PHOTO DAY

 Darrell just finished one of his projects and photographed it this morning.  Then I got out my quilt stand and hung Carpe Diem and he photographed it too.

His lighting is color temperature adjustable.  Its very interesting to change them and see what it does to the colors of the quilt.  But they do really show off the quilting.

CARPE DIEM FINISHED

 I got the facing made and sewn on and Carpe Diem is now a finished quilt.

This is finish number 13 for the year.

SYNTHROPOL TO THE RESCUE

 After much talk and advice received, I got my Synthropol and mixed a strong solution with water and began dobbing, blotting and rubbing at the orange bleed (caused by the Aurifil thread I used to baste this quilt).

It is hard to see if its working when the fabric gets wet, but it does appear to be.  I'll have to wait until it dries tomorrow to know how well it worked.

It took almost three hours to do the whole quilt.  I'm hopeful that I got it all.  By the end of that time, my hands were puckered and were beginning to cramp.  

ORANGE BLEED ON QUILT

 I was very disappointed to see Carpe Diem when I got home.  It's been three days on the work wall drying from the water I sprayed on it to remove the blue marking lines.  The blue lines are mostly gone, but the orange bleed from the Aurifil thread is still visible on the quilt.

This is so heartbreaking for me.  I've put a lot of work into making this quilt and I'm very proud of it.  And to have an internationally popular thread brand bleed is very upsetting.  I don't think of thread color as ever bleeding.  I need to think about what to do because I can't submit it to a show looking like this.  I don't want to wash it.  The batting is 100% wool and will shrink and wouldn't look right for a show either. I need to consult with my quilt friends and think about this.

DONE HAND QUILTING

 I finally finished the hand quilting big stitch on the Carpe Diem quilt of improv Hourglass blocks.

I haven't done any hand quilting in decades, at least on anything this big.  

I pinned up a sheet of plastic on the work wall and pinned the quilt up, using lots of pins.  My purpose was to get it squared up and straight.  Then I sprayed it with water to get the blue marking lines to disappear.  It took a lot of spraying, some of the marks were a little stubborn, but they all eventually went away.

However, orange from the Aurifil 50wt thread I used for the basting left orange marks and faint lines here and there on the lightest fabric.  Very disappointing. 

I patted the quilt, while wet, to get the layers  to meld together and it looks a lot better now.  

So here it is:

Before I sprayed with water, notice the orange dots and faint lines between.

After water, marking lines are gone, but orange dots still visible.

BASTING

 I finished marking the Carpe Diem quilt top with a quilting design.

I've loaded it onto the longarm to baste it.