Rosemary, exactly! I was so good this last trip to visit, only buying what I needed for current WIPs, since I knew I'd be back for good in 3 months! Wheeee! What a feeling!

Lois, I'm already searching for guilds near where I'll move to, and planning, finally!, some donation quilts -- I know that I want to do at least one Project Linus quilt per year (we received 2 actually for our youngest son when he was in the hospital after a premature birth, and then in a research study for 18 months due to his small birth size; I want to pay it forward, but so much harder from here!). Can't wait to be in the US and able to easily get the fabrics, donate locally, etc. And of course my own fabric shopping will be easier on the budget, doing it a little at a time instead of a year's worth all at once, LOL!

And I have to agree with you -- when I look back at the things I did in the beginning, that I thought were not that good at all, they were a lot better than I realized. I mean, not fantastic, but not horrid like I feared. Such a joy to discover that, and makes me more confident in the stuff I'm doing now

I hope you find a home near a wonderful quilt shop and in a town with a great guild. Good luck.

Yes, I have felt defeated and even believed I was a few times. Usually after a good nights sleep I either think of a better way or have the energy to give it another go.

Recently, I did some cleaning in my sewing room and found some small practice pieces I had done. Most were attempts at new techniques that I filed away for reference. They really weren't intended to be anything. I even remember being dissappointed how they were turning out at the time. When I looked at them again, I was happy with what I had done and believed some would be great for Mug Rugs. Glad I didn't pitch them. Sometimes I think we need to give ourselves a break and turn away from a project for a while. It's entirely possible to come back with new eyes and new ideas.

Hey, we know what you will be after for christmas - gift tokens for your soon to be local quilt shops That will seriously give you the opportunity to enlarge your stash in all departments, since you won't have to ship it. Have a safe move back to Texas.

Thanks all for the kind words Yes, Rita, my boy does love his quilt.

I had a friend do a label for my oldest son's quilt, using her embroidery machine -- I did name of the quilt, who it was for, who/how it was made, and the year. Likewise I did one for the baby quilt I gifted, and for the couch throw I completed. I still need to work up/have her do a label for my middle son's quilt, and I did make the label pieces for this one, and will fuse/hand stitch them now that you've all reminded me of that option. Probably before we fly home.

I document them all pretty well in my blog and in photos in our family annual photo album, so I'm not super concerned, but will be nice to have them labeled before putting them in the luggage --- have I said yet here that we're moving back to Texas in December??? We are!

I'm glad to learn of other ways to care for quilts; thanks for all of that info as well. I hadn't thought to skip the agitate portion and just do soak & rinse; I definitely will try that method for when they aren't *too* grubby. Sadly, I do not have time or space for the bathtub/lay flat to dry method, though I'm sure my quilts would thank me for it if I did. I'll reserve that for if I have to wash the antique quilt that my dad passed down to me recently.

Well it looks like we all have different ways of dealing with our finished quilts. I always prewash all my fabrics so I don't wash the finished quilt unless it has become so grubby that it needs it. I recommend that the person receiving the quilt use colour catchers when washing it as I do tend to make a lot of scrappy quilts.

Heather your son's Mario quilt is great and I am sure he loves it. When I am putting a label on the quilt I do tend to hand stitch it on to the back - usually in the bottom right-hand corner. However, a lot of the time I am too lazy to do that so I actually use the embroidery letters on my machine and stitch my name as the maker and the name of the person receiving the quilt. Mostly my quilts are utilitarian quilts so I am not worried about documenting every single detail. If it was for an exhibition then I would make a proper label for the back with as much detail as I thought necessary.

Not defeated! Just.........learning as you go.

I wash my finished quilts to get rid of the fabric chemicals, glue, starch, etc. I test any
fabric I'm worried about (dark colors, etc.) but don't necessarily pre-wash my fabrics. So
far, I've been happy with the results. I wash in my top-load washer and dry in the dryer.

I don't prewash my fabric either, I want to have the shrinkage. I want to get all the sizing, starch or markings off the quilt before it finds a new home. So, I wash(actually, soak in syntrapol, rinse and spin--usually don't agitate{except by my hand, unless really dirty--grans} and dry in the machine. I tell DH--it isn't a quilt unless it comes out of the dryer whole. Meaning, I want it to be loved and use and so it has to be washable.

Heather, your Mario quilt is just too marvelous!.

You can always write on the quilt with a Micron pen or a Faber Castell Pitt pen, document a ton of stuff if you like, which is what the Quilt Alliance supports...who, what, when, where, why, how...etc. After spending 3 hours trying to get a label sewn on through very dense quilting, I'm all forfusing labels for future projects, including making the label on a printer, maybe with some hand-stitching for extra support if possible.

rehak wrote:
yes, the filter on the dryer is a great way for getting all the dog hair off that sneaks on while I'm up & down off the floor working on the quilt.

I figure these are my boys' first quilts from me, not their only.....five years from now they are likely to want something else, not video game characters, etc. If the quilt is beginning to show it's wear by then, so much more reason to go ahead and make a next quilt.

Oh, and I forgot in my other post the 1st was actually a lap sized quilt, hand pieced entirely, machine quilted (not by me), and has been being washed and used for a year and still looks fine/no insane wear & tear yet.

If I were making quilts for shows or something instead, I'm sure I'd treat them differently.

EditorAnne wrote:
I've washed & dried all my quilts so far, in the machine, with no problems. Some were made by machine, some partly by hand. I don't pre-wash my fabrics, so washing/drying lets the fabric shrink up just a bit and get that crinkly quilt look. I just throw Shout Color Catchers in the wash with them, so that any dye that is released gets on those instead of on the quilt --- so far, that's worked great.

This is only my first year of quilting though, and the 5th project I've finished --- #1 was a baby quilt, pieced by hand, quilted by machine; #2 a full sized bed quilt, partly pieced by hand, partly by machine, quilted by machine; #3 a full sized bed quilt all by machine; #4 a Christmas tree skirt, no batting, all by machine; and now this one, #5, twin sized quilt, all by machine. Anyway, they've all held up well so far, and the other bed quilts have been washed more than once -- the dogs sleep on the boys' beds, and so whenever they start to smell "doggy" the quilt goes in the wash. But, they are made to be used & washed, so...

Here's a picture of the Mario quilt on my youngest son's bed, after the 1st wash. You can see, not even a speck of red next to the white or anything.

I always put my quilts in the washer and dryer and have never had a problem. I wait until they've been used a while before the first wash because I love the feel of the freshly made quilt, but I have friends who wash right away to get the puckered look right away and to see if the fabrics run since they don't prewash like I do. I don't have the patience or the space to wash them the way they are supposed to be washed and my quilts are all meant to be used and abused anyway. And I need to use the dryer to get all of the pet hair off. Otherwise I would dry the quilts on the line like I do my clothes.

Nancy

I always sew my labels on by hand, too.

Learning-As-I-Go, I'm curious. Why did you wash a brand new quilt? I never wash mine until I absolutely have to.

I never put a quilt in the washer or dryer, either. I gently wash it with Quilt Wash or Orvus Paste in the bathtub, rinsing it five or six times, then WITHOUT WRINGING IT OUT I support it on a bed sheet while lifting it out of the water. I roll it in several sheets to squeeze as much water out of it as I can, then I lay it flat with a fan on it until it's dry, turning it over after 12 to 18 hours, so the fan can reach both sides. This is the method most often recommended for cleaning quilts.

Of course, if you've made a sturdy quilt entirely by machine, you may be able to put it in the washer on a gentle cycle, but I'd worry about putting it in the dryer. How did it turn out?

twiglet wrote:
What can I say, I'm an overachiever! Or am I an underachiever???

Nancy