Colour Run Disaster Avoided!

I have been busy sewing some applique for my latest quilt. In all my other applique quilts I have always used freezer paper as the templates and tacked the fabric over the freezer paper pattern. It is easy to slit the back of the applique and remove the freezer paper.

Some of the applique in my latest quilt has some very small pieces and so I thought I would try another technique that is very popular at the moment. The latest trend is to use water soluble paper as the template and glue the edges of the fabric around the paper.  This gives a nice edge but the resulting applique is a bit stiff.

Here is a photo of some prepared templates.

Prepared Applique pieces

Apparently you do not have to wash away the paper because it will soften in time but I have a few layers of applique and thought it was too stiff.

I placed the applique in water with a couple of colour catcher sheets and crossed my fingers that the colour wouldn't run. It seemed to be all right and after a rinse and a spin, I put the fabric out to dry.

Unfortunately one section of red fabric did run a bit. It's hard to see in the

photo so I put a circle around it.

It looked worse in real life. I have had trouble with this particular red before even though it has been pre-washed a couple of times. It's such a great colour though so I continue to use it.

Luckily I always keep a box of Dylon SOS Colour run in the cupboard. It's a bit scary to use because you must add the solution to hot water.

Here is the applique soaking in the solution for an hour.

It was a nervous wait.

After an hour I rinsed the fabric and gave it a gentle spin in the washing machine.

Luckily the excess dye came out and I could breathe again.

In the next section of applique I am using a very dark pink and I am looking very suspiciously at it!

Bye for now,
Linda