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Karen Lewis Textiles [a couple of finishes]

Have you come across the beautiful screen printed fabrics by Karen Lewis? I came across them last year on Instagram. Love them. Unfortunately, and quite understandably, the screen printing that Karen does, adds a premium to the fabric, and I can't really justify buying the panels she prints up. Sometimes she posts scrap packs and charm packs on Instagram and they are gone in seconds. Last year I was lucky enough to be quick and snag a scrap pack. I didn't have a plan for the fabrics, but just added them into scrappy projects I was making, including this baby bib for Mia.



I will add at this point, that the care instructions that come with the fabric recommend cool washes and no tumble drying. Unfortunately I live with two dogs, a small child and my husband, and anything that isn't wipe clean really needs to be machine washable and tumble dryable. Mia's bib inevitably got thrown in the washing and I was sad to see that the screen printing faded.  Sad, but not surprised, and I was aware I was abusing the fabric by washing it like this. But it made me cautious - there is no point using Karen's fabrics in anything in our house that will need to be washed. I have to say that I thought this knowledge would cure my desire to buy lots of her fabric. But it didn't. Back in March I was lucky again, and I snagged two, yes two, charm packs: one coloured and the other neutral.


Mini quilts go on the wall and do not need to be washed. Therefore my purchase was justified. It was the first thing I sewed in my new sewing space in the new house in April this year! But it took me until ear;ier this month to actually get round to quilting it.



At this point I will take a slight diversion... to another recent finish. At about the same time I was playing with the charm packs, news was trickling through that Karen would be bringing out a range of fabrics commercially with Robert Kaufman. The "screen printing" would be done using an industrial process. Maybe these would hold up better to my washing/drying habits. I messaged Karen. who quite rightly, advised against it. To be honest, most patchwork fabric probably doesn't include tumble drying on its care instructions.... But I continued to hope...as one does. At Harrogate in September, I picked up two fat quarters of the brand new Blueberry Park - black and bright pink! My plan: a dolls quilt for Mia, that I would wash and tumble 5-10 times before I let her have it. To see how it washed up.


Can you see a theme in the projects I like to make with Karen's fabrics? I quilted this up just befpre the charm pack quilt and made the biggest mess you can imagine. I confess I didn't really baste it, just went for it, because it was small. If I say that when I started quilting, the top was straight on the wadding and backing, maybe you'll understand... there was a bit of an undesirable twist. And as such a rather horrific amount of puckers on the back. I wasn't unpicking. It can stay awful and I simply won't show my mother. On the plus side, I planned to quilt the mini quilt in the same way. So I took the lessons learned: 1. don't use a cheap, shiny fabric to back the quilt; 2. Baste the quilt properly; 3. Echo quilt the whole top and then go back to do the more dense quilting.



I followed those lessons learned and here is my finished mini quilt, complete with pancake-flat back!



As always, I failed miserably to plan ahead with the binding, so I ordered some of Blueberry Park to finish it off in a lovely light grey with my favourite Allotment print. It took another couple of weeks to get round to sewing down the binding, but yesterday I finished it!

And the result of multiple washing on the Blueberry Park fabric? Disappointingly, but again not surprising. After two cycles I thought I see some deterioration compared to the non-washed scrap I still had. I did a third wash to be sure and the fade is noticeable enough to know that after 10 washes it will be obvious.

But don't worry - I still haven't been put off these gorgeous fabrics! I just know that I need to pick my projects carefully. There's no point in me buying a full fat quarter bundle and adding it into my stash to be mixed in with other fabrics for any project. But I need to be more considered.... plan ahead. Use just a little in projects that won't be washed, or will be washed very infrequently, under circumstances where I can be a little more careful - i.e. cool wash and no tumble. I'm pretty sure there'll be more Karen Lewis fabrics in my future, but perhaps not the double bed quilt I had pictured!

The mini quilt, made with charms, was on my Q4 Finish Along list which you can find here.
2015 FAL at On the Windy Side

Comments

Lin said…
Hm yes, lots of lessons learned. I love the finished mini - the colours and the design, it is going to look great on the wall. xx

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