His Quilt

 

The Black Abacus quilt is all finished. Here it is reclining on a park bench.

And here it is in its new home with its very proud owner.

Here is why you should use color catchers when you wash a quilt. Even though every piece of fabric I buy gets run through the washer (on warm water) and then the dryer before it ever gets into the studio, fabrics still shed excess dye. I washed the Black Abacus quilt twice! The color catchers from the first washing are on the left. The color catchers from the second are on the right. I actually washed the quilt a third time, and the color catchers from that one came out a medium gray. I could probably have washed the quilt two or three more times, but enough was enough. M is very happy with his quilt and had waited a long time for it.

I made the binding for the Stairway to Heaven quilt, and will sew that on next.

It All Comes Out in the Wash

 

I have told you regularly and often that I wash EVERY piece of fabric before I let it into the studio. I wash it in warm water. Then I run it through the dryer, bring it into the studio and iron it. 

The last thing I do before I give a quilt away or use it is run it though the washing machine, in warm water, with a couple of Color Catchers. (I also include a box of Color Catchers with every quilt I gift.) For this quilt, since it was so dark, I used Woolite detergent for dark fabrics. I use it for my black jeans and slacks. It is reputed to keep your darks dark, so I used it for the very dark Deep Space quilt.

This is what the two color catchers looked like when I pulled them out of the washer after I washed the Deep Space quilt. If this isn't proof that you should wash your fabrics before you use them, I don't know what is.

Back to Normal?

The Christmas decorations have been taken down and put away, the table quilt has been changed and I decided to put the Dark Majesty quilt on the back of the couch.

But first I had to wash it. I used three Color Catchers and I was surprised how dark they were when they came out of the washing machine.

Here are the dirty color catchers with a clean one on top so you can see how dirty they are. What's amazing about this is that I wash ALL my fabric in warm water before I ever let it into the studio.

The Dark Majesty quilt looks so good on the couch, and now that it is soft and wrinkly, it may have found a new permanent home.