Nightmare Before Christmas
 

OK Guys, so now I'm officially panicking!

I've been working madly this week trying to finish a quilt in time for christmas. It's a signature quilt from my DD's recent wedding. Each hexagon was signed by a guest with a message for the happy couple.

I got the last of it completed this morning, and popped it into the washing machine, along with several colour catchers. It had to be a cool wash because I've included some home-printed fabric.

Needless to say, one of the fabric pens has bled colour. The pens were proper fabric pens, tested in advance, and I followed the instructions properly.

So it's been back in the sink for another wash, and rubbing the stain with a colour catcher has removed a good bit of the bleed, and its now back in the machine for another rinse. Synthropol, which I've read about regularly here, is a product I've never seen on sale here in Scotland.

So guys, any other suggestions? (I've plenty of chocolate cos I've already done my christmas shopping!)


Before: DD is into dinosaurs in a big way :D

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after: this is the only segment which it truly bad :(

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Cheers, Kate

The one patch doesn't look terrible. The quilt itself looks fabulous! Honestly, I wouldn't sweat it. In my opinion, it is simply part of the charm of the quilt. (Plus the bleeds will probably eventually fade away with every washing the quilt gets in actual use.)

I agree with Prism99. if this is the only issue, I'd call it a design feature. The dinosaur just has a purple aura!

I agree with Prism99. It should fade away with more washing.

Your quilt is gorgeous! The dinosaur looks like he is surrounded with a lovely lavender glow. As Prism99 said, it will probably fade with time. I'd use a Color Catcher each time it is washed.

Purple aura. LOVE IT!!! :D

I agree. The dinosaurs are cute!

When I saw it, I thought the same thing as the rest of the folks. Almost looks planned. Just make sure she has a color catcher when she washes it again so it doesn't go anywhere else. It does look great!

Well, I'm pleased to report that a second wash has taken out about 80% of the bleed, and it looks much better for it :) . If it continues to fade with further washing then I think I'll get away with it lol.

Thank you all for your compliments on the quilt :).

This is the most labour-intensive quilt I've made to date, and the most personal. The coral colour was the colour of the bridesmaids' dresses, the green was mine, and the blue was the mother of the groom's dress color. Some of the bride's dress is included on the back. I'd have been gutted if it was ruined by the ink running....

The strange creature printed in the corners is an amalgamation of a dinosaur and an octopus (groom's favourite creature), and it's an original drawing done by one of their friends specially for the wedding (which took place in Edinburgh Zoo!)

Cheers, K

I love you quilt. Wod you be willing to share the name of the pattern?

I thought it was a purple shadow! I love the "mistake"!

I'd love to know also. I really like the design. That was really clever, incorporating the colors from all the wedding participants dresses! What a great keepsake!

I love the helo affect around the dinosaur. Just think of this instead of a bleed. A wonderful design feature not easy to do.

You could try a Pro Marker blender pen, pro markers are alcohol ink pens for crafting and there is a blender pen which you can use to blend out the colour or remove colour if you go outside the lines, defo get them in Scotland, if you near a hobbycraft, or any paper crafting shop. I think it still looks beautiful, adds to the originality x

"Purple aura" yeah, that sounds good. You meant to do it that way. Stick with that. Seriously, it really is a cute quilt.

Ah, a dinoctopus!!! Wonderful mythical creature........

Like the rest, it looks fine - you're the only one that will notice. Lovely quilt - no pandas? ;):D

Notmorecraft, I'll definitely look out for that pen. We have 2 hobby crafts in a 40 mile radius so do get to one or the other every so often. Thanks for the suggestion :) .

We weren't allowed near the pandas on the day. At the time they thought she might be expecting, so they were off limits! There was even a no-fly-zone over the zoo for the tourist helicopters in case it upset her lol.

The pattern for my quilt was inspired by this:
http://tamarackshack.blogspot.co.uk/...spy-quilt.html

Once I'd worked out the repeating unit I drew up this:
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I was pleased to see it would lend itself to paper piecing, especially with all the bias edges involved. I used a couple of packs of Moda pre-cut hexagons. I did think I could cut some corners by strip-piecing the colours, but I think that actually made assembly more difficult later - if I got any strip misaligned even by a fraction, it made matching units awkward - that's when I was glad of the bias lol.

The outer border is a friendship braid.

Now that it's properly dry, the halo is much less obvious, so I've stopped panicking about it now lol.

Thank you all for your support! :) :thumbup:

cheers, K

I agree with Prisma, use it as a design element! Shade a little darker unde the Dino's feet and blend all the other colors outward and then use a textile meduim and heat set! I had to do that with a recent project and the truth is that I like it better after coloring the images. It allowed me to brighted the important colors and mute the unimportant ones. Good Luck.

that quilt is lovely, good to see the bleed is fading I am sure they will love it.

What a lovely quilt! I'm sure it will be treasured forever.

Your quilt is absolutely beautiful! What a special treasure for the couple. You did great!!

I saw somewhere hydrogen peroxide on a cotton ball would help bleach it out. It's a gorgeous quilt. The bleed does look like the dino has an aura about him!

After reading the update about Leah Day's quilt, I will never use hydrogen peroxide on a quilt again! (Not that my work is anything like Leah Day's........)
http://www.leahday.com/quilttheduchess/

I had DSIL who has no quilt knowledge or experience, and I showed him just the second picture, and he said "How did they get the cool effect?" So I would just let it stand.

If you can't see it from the moon it doesn't matter, love the quilt.

I actually like it .....gives it the 3D look. The entire quilt looks beautiful I would stop stressing over it.

This is one of the most beautiful quilts I have seen. I can't stop looking at it. The color combination, the piecing pattern and the friendship braid on the outer boarder. The aura is beautiful. I'm curious, who might the person be who couldn't be at the wedding because they recently passed? I do believe, that is their signature :)

I would never have thought what you are calling a color bleed was anything except intentional highlighting in that particular block. Stop worrying about it and think of it as a design element. froggyintexas

What a fabulous, impressive quilt! Well done!

Wow, now you've got me thinking!

The only one on my side would be DD's grandad, (my dad) but 17 years is not recent. I'd have to ask the groom about his side.

There were a few guests who were missed out on the day, and half a dozen where the writer forgot to sign their hexie. There was one guy who did two, cos when he saw some of the drawings made by other guests, he wanted to do a drawing too.

One guest expected to be missing surprised everyone by flying in from New Zealand unannounced! So he's on there too.

I was really pleased with how interested the guests were in the whole project :-) .

What made ME curious was - where did the purple colour come from anyway, when the pens used were black and green..... And why only THAT block when the black pen especially was used on many of the other blocks.....

I might never look at that dino in the same way again lol

Cheers, K

Thats what I call "the Galloping Horse Principle" lol

Cheers, K

Nobody receiving the quilt will notice-it is a beautiful quilt. Merry Christmas.

I agree with everyone here. I think it looks just fine. The bleeding of colors just makes it richer and actually looks like you intended it to look like that. Don't mention it to the recipient, or they will always think you gave them a faulty quilt. You did a great job, and I know it was a lot of hard work.

What a beautiful design and a wonderful wedding memory quilt! I wouldn't worry about that one mean ol dinosaur too much... I know how hard we are on our own work!!

Cute, he just has a little Barney DNA in him. lol The quilt is beautiful!

It looks like it was made this way with shading to accent the dinosaur. I would use it as is. Beautiful quilt.

I think you quilt is fantabulous and I love the dinosaur with the purple haze but another time when you wash a quilt try my tip, I do a wash in cold water with about 1/2 a cup of salt it sets any colours that were going to run, well it works for me.

Happy Hogmanay from a lost Scot in Wales :)

The quilt is the quilt. The bleeding does not take anything away from the sentiments of you or your guests. The Bleed is a fact of life...This should be the worst that life has to offer them! Relax; share the "oh dear", and enjoy everyone's praises and love. It is a wonderful job well done​!

The quilt is fabulous and beautiful. And I love the dinoctopus - or is it Nessie?!?
(It's like Scots' corner on this thread!)