6 Memory Quilts in Lindsay Lou Pattern

A customer asked me to make her 6 quilts from her mother's fabric. I had made some quilts 7 years ago from some other fabrics for her two girls which turned out super cute. So she shipped me the fabric and asked for 2 each of  the three sets of fabric.  

The first two were similar to the previous ones. Not all fabrics were cotton, but easy enough to sew.

Then I washed the quilts. The first one washed just fine. But then the second one came out. A purple print and a striped blue print (not a dark blue) transferred onto the white. Now, mind you, I color-tested the dark purple to make sure it wouldn't bleed. There was no bleeding in my sample piece. And there shouldn't have been a reason to test the blue because I used it in one of her first quilts. But it made a mess, and I don't know how. 

I tried to get it out with Carbona color remover and that didn't work. I also tried hydrogen peroxide. That only worked on the blue transfer. The purple was not being compliant. So I mixed up a bleach solution and carefully applied it to the quilt top. That worked for the most part.

Then came the two quilts made from plaids, some kind of flannel, and a plaid shirt. I color tested the reds because reds are notorious for bleeding. I had to remove one of the fabrics she sent me because it didn't pass the test. 

Some of the fabrics were really thick, which made for a harder sew, but much more difficult ironing time. Those things didn't want to iron flat. But it quilted up nicely. 

And again off to the wash. I'm thinking yay, these two are done! Until it came out and I see red dye on the top. WHAT??? It was just one of the red fabrics. I really don't understand what is going on. But Carbona color remover to the rescue. It removed all the bleed. But now the quilts can't be washed, in my opinion, without worrying about more bleeding. I did use color catchers in the wash, but if you get these pieces wet, they bleed. I had to do the color remover process three times. 

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So yay, those were salvaged!  On to the last two quilts. One was made from what seemed like duck cloth. That's the first one below. Easy to sew, not too bad with the iron, easy to quilt. Washed up perfectly. Couldn't they all behave like this one?

And then there's this beauty. Again, I tested all the red fabrics. No bleeding, yay! This is made up of some polyester fabrics, one of the green prints was a little stretchy, but sewed up fine. 

There was this multi colored fabric in this bunch - blue, green, and yellow. YELLOW! I have never had a yellow fabric bleed. I tried soaking it in the tub with Dawn. I tried to removed it with Carbona. Didn't work. 

I searched the internet for another solution. Hydrogen Peroxide. Hmmm. I'm so bummed at this point so I decided to try it.  

I was able to get the front better-looking even though it was not acceptable, but there was no way to put peroxide on the back because it would affect the pieces on the front. And some of them looked more like pee stains and fabric bleed. 

So I ended up not charging her for this quilt. Sigh...I spent 4 days working on dye transfer and bleeding on these quilts.  At least my customer was very kind about the whole thing. Still feels terrible to do all that work and all but 1 has bleeding issues. I think I'm done sewing for a while.