IGQuiltFest Day 7 - Lessons Learned
March is Quilt Fest over on Instagram, and while I won't be posting every day I always try my best to post as often as I can. I had planned on writing up a blog post about this quilt anyways, so I thought today's prompt would be a good opportunity to tell you the story.
Folk Bloom No. 2 almost didn't make it to QuiltCon. And she looked a LOT different hanging at the show than she did in her submission photos. In general, the response I received from it was a vast contrast to how I felt about it once I shipped it off, and I'm very conflicted. I've learned a lot of lessons with this quilt so get ready for a read! LOL (don't worry... there's a happy ending)
The design and piecing/hand sewing of this quilt was a blast. I love being able to sketch out an idea and make it a tangible, tactile art piece. I used a combination of foundation paper piecing and needle-turn applique for the construction of the quilt top. The stripes within the heart bloom were paper pieced as I wanted nice crisp lines/stripes within the heart. The rest of the quilt top was needle-turn appliqued.
Lesson learned - I no longer trust 505 spray
Some of you followed along and offered suggestions and support when I posted about my 505 spray mishap on Instagram stories. I was basting the quilt top outside, attempting to spray onto the batting like a good little quilter, when A) there was something wrong with the can or nozzle and instead of a consistent mist of adhesive, a greasy silly string type mess shot out of the can, and B) go figure, the wind picked up and the greasy, silly string mess got everywhere, including on the quilt top.
I was PISSED, and upset. The reason I wanted to use 505 in the first place, vs. pin basting like I usually do, is because the heart section was supposed to be double stuffed trapunto style. It was originally supposed to be fat and fluffy with just an outline of quilting to echo its shape.
I tried no less than 15 different suggestions, products, DIY hacks, etc. to remove the staining using multiple pieces of the same fabric that I sprayed with the 505 after the fact. I didn't want to damage the quilt top more than I thought it already was. I called my local dry cleaners and they said that if I didn't have any luck with the products on the swatch to bring the quilt in.
In the meantime I continued on with the construction of the quilt. I finished it, photographed it (blemishes and all) and was happily surprised when it was accepted into QuiltCon along with Folk Bloom No. 1 (my Pantone Challenge quilt from 2024).
Here she is prior to being dropped off at the dry cleaners.
Lesson learned - work with a dry cleaner who you trust and/or have worked with in the past
As you can imagine I didn't do that. Quite a few years ago I had worked with a dry cleaner on a vintage quilt top that I had been commissioned to work on - they were highly recommended, spent time talking with me about the piece and did a fantastic job. This other local dry cleaner was close enough, and at the time it wasn't convenient for me to travel the extra distance to go to the original dry cleaner. I was told that it wouldn't be an issue to get the 505 residue out. So with about a month and a half until my quilts were due for judging I dropped the quilt off at the dry cleaners.
They lost my quilt (weeks of "we're not sure when its coming back" or "it should have been dropped off but it wasn't"). At some point they washed my quilt (let's be real, we can tell when fabric has been washed). And during this ordeal they damaged my quilt, and it came back looking worse than it did when I dropped it off. I was distraught. And with less than a week until it was due to be in Austin TX (I'm in Ottawa, Ontario Canada) I needed to do something.
First of all Amanda from The MQG is a goddess. I emailed her in a panic worried that if I added quilting, embellishments, etc. to my quilt, that it would be disqualified from judging or being included in the show because it looked different than my submission photos. I explained my plan and she confirmed that because the overall design of the quilt wasn't changing, she thought it wouldn't be disqualified.
Thankfully I had some Wonderfil Eleganza in similar colours and I used thread ties to cover the worst of the offending spots on the heart (see photo above). The center of the eye was in rough shape - there were stains and an area where the fabric had started to thin out, I'm assuming from either a cleaning product or scrubbing - I actually had to cover the section with new fabric and then quilted the living heck out of it with a Wonderfil variegated thread. I had done something similar with another quilt, so knew it would work. Lastly, there was one large hole... in the background colour. The only way to fix it was to patch it with a little applique circle. I did get a few people message me asking what was up with it during QuiltCon and I was honest about why it was there.
After a few very late nights and with 2 days to spare I UPS'd my quilt and prayed to the postal deities that it wouldn't get delayed. I was horribly disappointed with how this quilt looked when I shipped it off. It wasn't at all how I envisioned it would look when finished, but this being my first time having quilts accepted into QuiltCon, I didn't want to hold my quilt back.
Most important lesson learned - how you view your art can be completely different than how other's view your art
I was blown away by all of the amazing, wonderful messages and comments that were sent/shared about Folk Bloom No. 2! Considering she wasn't supposed to look like this I was pleasantly surprised by how she resonated with QuiltCon viewers and was even more surprised by the judges comments.
I honestly didn't know what to expect. The past few years I've been making quilts that are true to me - based on illustrations I've drawn, from styles and themes that resonate with me and I guess I never thought they'd resonate with anyone else. And until I started talking to people about "my" issues with this quilt (and now you're all reading this), no one knew any different. They liked it as it was presented. Maybe my judges feedback wouldn't have been as good if I didn't go further than I wanted to with it. Who knows...
All this to say - and my last lesson learned -
Show your work. Share your art.
xo - Jenn