Don’t worry this story has a happy ending, a beautiful finished quilt. But the beginning is a little rough.
I was watching this quilt wash like a hawk, I was so nervous! I wash my quilts (especially with varied quilting density) to get them wet for blocking. I also super love the crinkly texture the wash adds to a quilt!
It’s hard to even talk about it but when I washed this quilt the beautiful backing….bled through.
Now I had a semi-crisis and consulted the google. I tried it all, doesn’t this feel familiar? I had basting spray stain another quilt this year. After trying to remove the dye bleed, I realized I had another option. Rip apart my finished quilt. Not entirely, read on!
*Trigger Warning* This content is obscene. Before you ask, yes I prewashed. Yes I washed the ice dyed backing- multiple times! I think the navy was just so concentrated, but lesson learned (and I ordered several more chemicals to set dye…)
Fortunately for me, the painstaking choice to color match the quilting worked to my advantage here, I only had to tear out the yellow quilting on the effected blocks. Another moment of GOOD LUCK is I pressed the seams on this quilt open, making ripping them out fairly easy.
There were three particularly stained yellow blocks, for whatever reason the yellow really grabbed onto that blue dye! In the block shown above blue was behind it on the backing, in the other block that was not the case! Strange!
So how do you do quilt surgery? Once I figured out that I needed to do it, I consulted the Google. A lot of information on repairing damaged and older quilts came up which was super useful, but I wanted something discrete and that didn’t show on the front or back as a repair.
So this process isn’t very difficult especially for experienced quilters, and lots of hand sewing/mending.
I tried a few different things but these are the supplies I liked best. The squeezy Roxanne Basting Glue, 80wt Aurifil thread, and lots of pins!
I started with measuring the hole I created and adding half an inch. I think used my favorite clover hot hemmer to press 1/4″ all around. I liked this best because it gave me a clean edge to ladder stitch each side too.
I think I used the basting glue to anchor two corners on the same side. This helped me make sure everything was aligned correctly, and will fit into place. Then I ‘dry fit’ the block into place. I used the glue on the other two corners and pinned all along the block for security.
The next step is to hand sew while you cry into your coffee/wine depending on the hour of the day, I’m kidding…sort of.
I did try two thread varieties, the Wonderfil Invisafil and the Aurifil 80wt. There are pros and cons to each.
- Wonderfil :
- Pro- it’s thinner really sinks in to be invisible
- Con- it’s poly and stretchy so after the stitches are in it can be pulled apart a little
- Pro- it’s strong, hard to break when pulling ladder stitches tight
- Aurifil:
- Con- it’s thicker and not as invisible
- Con- it’s cotton so when you pull really hard you break it
- Pro- once the stitches are in place the seam is strong and cannot be pulled apart
Overall, I picked Aurifil because for the quilting I needed to do after the “quilt surgery” the seams would be put under tension. I didn’t want them to pull apart and show my quilt guts!
I then performed just a standard ladder stitch on the edge of each quilt block.
After completely secured the patch, I just quilted as normal. And in the end its still a beautiful quilt!
If you ever find yourself in need of this information, I FEEL FOR YOU. Please keep yourself calm, and know that everything can be fixed!
Beautiful quilt design by Sarah Ruiz of Saroy or Sarah Ruiz Quilts
Fabric is Moda Fabrics as part of the MQG Modern Classics challenge.
Drop any questions in the comments!
-Tina
gloriakubicki says
Surgery was a success!