Recently I was working on some tricky curved seam patchwork that had to be manuevered and ripped out several times before I was happy with it. Unfortunately the color of the yellow-green piece rubbed off onto the light blue patch from all the handling, I guess! I hadn't prewashed the yellow green batik, but decided to go do that before I cut another piece, but when I did no color was released into the water! I did use Best Press on the patches, maybe that's what caused it???? I have had colors run before, but only when the fabric was washed, not while I was sewing!

that is odd, indeed. i hope it blended well into the spot it rubbed off on.

i've never heard of Best Press, so have no theories ...

No it didn't! So I will start over. Best Press is a starch alternative that is not supposed to attract silverfish or make those little white flakes. I had used it in the hopes of keeping my off-grain cuts from fraying or stretching too much.

Yes, that will happen, sometimes even if you do prewash. Greens and reds bleed a lot. Batiks especially!

I am not familiar with that product. I use a spray bottle of water if I need something.

Oh no! You finally get the piece to work and it does that. :( It sounds like you are dealing with crocking. That is when a fabric is bent and the color literally rubs off. It usually happens when fabrics get to wadded up in the dryer but can happen outside the dryer, just not as often. We don't see this much anymore due to the way fabrics are dyed today but it does still happen occasionally. Red, green, and yellow fabrics seem to be the worst for this and it can happen even if you prewashed your fabric. I'd say since your fabric is yellow-green and a batik you probably just got the one fabric out of a thousand that this would happen with. I'd call that block a practice block and if it isn't too bad, use it on the back somewhere or as a label, or save it to practice your quilting on. Good luck!
~Tiffany

Crocking, uh? I've never heard that term before, but have experinced it with clothes in the dryer. The poor little piece I was working with ended up in the garbage can and then I decided to work on a different section of my project! I guess there is no need to start with the hardest part to piece just becasue I labeled it 'section A!' Sometimes I am too darn linear for my own good!

I learned the term crocking from Jenny Beyer, the hand piecing specialist. Thankfully we don't seem to have the same problem our grandmothers and great grandmothers did with this.

Section A always goes first, right! :wink:
~Tiffany

Whenever I wash my new fabrics I put a sheet of SHOUT color catcher in. Works Great. I've even put pastels with darks-never had a problem. It's in the detergent isle of the grocery store.
:!: If you really love your work and do not want to take it apart; buy a set of fabric paint (not the puffy kind). Play around mixing the colors until you get the desired color, test on fabric scrap. If you like it use a small tipped artist brush and patiently paint your pieces that got ruined. A pain staking project, a lot more work, but in the end the satisfaction is wonderful.
It's like having a baby, you never experienced pain like that before, but after the baby comes-you've forgotten all about it :P

What are you talking about? I will never forget what my wife said to me in the delevery room!

tim in san jose

You are a funny one :mrgreen: