Nature’s Miracle

I have this quilt that was left unbound and unattended in the back bedroom. At some point one of my cats who shall remain nameless tinkled on it. I was blissfully unaware until I picked it up to finish the binding. Yee Gads!!! I didn’t take a picture of the urine stain but it was there – red bleed and all. The location of the bleed was at the seam where the red star fabric meets the red shirting  (but this pic is only for reference – again, its not the stain).

I gotta tell ya, I was so bummed. I wasn’t planning on sharing this because I figured the quilt was ruined. I try to keep my blog upbeat and that post wasn’t going to fit the bill. So fine, no sharing but still, I was going to have to wash it. What to do? I started thinking and something miraculous happened. Worth sharing.

Since I don’t wash my fabrics ahead of time I wasn’t sure how to deal with the addition of Retayne while simultaneously trying to get out the urine.  I mean, I didn’t want the chemicals in Retayne to set the urine stain. Not that it would but who knows?

When I have a fabric question I usually contact Sio [Scraps and Threadtales] to get some feedback. After we talked I had some ideas how to work with this so I finished the binding and if you’re ever in this situation (which I’m sure you won’t be but just in case) here’s how I chose to handle cat urine on my unwashed quilt:

• Place the urinated area in the sink with cold water and rinse out all urine. Then repeat x 7643 more times. Fortunately the stain was near the edge of the quilt so the multiple cold water rinse in the sink wasn’t a big deal.
• Spray the location with Nature’s Miracle. At this point I was irritated so I said screw it only with a little more trash to my talk if you get my drift. Seriously though, I did hope the fabric wouldn’t bleed more with the use of Nature’s Miracle (it didn’t). I let the NM sit for 5 minutes as per directions, then rinsed. Looked good but who can tell when its wet?
• Washed in machine with Retayne as per my usual routine.  I was nervous but said screw it again.
• Pulled out of the machine and ahh, looks good. Now I’m starting to care again.
• Washed once more in cold water because it made me feel better.
• It still looked good so I just went for it and tossed it in the dryer and here, because the heat was going to set whatever I couldn’t see, I went back to that bad attitude and said screw it, I’m over it.

Keep in mind one of those shirtings is red so that’s not the bleed. The bleed was at the seam of the star and the red shirting. The urine was a big circle. You be the judge. Do you think Nature’s Miracle worked or what?  Click for a close up. I’m thinking it did.

Nature’s Miracle really is a miracle.

Bindings

One day, in a galaxy, far, far away… and not so long ago I was hanging out and chatting with a friend. I don’t even know what we were talking about but the above quilt came up. Specifically the focus was on the wide binding. I was intrigued. “Wide binding” I thought.  “What must that do to the quilt visually?” I had to see it! I asked if she would bring it to Sit-and-Sew.

Gosh what a charming quilt. It’s all snuggly and just the right colorway.  Wide binding really works on the right quilt. It adds the perfect element of interest here. It’s not too much. It’s not bulky. It catches your eye but in an ever so subtle way. It works well here balanced with the inner border. Classic lines. I thought you might appreciate seeing this.  Possibly you haven’t thought of this before or maybe you have? Maybe you’ll think of giving this a try?

The math is a 6″ wide cut for your binding and fold in half. Sew to the quilt with a 1″ seam, apply as usual.  That’s the ticket to make it work. One inch!

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While we’re on the subject of binding, I’ve taken up the tip from Debbie (click here) for basting your binding in place.  I can tell already this is going to be easier on my hands which brings me to….

The Good News. I’m really starting to recover the wrist strain. Yeah!!! Cutting is still painful and I’m not up to speed yet but by golly I can do a bit of machine sewing and hand-piecing. So I’m about off restriction and ready to be let loose on y’all. How about you, have any good news to share? I’m gonna random generate a number and grab a gallon ziplock bag of my nicely sized CW backgrounds/shirting scraps for you if you care to share some good news. I don’t know how long until I pull that number but maybe a few days.

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Nice to be here with you, sharing and close to all healed up!