Barbm

I don't wash mine, but when the quilt is done I wash it with a color catcher to get any ink.

littlehud

Don't wash them. They will fray away.

Prism99

I don't prewash fabrics at all. (Well, if there is a suspicious red or black I might test it as others have described.) However, I do take care to wash the quilt myself after it is done, using Synthrapol in the wash cycle.

Synthrapol is a chemical that suspends loose dye in water so it doesn't settle in other fabric and gets rinsed away in the wash water. It doesn't actually prevent a fabric from bleeding, but rather prevents the bleed from settling in to another fabric. It's a good idea to take a look at the wash water; if it is very colored, I would wash the quilt several times with Synthrapol to make sure all the loose dye is gone before drying.

Synthrapol is available in many quilt stores or online from places like Dharma Trading and ProChem. I have heard that clear Dawn liquid does the same thing, but have never had the courage to try it (not to mention that I never seemed able to find clear Dawn liquid -- maybe I have the wrong brand of liquid soap?).

If you don't have Synthrapol and you aren't sure about a quilt that is to be washed, you can throw in several of those color-catcher sheets that are widely available wherever laundry products are sold. I probably wouldn't trust them with a first washing if there was a suspicious fabric in the quilt, but otherwise I would feel free to use them. If they come out without color, you know you don't need to worry about colors bleeding in the future.

Retayne is a chemical used to set dyes in fabric. If you have a bleeder fabric you want to make safe for use in a quilt, you can wash it in Retayne. You would never[u] want to wash a finished quilt in Retayne, though, because any bleeds into other fabrics would become permanently set! Once you have a quilt with multiple fabrics in it, you want to wash in Synthrapol so that any unset dyes get washed away.

Hmmm.. Hope that was clear.

Oh, and to answer your original question, I would not wash a quilt in Oxyclean except as a last resort. Oxyclean is designed to remove organic stains and soils, whereas dyes these days are pretty much entirely chemical in nature. Also, I have gotten spots on some clothing fabrics from Oxyclean (similar to bleach spots) and fading on some clothing from Oxyclean even though it is supposed to be colorfast and seems to be colorfast on most fabrics.

Bevsie

Hi,

If you have a jelly roll and charm squares I am assuming they are from a qult shop, you shouldn't need to wash them.

I don't wash any of my QS fabrics before I sew them, and I have never ever had any trouble with shrinkage or bleeding. I haven't had issues with the quilts or runners afterwards either.

Bev

Deb G

I also wouldn't use Oxyclean. I've had the same spotting and fading thing happen as Prism99 mentioned.