School supplies are already in stores and I didn't finish showing off last year's teacher quilts! Because we moved around the holidays and it took me a while to get my sewing machine set up, I lost a lot of sewing time during the first half of this year/second half of the school year. I found myself under the wire to finish. Mr. H, the band director, said his favorite color was blue. I was looking for something stunning but simple and decided on the pattern Solar Flare by Villa Rosa Designs.
I used a 10" square pack of Brilliant Blues by Island Batik plus their solid white. The "focus fabric" for the main pinwheel and the outer border is Cheerio in Navy, also by Island Batik. It's the only fabric with a design on it to set it apart. I cut everything with my Accuquilt. This was a quilt where I'm really glad I have a design wall. I laid it all out and really tried to integrate all the different values of blue so no one section felt weight too light or too dark.
I quilted it with a medium blue Aurifil thread and used wavy line stitching--I call it Preeti quilting, as my friend Preeti frequently uses that stitch to great effect.
I wash all the teacher quilts before gifting and was sorry to see that this one did bleed. (I had the same problem with my Magnificent Mystery quilt but didn't notice the bleeding until after my post.) I did some research and found reports of many quilters swearing by the methods from this VickiWelshMakes post. There are also some good tips here from SuzyQuilts. I bought Dawn dishsoap and used my tub, as outlined in Vicki's method. My son was kind of fascinated by the process, and he did help me agitate the quilt at one point, singing "Rock-a-bye qui-ilt, In the bath tub." I found it hilarious but managed not to laugh because I knew it would mean he'd stop. I'm happy to say that the magic process did work, and I managed to get the bleeding out of both quilts. I do find that blues are the most likely color to run these days, more so than reds.
I am thrilled with how this turned out and it was very quick to make. This is a pattern I will come back to!
I'm so glad you caught that the quilts bled and you were able to get the bleeding fixed; that's always a bit of a blood rushing moment when you realize it's happened. I immediately thought of Preeti when I saw your quilting, too. :)
ReplyDeleteI love this and fun you used the Preeti design...cracks me up. That bleeding thing is frightening but that method really works. Sorry you had to deal with it, but better you than the recipient!
ReplyDeleteThis is a fun design, and the blues are so lovely. Glad you were able to take care of the bleed, too. And Preeti quilting - love it!
ReplyDeleteReally helpful advice throughout the post.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful quilt! So glad you were able to fix the color runs. I have a quilt the reds ran, I'm going to have to try Vicki's method to see if I can get the white background back. I don't miss doing teacher quilts. Of course My Girl now wants grad school buddy quilts because everyone is graduating this year!
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