Photo Memory Quilt for Jacob The Good, Bad and Ugly

This quilt has been in design for quite some time now. I wanted to make something for Jacob to remember his brother Ethan by. Ethan passed away in January after a 14 month battle with Diffuse Pontine Glioma a rare brainstem tumor.  I decided that I really wanted to get it done so I could start getting organized for the move.  I designed the photo panels through illustrator cs4 and had them printed on cotton sateen through www.spoonflower.com.  This is the most wonderful part of the whole quilt.  The fabric is gorgeous and turned out super. I had an idea of how I wanted it laid out and just sort of played it by ear, I am not one to follow a pattern.  The overall quilt turned out well.  I made my own binding following this tutorial by Priscilla Bianchi called My "All By Machine " Binding Method, click her name for the link.  The binding turned out fabulous. I ran into several problems with other areas though, keep in mind this is my first full size quilt.  First I used a tear away foundation to put my free motion designs on and sew over.  I made sure the stitches were close so it would tear away easily, or so I thought.  Yesterday I spent the entire day picking it out of between stitches, my hands do not love me today.  Then for several blocks I used wash away stabilizer, ummm yeah that didn't work so much either.  Even after several washing and scrubbing there is still little bits under the stitching.....  I will never use either product again.  Then on to the worse traumatizing event of it all. I put the quilt in to wash it, normal cycle cold water mild detergent.  The backing bled all over and now the baseballs are pink! This was with 4 color catcher sheets in the wash just in case. I can't tell you how much I cried and how devastated I was. I rinsed another 2 times and it lightened the pinkness. I did one more wash cycle and its as good as it gets. There are still some discolored areas but I think its ok.  I am not happy at all with it, but I am hoping they will still be able to appreciate it.  The good thing is that the cotton sateen didn't discolor at all!  Yay for spoonflower.  So the photographs are perfect. Now I know there are a lot of quilters who do not prewash anything but I will prewash everything from here on out. Lessons learned.  The finished size is 66x77 roughly. I also used the extra photo fabric and made 2 pillow covers with pillows to go with it.  I can't say I will be doing any full sized quilts any time soon but for my first I guess I can live with it.  Onto the mass amounts of pics. You can click on them to see a full sized image. And I love comments and suggestions but please be kind, I am a sensitive soul.