft, wrinkly doll quilt.
Did you know you have to wash store bought quilt binding? Neither did I.
The red dye from the binding was everywhere. I took to the quilt with a bleach pen. It seemed to work, but at this point, I had to come up with a way to get the bleach out of the quilt. I took a chance and washed it again in colorsafe bleach. It took the dye out, but now, the water had soaked the bleach through all of the layers and dyed the back of the quilt. Splochy and overall ruined really.
I couldn’t bear to take a picture of the quilt afterward. I sent it out anyway, with an apology note and a few other goodies to make up for my craptastic swap.
So….who’s interested in doing a swap?? I promise it can’t get any worse than that.
I feel your pain! Oxy-clean is my lifesaver. I’ve pulled red wine out of quilt by soaking it in Oxy-clean for a few hours. Just an FYI for next time.
not that it will help you this time (what a bummer), but i have heard of color grabber sheets that you put in the wash…on some other blog (sorry i dont remember where) they had used it and were really pleased…i love oxy too!
Oh my gosh, we would love it if you posted this at CraftFail! (http://craftfail.com) – a community blog devoted to posting our own crafting snafus.
Heather
Oh how terrible, I didn’t know that either!!! Thanks for sharing your woes. It’s funny, my sister-in-law was just raving about the wonders of Oxi-Clean, I’ll have to pick some up!
Oh my, how I can relate. When I saw your picture on quilt fail, I just had to find out what the story was behind it. I have felt just like you looked in that pic, sooo many times. 1.when I offered to “save-a-quilt” that a friend’s mother had hand-pieced, mixing in some poly-blends, and so uneven I had to just take everything apart. Did I learn? nooo offered to take on a maroon-colored & shirting quilt top, again, same scenario. Plus I had the pleasure of that fabric “bleeding” on my light-colored ironing board cover(using a dry iron, mind you). Well, I could go on, and could certainly have my share of quilt fails. Hope you don’t mind but I printed out your pic and it is on my design board. And although it has certainly added some humor to my day, it is also with pure sympathy that I do so.