Success!

"There's no such thing as a failure who keeps trying; coasting near the bottom is the only disgrace."


I love this sentiment, lyrics from the song, 'JUST WAIT' by Blues Traveler.

By this measure...in spite of my best attempts...so far, I am not a failure where this quilt is concerned! The blue lines and bleeding DID come out in the wash! Yea!!!

Look at these Color Catchers. The 3 darkest ones on the left were in the initial wash. When it was finished, I removed them and tossed in 4 new ones, then selected a Rinse~n~Spin cycle with an extended rinse. These are the 4 on the right. They were still blue, but much less dark. I was afraid to put the quilt through yet another cycle...I don't want to wear it out before it is ever finished!

I had another major scare when I removed this from the washer. Even though the washing did its job, the quilt was now much smaller! Yikes! This is a 'challenge' quilt, and to qualify, it has to meet all the criteria of the challenge, including SIZE.

I quickly spread it out on the sewing table and began measuring...sure enough, it was too small. But I could pull it and stretch it back out...block it. I was hopeful but not confident.

PLUS, I wanted to dry it in the dryer just a little while, to kinda get the outer fabrics dry enough that no more bleeding would occur (just in case!). So I went ahead and tossed it into the dryer on med-low heat...for about 10 minutes. Then I took it out of the dryer and began smoothing and coaxing it into shape on the table, pinning it to a mat and stretching, then moving the pins and smoothing/stretching some more. When I left it last night, it was pinned out squarely...diagonal corners measured equally...and it was overall big enough to meet the challenge! Whew!

Now that it is dry, it is time to begin work again...my plan for today is to couch on some threads.

Crossing fingers (except when sewing!)...