Bitter tears of regret have been flowing through my sewing room because the worst has happened: I washed a just-completed mini quilt and it ran, ran, ran. Argh! Even with a Color Catcher in the wash cycle, that darned red dye slid over to its neighbor like gravy on the meatloaf special plate at a greasy spoon — double argh!

Remember when you were learning how to quilt and your mentor recommended pre-washing fabric? Pffttt, I could never be bothered with that, now could I???

What do I do now?

I purchased an Oxiclean product with the intention of using it to spot-clean the bleed.

Have you tried this product before? How did it work for you? I suppose I should just try it, since I can’t ruin my little project any more than it currently is…<sob>

For future reference, Cindy says that she always uses two Color Catchers per load. Who knew that trick?

BTW, I think I’ve learned my lesson. I was working on my carrots pattern last night. But before I started sewing, I threw the fabric (scraps and all) in the washing machine with 2 Color Catchers.

Cindy and I hope your day (and every day) is filled with love!

Sometimes I have a quilt design rattling around in my head for months, nay, years. I suppose the idea is gestating inside my brain until one day, when I turn my head just right, a vision of the completed quilt will flutter outside my line of sight and then, maddeningly, it will be gone once again.

Then one day I actually stop stalling and start sewing and the thing will appear as if by magic. Magic like this happens in the spring when long dormant things begin to spring into life:

The white/gray/brown colors of the late winter/pre-spring have me re-evaluating my #orangeaversion.

Anticipate my carrot paper piecing pattern soon!

This is Sandy signing off from Western New York.

Sandy and I are always looking for ways to use scraps of fabric…no matter how tiny they might be!  I decided to make Valentine’s Day cards using some of the little scraps I just couldn’t throw away.

I started with a package of blank 4×5 inch blank note cards.  You can find smaller or larger blank note cards but this seemed like a good size for Valentine’s Day cards.

I looked through my box of tangled trims…yikes, what a disaster!  I untangled them and picked out colors that would coordinate with pink and red.

Then…I just started cutting out hearts from little scraps…below is just a start!

Two hearts from one scrap!  I liked both and decided to use them on different cards.

This is cute!  Mom likes pink, this might be the one for her.  It looks big in the picture below but it is sized to fit on the 4 x 5 inch card.

How about this green trim!  What a find in my tangle of trims!

I found some tulle scraps and some cute buttons…this will add some zip to my Valentines!

I’ll be working on my Valentines over the weekend.  I plan to sew and/or glue the fabric hearts to the cards and use glue to add buttons and trim.

Give this a try!  It’s a fun way to use up extra scraps of fabric and trim AND your Valentines will be one of a kind!