I messed up, or was it a blessing?

This scrappy half log cabin top is layered and basted -- BIG project. but it turned out well.   Dig that border!  My machine quilting plan was straight line wedges in each block.  Great idea, and away I went with a full head of steam.  The lines were long and my ruler was short so I marked those lines in the first 2 blocks with blue pen, an old standby.  After completing 2 blocks of straight lines, my wedge quilting plan didn't seem so great, and I removed the quilting stitches and spritzed the blue lines, then went back to think about another design, while it dried.  Uh oh, Good Grief!!!!  I had forgotten the part about "testing".  Here is the ONE disastrous block after I removed it from the quilt.  The stain went thru the batting backing.  The other one block fortunately did not contain that offending fabric.

I'm unable to wash the entire quilt at this stage, or test various laundry processes or products, and to make matters worse (or better?), several unmarked blocks contain that same wicked maroon strips.  Yeahhh, I forgot the part about testing fabrics. 

I can replace the stained half square in the border and cut out the stained batting, that's the easy part.  Even inserting a new block will be easy compared to my plan to remove the 6 or 7 strips of that blasted maroon strip.  On the positive side, what if I hadn't spritzed the quilt and blindly quilted the entire thing, and years down the road, after a new owner washed it and found it bled over every part of the quilt?  I know there are laundry methods to solve the problem but I can't take a chance at this point.  There's a long road ahead of this finish!  I am groaning at my lack of thinking.

UFOs - One finished

This post, I made my photos "small" - according to Blogger - although they are still over 100 KB. I'm hoping this works. A lot of this photo/blogging is trial and error.

I was preparing for a Quilt Guild Class on Storm at Sea and remembered I actually HAD a UFO Storm at Sea, so I dragged it out, trying to remember why it was never finished. Ah hah! I had done it with plastic templates, and they were not as accurate as I had hoped, leaving lumpy intersections. However, after checking it out, it really wasn't as bad as I had remembered, and I might just finish it after all, although it needs to be larger. The diamond (Peaky) and wedges (Spike) can be done accurately using the Tri-Recs ruler, and there is also another one on the market. Remember, this diamond is NOT 60 degrees!

This next little UFO project (about 36 x 45 in.) is a Sharon Craig design - a scrappy half log cabin, but when you add those little red quick corners, it becomes an entirely different animal. The light border was the problem here -- I should have prewashed that fabric - 'something' was in it, so that when I pressed it, the fabric took on a yellowish tinge. But yesterday I sandwiched, quilted and bound it, yellowish tinge and all. The quilting thread is a red-blue-yellow variegated thread that someone had given me along the way. These little UFO's are wonderful practice for machine quilting. This particular pattern, loops and hearts (or leaves) is ONE I can do reasonably well.

A close-up of the machine quilting. I use a Janome 6500 Memory Craft domestic sewing machine which I bought simply because it has a wider throat space - about 11 inches. It is a heavy machine, which I wanted - too heavy for hauling to classes, but it doesn't jounce on the table when running at full throttle. It comes with a bunch of extra features I hadn't even considered, that I now take full advantage of, i.e., auto threader, thread cutter, knee lift, needle down, a bunch of stitches. I practiced using the knee lift (right knee) until it became second nature and use my left foot for the 'gas'. I also LOVE that thread cutter ... I can stop and start without fiddling with the thread ends. Using these extras has added to efficiency. If you have them, USE them! I also purchased an extra throat plate with a little hole, that I use most of the time. The 'regular' hole is quite wide to accommodate the wide stitches, but a wide space on any throat plate may tend to pull threads down.