WIP: Stretched Star Revisited

Well, what an adventure this quilt has been. After some discolouration after I got it wet to remove some marking I embarked on treating the quilt with Dylon Colour Run Remover. Did two treatments on the weekend and discovered to my horror that every alternative white patch in the last two rows had changed into this yellow-greenish colour! Did not take any photos...too horrendous to put on film. Not sure what happened... I wondered whether I had used a different type of white fabric, maybe in the last two rows?

Anyway, treated it again...well, this time the yellow-green discolouration had grown to cover most of the alternative patches, so at least I knew it was not another type of white I had used. I decided that this was it...I was not going to treat it again but just washed it (again!) in some wool wash. To my surprise, this seemed to make a difference in the yellow-green disclouration, so after this I washed it another two or three times. This time though I used normal washing powder, albeit on the gentle cycle. Yep, that did the trick...quilt is back to normal! You have to wonder what happened...maybe the yellow colour ran from the backing?

All told this quilt has been washed in the washing machine 6 -7 times. I must say I was very impressed that the quilt came out in one piece. Crinkly, but intact. So this morning I went ahead and blocked it as I had lost a good inch all around in crinkles.

Here is my very scientific method...I use the tiles as a reference point for straightness and then gently pull the moistened quilt into shape. As you can see there is some fullness left in the star blocks which really is to be expected as I did not quilt them down. All in all, a good result!

While I was mucking around with the quilt for the last two days,  I have been practising FMQ in preparation for this months' pillow challenge featuring expert Christina Cameli.

I love variegated thread

Not quite right

Looks better when the leaves interlock

I noticed that my machine does not like to go backwards in a straight line when stitching dead straight away from yourself...this makes sense really, as the thread goes from front to back through the needle and going backwards the thread places itself either left or right from the needle when stitching, creating a few wonky stitches when the thread switches from left to right. I mucked around with this for a very long time, trialling different thread and needles etc. only to find that it is the speed and movement that will make the difference. This was an interesting exercise...as you can see I do not practice for long on one thing and usually start breaking out into just stitching swirls and plumes. Yep, my machine definitely got a bit of a workout...mind you, these are just a few samples. I did use a lot of fabric up just practicing.

Time to get that pillow done.

Karin