The Bleed is Gone!

After a long soak, the fabric bleed is gone! This is what the Love Entwined center looks like now.

This is before the soak. If you look around the red petals of the six petal flowers, you can see some pink tinges. In real life, it was very noticeable. I used the soaking method using Dawn dish detergent recommended by Vicki Welsh. Go here for more information:

 http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/2014/01/bleeding-quilts-please-read-this.html

The LE center is only about 32 inches square so I soaked it in a storage tub in a mixture of warm water and blue Dawn. I weighed the center down with clean food storage lids and plates. I did not add a Color Catcher because all that would have done is shown me how much dye was in the water. 

While the LE center was soaking and drying, I was preparing to start work on part #8, the first upper and lower appliqued borders. I'm waiting to make a decision about the color of the fabric border between the center and the applique border. As you can see in the photo below, I plan to miter the part 8 & 9 borders and not make part 10 as a cornerstone.

What happened next is one reason I don't like to work ahead. I prepped all 144 triangles for both parts 8 & 9 only to discover I'd made them too large. At least it was too large and not too small! So now I'm remaking the triangles one border at a time. The first border's triangles are stitched down and I've started working on the lower border's triangles. 

It doesn't look like much progress this week but I know I've been working on it every day! After 2+ weeks, my cold is finally getting better and I'm feeling like I have some energy.

Some time during those weeks, a special package arrived from Australia. I've always admired Jen Kingwell's pattern "The Circle Game" and I won it in a giveaway on Carole's blog! Thank you, Carole! 

Until next week, Mayleen