Quilt Drying on the Deck

Yesterday, Caleb headed downstairs, and then cried,

“Mama, it’s leaking down here, and your quilt is all wet!!”

Sure enough. There was water pouring from the ceiling, and it was flowing all over the quilt I had lopped over my quilting frame, all over the carpet, and barely missing my quilting machine.

So that’s why the upstairs toilet kept running and running, no matter how many times I took the lid off and readjusted the float/plunger/rubber flap thingy. Turns out, it wasn’t leaking in the tank, it was leaking at the valve. A few times during the day, I’d just turned it completely off – so that prevented more of a flood. And those few times I carried stuff downstairs to put away must have occurred during the times I had the water turned off, so I never noticed anything wrong.

Trouble is, where the water dripped onto the quilt, the reds ran into the whites!!! Why, why, why? – when I’d washed all that fabric in hot water with plenty of detergent, before ever cutting it? I then dried it in the dryer… nothing ran or bled at all. But now cold water drips onto it, and it bleeds, and the off-whites are pinkish red.

I threw it into the washer – no, I struggled and struggled to put it in and then called for help from Caleb and Victoria (that thing is heavy! – especially when it’s all wet) – and put in some color-catcher sheets. One time through the washer didn’t solve the problem; it was still pink in the off-white fabric. I rewashed it, and today I took it out on the deck to dry.

There were still pink spots.

The problem is, it’s so crammed into the washer, there isn’t room for it to slosh around, so the color-catchers can’t really do their job.

I tried spraying Resolve on those few spots, then pouring water on them...

The pink grew and darkened and spread, quite a lot like the Cat in the Hat's pink ring in the tub.  And I didn't have Thing One and Thing Two to help me out, either.

Sooo... I gathered it up, put three more color-catcher sheets right on top of those pink spots, folded it so that the sheets would stay put, and Larry helped me cram it into the washer.

The next time I pulled it out, all the pink spots were nearly entirely gone.  Whew.  But I'll doubtless have to use the color-catchers every time I wash it.  Why did it do that, when it hadn't done it at all when I first washed all the fabrics?

Siggghhhhhh… At least it’s just our quilt, and not a customer’s!

And here's the funny-looking back of the quilt.

There's Tabby back there...

Here he comes --

But Teensy beat him to it.

Here he comes, walking right across the wet quilt.

Ewwww!  (shaking one rear foot...)