Salty Squares Disaster

I’m feeling pretty low right now. Here is my colorful tale of woe. Maybe talking about it will help me feel better.

After I finished my two swatches yesterday, I could tell that the two patterns would not go well together in the same quilt square. The patterns were both the same scale. So I decided to make two additional color wash pieces – one in dark purple, to pair with the light patterned swatch, and one in pale pink, to pair with the dark patterned swatch. They turned out great – the colors were just what I wanted.

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Oh, by the way, I also hand-washed the two salted pieces which I made yesterday, to remove the salt. At this point, all four pieces were drying. As they were nearly dry, I decided to toss them into the electric dryer, briefly, just to speed things up.

You’ve probably guessed what happened next. I returned to the dryer, and found purple paint everywhere. The purple swatch was clinging to the dryer exhaust vent grill and now looked like this:

The pink and the light color printed swatch had dots of purple all over.

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Only the dark-colored print escaped harm. I will spare you the view of purple disaster inside my dryer. Fortunately, I was able to remove all the paint from the dryer walls by wiping them down with a wet towel. But I have now lost enthusiasm for sewing up nine-square patches today.

Let’s see, what aphorism can I use for this situation? “We learn from our mistakes?” “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger?” I know – how about. “I’ll think about that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow’s another day.” So true, Scarlett my dear. So true.