Short Thoughts...

I must be thinking in Facebook style lately - because I come up with all these short little quilty related thoughts to post... and then I remember that the majority of my friends on Facebook are NOT quilters, and I think "maybe I should put that on the blog?" - but that takes more time, and the blank blog post form seems to cry out for more than a single sentence sound byte... and do I need a picture or not ... either that or by the time I am sitting down to write something, I have forgotten what I wanted to share.

This morning I am home with a sick kid - and my "sound byte" is that, for me, washing a quilt for the first time is the "moment of truth".  I have a quilt in the wash right now -and depending on how the backing behaves will determine if I use the remainder of the fabric on another quilt I have ready to sandwich.  I usually don't have problems- though the backing on Jill's quilt did not behave and shrink like I am accustomed to - so it was a bit "loose" in the spots where my quilting is not as dense.

I do a LOT of scrappy quilting - much of it from found scraps or adopted materials - and so pre-washing is not really practical.  With a recipe of cold water wash, vinegar in the rinse water, and a Shout Color Catcher, bleeding fabrics has NOT been a problem, even with batik thrown in the mix.  I use flannel for my "batting" - so I usually get a nice crinklage with the first wash.  Jill's backing and the one in the wash right now are a bit more along the lines of "shirting" fabrics - still 100% cotton but they seem to be behaving differently.  I quilted this one VERY densely with parallel lines - so it should not be a problem, but I have at least another 10 min in the wash and 50 in the dryer before I will know for sure...  and then I may spend part of this "found" day prepping the 2nd quilt backing to sandwich.

Really hoping there are no issues - as this is another belated gifty quilt (last spring High School graduation gift) - and I hope to be delivering it on Saturday at a big family party.  Provided the Munchkin isn't still sick, that is.

So much for my "short" thoughts....