Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Doesn't It Feel Good When You Finish Something?


Finished the Positive/Negative project today -- this shot was taken just before tossing it in the washer to get the water soluble thread and marking lines out. No detergent or any kind of soap was added to the washer, but I did throw in a dye trapping sheet (Color Catcher from Shout) to soak up any loose dye molecules. This prevents all that pretty green from running into the white fabric. This is particularly important because I don't pre-wash any of my fabrics.



The stencil for the final border is from The Stencil Company (#SCO-184-2.5). This particular stencil has a choice of two corners, one rounded and the other more square. I usually like the square options; IMHO they fill the border space better.



The thread used to stitch the final border is Sulky rayon #1049, Grass Green.



When the sewing was finished, I rotary cut across the top edge of the quilt to remove the excess backing and batting, then made the sleeve and pinned it to the top back of the quilt before machine sewing the binding to the front of the quilt. Then I flipped the quilt to the back and hand stitched the binding and the bottom of the sleeve in place.

After it comes out of the washer, it goes in the dryer for a few minutes -- just long enough to get the wetness out. The quilt will still be damp when I take it to a table (or other flat surface large enough to spread it out flat -- this is a small quilt, so my worktables are fine) and work with it, patting and pressing with my hands, until it is flat and square. This process serves the same purpose as blocking a sweater after washing so that the sweater dries nicely.

Tomorrow morning, after it is thoroughly dry, I can take pictures and e-mail them to the dealers who have been patiently waiting!

2 comments:

  1. This is beautiful, just like all your work. I need to go get some of those dye catching sheets. I too don't prewash.. unless of course it's red!!

    ReplyDelete

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