Hand Dyed Quilt

52 x 66

All of the fabrics on the front are hand dyed except the pink and yellow. I used a ready for dye cotton fabric.  After washing this quilt 3 times, it still doesn't have that same soft feel as my other quilts.

The pattern was easy, I cut up a bunch of 2.5 inch squares so I could control where the darker squares landed.  But you could easily have strip pieced the blocks.

I found a matching moda marble in red for the back and some blue mirage stuff in my stash that was almost the exact color.

I ended up with several knots on the back (around 8).  I have since loaded some practice fabric and used the rest of the bobbin (and several more) and didn't get a single knot.  I quilted fast, slow, meander, loop, feather, back and forth.  The knots were spread out all over the quilt instead of being in one general area.  Don't know what happened, but I am glad that it seems to have stopped.

I also had some bleeding on the white after washing with 2 color catchers.  I washed it again with 2 more and some synthrapol (we use this when we tie dye shirts) and it all seemed to come out.  I thought that was why the quilt wasn't soft, so I washed it a third time, but nothing changed.  Anyone have a good way to soften this quilt?

Linking with: My Quilt Infatuation