Angela's Butterfly Blanket
Summer 2005
My niece, Angela, loves butterflies. She got a soft, pink blanket with binding leftover from some long-ago project.
Her butterfly came from a website that I, unfortunately, didn't save the URL. (When I first started downloading desings, I didn't realize that there wouldn't be identifying information in the zip file. So, for those early designs, I frequently have no idea where I got them. Since then, I have created a text file for myself that contains the URLs where I download designs.)
The alphabet was a combination of decorative initial letters from Maartje of the Netherlands. Her website is in frames so to get to the alphabet, you'll need to click on "embroidery" (with my machine), then scroll to the bottom of that page. Click on "go to the designs". Finally click on "monogram-alphabet" at the top. Each letter needs to be downloaded separately. [update: oh dear .. the URL that I had is now identified as "malicious". :-(
I used a coordinating script for the lower case letters, which I skewed 20 degrees to the right so they would match the slant of the decortive initial. The lower case letters, once again, is Magenta from SCK's Yahoo group, "sickdesigns".
The Learning Experience on this blanket was painful. Ohhhh .. it was painful. Because I didn't want to hoop the fleece (I was concerned about hoop burn), I hooped a water soluable stablizer, sprayed it with spray adhesive and patted the fleece onto the sticky stablizer. This technique is not new and I have used it successfully many times in the past. So, WHY did it go so horribly wrong this time? That is the $64,000 question, dear viewers.
After the name was stitched, I removed the excess water-soluable stabilizer from the back. I did notice that the fleece was still slightly sticky, but figured that when I tossed it into the washer, the remaining stabilizer and stickiness would go away. I was only half-right. [sigh]
Because I didn't want to wash just this ONE blanket by itself, I tossed in Michael's dark green blanket too. Here's the scenario: light pink fleece blanket with a sticky area on the back; a dark forest green fleece ... all co-mingling in the washer. Now when the dark green fleece is agitated and all those excess little dark green fleece things float around in the washer .. take a HUGE guess as to where they are going to land ... and stick. YES! You got it! on the back of the pink fleece, where the sticky area was.
Oh. My. Goodness. This was a MESS. I was horrified. An additional washing, even with a stain remover wouldn't get that dark green fleece fuzz to budge. I really did not want to re-do the entire blanket (especially since the really nice fabric I used for the binding was completely gone), so the only solution left was to hand-pick, with tweezers and occasional Duct tape, all that nasty green fuzz off. I managed to get most of the offending fuzz off, but you can still see the residual amount. It's definately a LOT better than it originally was, but definately NOT as nice as the blankets that didn't have this mess on it. I am disappointed in the results ... but not so disappointed as to immediately rush right out and completely re-do it. I might still; I have to think on it.