Putting Out the Fire

We're putting out the fire today because we're putting the quilt in the mail to Grayson's grandma, Carol. This morning, the binding made it all the way around To the Rescue, and the quilt is finished.

Here's the label that was added to the back:

After posting the little tutorial yesterday about how it was made, several of you asked about whether the ink printed on fabric would stand up to repeated washings. I'll admit that I hadn't even thought about that when the tutorial was written. Fortunately, I can always count on my bloggy friends because you are all so smart! Credit goes to my good friend Sharon V. who suggested that soaking it in an anti-bleeding rinse might make the ink permanent. Sharon uses Retayne, and it just so happens that there is a bottle of Retayne residing in my laundry room. Okay, I thought. I'll bite.

So I put a small amount of hot water in a bowl (enough to cover the label completely) and then added one teaspoon of Retayne. Then I sucked in my breath and plunged the label into the solution. Surprisingly, no bleeding. Taking my cue from the instructions on the bottle, I let it soak for 20 minutes, and then blotted out the moisture between several layers of paper towels. Then I ironed it flat again. I'm happy to report that no bleeding or fading occurred. Whether this will be true 100 washings from now is anybody's guess, but I'm satisfied enough with these results to declare the Retayne method of setting the ink a success. There are other similar products on the market...Synthrapol comes to mind. Retayne just happens to be the product I had on hand.

Now, I'm fresh out of hand-stitching again, and so I'm hoping to get a start on my next embroidery project. There isn't a lot of embroidery to do on this, and so it'll be a quick little project. First, I'll have to applique the cat's body onto the quilt just to ensure correct placement of the words.

The quilt pattern shows the words as solid lines, but I like this running stitch embroidery, and so the plan is to stick with that.

Also on today's agenda is grocery shopping. I'll need to make up my list and then get going. Hopefully, there will be some time for sewing this afternoon.

We're going out to a weekend get-together with some friends who live about halfway toward the Oregon coast this weekend. I always do the cooking for Friday night, and so I'm needing to get going on the dishes that will be prepared ahead. It's a busy life in retirement for sure.