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.  

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.

LITTLE MAT

 I finished the little scrappy mat I made the other day.

I hand-quilted it in straight lines in the big-stitch style.