Quilting Finale - June 30, 2022

After 6 more hours of quilting yesterday, and three hours of trimming/ironing/binding this morning, the quilt is done.

By the end of the day yesterday, I was so sick of fooling with this quilt that I didn't even take it out of the car when I got home.  It took some deliberation this morning before I decided to bring it in and finish it; it still needed binding.  

Binding a quilt is hard for me.  I really like the idea of a double-fold binding - either store-bought binding tape or a double-fold binding made from scratch, to add a pop of color around the edges.  But that method is hard to do on a sewing machine, and my carpal tunnel hands go numb when I hold a hand-sewing needle, so hand-sewing it out.  My usual solution is to cut my quilt backing larger than the quilt top, large enough to fold the extra fabric double and then fold it over the quilt top and sew it from the front.  This time, I was worried that I hadn't properly centered the quilt top on the backing, and one side of the backing might be too short to fold over and sew down.  As it turned out, I had just enough backing fabric to fold it double, fold the double layer over the top, and end up with a 1/2" border all around.  The pattern is called "Brilliant Diamond," and I did it in gem colors.  The backing/binding is gold.  It looked nice.  

My next worry was that I'd used a Frixion pen to mark my quilting lines - a TON of quilting lines! - on the quilt top.  Frixion ink disappears with heat and/or moisture.  Key word: "disappears."  The ink doesn't come out of the fabric, it only becomes invisible.  Also, I'd done this marking several years ago, and I worried that the markings wouldn't come out after all this time.  Meanwhile, I learned that the ink can reappear if the quilt is exposed to extreme cold.  

After finishing the binding, I dosed the washing machine with stain remover, stuffed the quilt in, and ran it through a wash cycle.  A few minutes into the cycle, I realized that I hadn't put any soap in the water, so I added soap and re-started the cycle.  Didn't even look at the quilt as I transferred it from the washer to the dryer.  When the dryer buzzer sounded, the markings were fainter, but they were still there.

I ironed the quilt.  The markings went away.  For now.  

Hopefully, considering our climate, the quilt will never be exposed to sub-freezing temperatures, and the markings will stay gone!  I'll check it again before I wrap it for Christmas.