After a few annoying days of thinking my sewing machine was broken, I changed the needle and vowed not to use the zig zag stich for a while. That will solve it! I managed to crank out another bento box quilt, I really do love this pattern, as evidenced by the 3 other quilts I made with it!

I had every chance in the world to take a lot of great pictures of this quilt outside this weekend, but instead I took some mediocre pictures in natural sunlight and then some more mediocre pictures inside on the bed, which is why this quilt looks like it is a trapezoid. Which it isn’t, although I fear it is a little wonky-  The satin binding and I had some words and a few curses before we came to the end, where I swore I would never use it again. Which I have sworn before…

and some more minkee on back! I am forever grateful I figured out to put “heat -n-bond lite” between the batting and minkee. It makes quilting minkee so much easier. Now, if anyone has any tricks to make satin binding work better, I am all ears! Now for sale in my etsy shop, the first link on the right… Donated to a silent auction for Theatre Exile here in Philly. It sold- but they never told me how much it made them

don’t mind the bird in the corner, I had to get my head well into the ceiling fan to take this picture.

With every quilt I learn a new lesson, This time I learned that the 95% cotton batting really does shrink and make a “poofy” quilt after it is washed. I had only used it on baby quilts until now and the shrinking was hardly noticable, but with the big squares on this one, it was very obvious. So, beware the cotton batting!

**in process pictures here**

I found a fabric with sand dollars that I added and I had some good luck with fading the sea shell fabric.  Thanks Rhea for the Martha Stewart sugestion! I found that article and it suggest 2 to one water to bleach. It was pretty good result but it made it very yellow. I picked up some Rit Color Remover (you know, next to all the Rit dye that you use for tie dying) and that got rid of some of the yellow and and some more color.

now, here is the real question, did I succeed in making a white and tan quilt? She got all of her bedding at the wedding shower and every last bit was “hotel white” which is what sent be back to the fabric store to pick up that white on white print that I like to think looks like sea urchins. Fingers crossed that it is “white” enough… Oh and fingers crossed that I will find the time to quilt it before the new years wedding!

***UPDATE**** finished quilt here****