Thank you, Terry, Nancy and Wendy! I had forgotten about the Dawn dishwashing soap. Then it Dawned on me!

Hi Dawn -

What a bummer! Vicki Welsh is the industry expert on fabric bleeds in quilts. Her blog post about it is here:
https://www.colorwaysbyvicki.com/save-my-bleeding-quilt.html
Donna James had this happen to her award-winning wholecloth quilt a couple of years ago. She painted over the areas. I don't remember for sure, but think she used the Inktense pencils. She had talked to Bethanne Nemesh to figure out what to do, so you could also try contacting her.

Good luck!!

What a shame. I applied more fabric when the run showed on my quilt and used a white pen. The fabric was most successful, the paint shows up in certain lights so I can't show it grrr. Good luck.

Thank you for your explanation of the design inspiration

Dawn,
What a bummer to have bleeding happen to such a wonderful quilt! As for why it happened with your pre-washed fabric. . .well, it could be that your water is different than your longarmer's water. When I had bleeding happen on The Chicken quilt on my prewashed fabrics, I decided that over the 10 year period our water had changed. I know that it had--we now have chlorine added to our water. This could be the reason why the fabrics bled for her and not for you.

As for solutions. . .think about using a thread color around that area that blends with the bleeding. If it is too late to do this add, think about painting over the bleed. . .if it doesn't come out with a blue liquid Dawn detergent. (I had better luck with Dawn than with Synthrapol; but, I tried both products.) If that still doesn't work, think about adding some handwork to those areas. . .like French knots or some hand stitches of some sort. If that isn't your think, paint more of the background so that it looks like your background was that color or add some bling to force your eye to other areas of the quilt. I am so sorry that bleeding happened. Wishing you the best!!!

Thank you, all! So, the quilt is now at the longarmer’s and it is being beautifully quilted. But, we have a B-I-G problem!!!!! HELP! When she spritzed off the blue marker lines she had drawn, some of the colored gem appliqués began to bleed! I am very puzzled about this because I pre-washed the fabric, and only used Pigma pens on them. I had ironed these pieces numerous times. AND, I had spritzed and blocked the top, before passing it on to the longarmer. She is working to remove as much color from the quilt as possible, but I will probably have more work to do once the quilt is home. Suggestions? The background is an off-white batik with a blue/lavender hint of color here and there. It’s mostly a blue appliqué that bled, but she said a pink one did, too. I know that a couple of the prominent quilters have cover up dye bleed with fabric paint, and still won a ribbon. What I don’t know is what they used.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

(Wendy, the inspiration came from some aboriginal dot painted mandalas that I found on Pinterest. Fell in love with the square in a square in a square idea, and plugged in the Hoffman gems fabric for the dots. Used their coordinate fabric for the non-gem appliqués.
It’s pretty much an original design, though.)

Dawn

Glad you have come to join us wonderful quilt.

Beautiful quilt Dawn, very inspired!
Pat

Love your quilt Dawn! It's so sparkly and pretty.

Glad you joined our retreat!

geneva

Beautiful sparkly quilt, Dawn. Absolutely wonderful!

Wow Dawn what a great design. How did you come up with it?

Dawn,
Lovely piece!

All of you can laugh at me if you wish! I deserve it! I thought you all were being very quite as of late, then realized I have never made a comment on the 2018 virtual retreat, so never saw any of YOUR comments. Well, duh! So, now I have almost 4 months to catch up on. I’ll have to do that later! I spent forever on my IMQE quilt, but think my Denmark partner will enjoy it. She is an art quilter, too. Wish I could share it!

And, then I’ve spend the other half of forever on my Hoffman Challenge. The challenge fabric is a toughie, so I just cut out the gems and applied them, raw edge, zig zag stitch. But, I really do love the coordinate fabric, and used it in the other shapes, and bias strips. Since I’m running out of time, I am having a friend quilt most of it for me, then I will outline quilt all gems with metallic thread, paint some glitter, and add Swarovski crystals. Anxious to see the quilting!



Dawn

love the mistakes quilt, geneva, so much fun.
and it absolutely confirms my idea for my niece's bed quilt - hers will not be flowers - but circles of a multitude of batiks - arranged in a swirl on a dark batik background. am still cutting out circles and will eventually have to decide if i want them randomly or arranged in a color gradient...
but started a baby quilt on sunday because there are too many things going on around me so i want something short and fun - of course as I'm changing everything around as i go - it'll take quite a bit longer than just a couple of weekends - but hey - baby isn't due until fall
hope everyone is well and finds many many things to smile about.

Geneva and Cathy- fun to hear about and see what you are doing!

Geneva I really like your “Mistakes are for Learning” mini quilt.

Barb