Lobster

Hello everyone, long time no see! I am in the throes of binding a baby quilt I made for my cousin, and fretting about how I am going to wash it.

The blocks were made mostly from a batik jelly roll, unwashed, with a few batiks (prewashed) from my stash, and the colours range from light to dark, in shades of blues and greens. The sashing is a very pale green soft sponge effect, prewashed.

I marked up the quilt using chalk pencil (mostly rubbed off by now), that overpriced blue turquoise washable pen they market for quilters, and since turquoise pen shows up abysmally on a largely turquoise quilt, I ended up using Crayola washable markers.

The batting is Quilters Dream Poly Request, and the backing is a nice strong turquoise, standard quilting cotton.

I know that I should soak it in cold water before I put it in the machine, but I'm worried about the colours running. If I were to use a colour catcher or what have you, I don't know if it would cause problems with washing out the marker lines, some kind of odd chemical reaction. Any suggestions?

I'm in the UK, so I can't get hold of American products and probably won't recognise your brand names either. I'm also vegan and do not use any washing products which have been tested on animals, plus this will be a baby quilt so I don't want dodgy chemicals in there.

ckcowl

if it is a baby quilt that you expect to be used- it is going to be tossed into the laundry with everything else for baby (maybe with lights & darks separated)
if it were me i would wash and dry it just like i expect the recipient will care for it- toss in color catchers- or use some synthropol (which will keep color in the water from getting on the fabrics)
if you don't expect it to be used but packed in a box for 20 years- then how ever you want will be fine-
but really -
if you are going to *gift* quilts you should wash them just like you think the new owners will- if they tend to go to the laundry mat with garbage bags of laundry- those quilts are going to be part of the mix- when they need washed.
if it's a keepsake- then you should let them know- you do not expect it to be used much- or laundered regularly

Lobster

Of course I expect it to be washed, but right now I have the specific problem of how best to set the colours as well as getting rid of the marker lines, and that's a one-off problem. We don't have Synthrapol in the UK, I'm afraid.

PaperPrincess

Do you have any scraps of the fabrics you used? I would put them in a pillow case or lingerie bag and wash to check for color fastness. Either check the rinse water or launder with a white cotton scrap. Mark some of the scraps with the marker to see how it comes out.

Lobster

Good point. There should be scraps around somewhere. One difference is that the markers were on the quilt for longer than it is on test pieces (I did test all the markers before), including a certain level of warmth from the room temperature, so I don't know if that will have set the markers a bit.

I'm sure I had colour catchers around once, but I have no idea where they got to. Oh well, they're easy enough to get hold of. Does anyone know whether they can react oddly with the marker pens? I'm thinking mainly of the Crayola washable markers, since the turquoise quilting marker should wash out when I soak the quilt before putting it in the machine.

Scissor Queen

Read the label on the Crayola washable markers and wash it that way. If the rest of it bleeds, OH WELL!! The baby will not care!!

Lobster

I WILL!

Scissor Queen

But once you give it away it's not your quilt anymore and the baby will love it no matter what. Wash it like the marker instructions say.

Lobster

I appreciate your point, but the mothers won't be too impressed if I give them a quilt that looks a complete mess, and it's a terribly unprofessional thing to do. I want to be able to photograph it and add it to my portfolio, it's actually a very nicely made quilt and the first I've done with Welsh quilting, and I don't want it to be wrecked by fabric bleeding before it leaves me, if I can possibly prevent it. It's not intended to be a rag that falls apart within a few months, and while the baby is still young, I'm expecting the mothers to appreciate looking at it. After all, with my other baby quilts it's the parents who have been saying how much they're enjoying having it around, the babies are still too young to comment!

Anyway, let's see what Crayola says. The markers I used are fine line ones, I think they're called Draw-Write Washable Markers, and I have never seen them anywhere else, including the Crayola website. No instructions on that packet. The other Crayola markers I have are the regular washable ones, and they say the following in tiny lettering:

Washes off only machine washable clothing in their normal wash cycle. Do not pre-wash or use chlorine bleach. Not washable from other surfaces.

I have absolutely no idea what that last bit means. I don't even own chlorine bleach, and while I do own oxygen bleach powder, I wasn't thinking of using that. With regard to pre-washing, is there any reason why a pre-soak would do any harm? Because that's how you're meant to get out the turquoise quilt marker. I'm also still unsure as to whether the colour catchers could interfere in any way.

I know there are a lot of people on this forum who use Crayola markers, and even more who use colour catchers. Has anyone used a colour catcher on a quilt marked with a Crayola washable marker?

redmadder

Set the wash up with cold-lukewarm water, oxygen bleach and a color catcher on delicate wash. Hit start button. Or hand wash in the bathtub to make sure everything comes out. Good luck.

I've had no problems whatsoever with the washable markers but have been warned to stay away from the red and orange ones.