What to do with ugly quilts

I did a thing this past week.

A few years ago, I tried to organize my scraps. I cut a bunch of fabrics into 1 1/2" strips. I pulled out some greens, browns, reds and yellows and sewed the strips end to end. I then joined the strips and made 8 1/2" strip sets. I cut the strip sets into 5 1/2" units and added a wide and a narrow white border on each long edge to make 8" (finished) blocks. When I was making this quilt, I liked it. I put it away with the ready-made binding and backing. All that was needed was to load on the frame and quilt it.

Jump to this year.....I pulled out this quilt as it was the next one to do and decided that I really didn't like it! I thought the white was too glaring compared to the browns/greens and reds. I should have chosen a nice beige or grey instead, but not going to unpick the quilt. So, what to do?

I loaded the quilt and decided that I'd try one of the new digital patterns from Quiltable.com. This pattern is called Knitted Together from the July Yule Tidings Club Collection. If you are a longarm quilter with robotics, I highly recommend checking out Quiltable.com and their monthly clubs! Great value and I can always find something in each month that I can use.

I used Superior Thread's new Superior Spirit thread. Usually a 2 colour varigated. This colour was #816. A gold/black thread that worked perfectly for this quilt.

I finished quilting and thought that I'd just add it to my "gifting" pile of quilts once bound. I had no use for it and thought that someone would enjoy the cuddles at some point. But once off the frame, the white kept shouting at me.....

So I did a thing! I over dyed it. I filled my washing machine with water. Added a couple of cups of Soda Ash and sprinkled in some black and brown dyes. Not sure how much I used and I was emptying containers.

I left the quilt to sit for a few hours and rinsed a couple of times. Threw the quilt in the dryer and here is the result.

The white is not so stark against the coloured fabrics and the whiltes have dyed at different intensities (some were a white on white print) and have toned down the high contrast. Not sure that I like it even now. I'm thinking a straight brown or a green dye might have done a better job.....but too late now.

This quilt will be used to show off the quilting for a while and then added to the GIFTING pile to be gifted at some point in the future. Anyone need a quilt?

I have a few more dyeing adventures to share, but that will be another post soon.

Happy Quilting.