I learned an important lesson!

While preparing the second border for the appliqué vine, I discovered a secret - one of my fabrics was not prewashed and shrunk significantly! I had drawn the vine freehand with water dissolving pen, stitched it on the machine and lay it on the floor to get a good look. I was very happy with the curves and layout, so sprayed water on there to remove the blue and it instantly puckered up!

YIKES!!

Panic set in, but didn't think it was such a big issue, so ironed on the hearts a leaves and blanket stitched them before the Boy got out if bed. All done, I thought I might as well dunk the offending fabrics and hang them out in the line, so if I have to recut the border, it won't shrink again. No problem.

I also thought I better dunk the quilt top to shrink any other fabrics that may be distorted. No problem.

UNTIL.....

I went to retrieve the top off the line only to discover one of my appliqué fabrics had run!!

RED!! AAAARRRGGHHHH!!

Tried a spot remover - no joy. Tried some Napisan - nup. Bleach - risky, but worth a shot.

DO NOT USE BLEACH!!

Now, not only do I have red stain, I also have a faded patch on the closest binding to the block.

AAAARRRGHHHH!!!

I suppose I should be grateful that I can replace the block if necessary, and I have plenty of spare fabric to redo the border, but its gonna be a nightmare!

While I'm waiting to see if my block is saved, I will redo a new one, prepare for the worst, and shed a little tear while I unpick border number three.

Note to self - PREWASH EVERYTHING!!

The irony is, the particular fabric that bled was just a small piece from my scrap box, not big enough to warrant a proper wash.

I'm not happy about it, but I'm not going to throw it in the corner just yet.

Here is a pic of the layout before the disaster........