Rachelcb80

I can't tell you how heavy my heart is right now. This quilt I'm working on is for a show in September. I was fairly happy with it up until this point. I really wanted to block it so it would hang flat and square. I was a little nervous because it's all red batiks and a mottled light batik, but I knew it wouldn't hang well at the show without blocking. I put the quilt in my front load wash on just a cold rinse and gentle spin and I put a whole box of color catchers in with it. When I pulled it out my heart sank. Lots of bleeding.

My husband and I went on and blocked it last night anyways and he kept saying it wasn't really obvious since the light colored fabric was mottled already. Bless his heart, he'd tell me the sky was green if he thought it would make me smile. I looked at it this morning and I just can't get over the bleeding. It's plainly obvious to me and I'm ill thinking about what the judge and spectators would think looking at it. There's not anywhere near enough time to make a new one and I don't feel it's right to withdraw from the show (entry form is already sent and confirmation mailed back to me).

My question is this; Would it possibly help at all to wash the quilt in HOT water with Synthrapol? Could that do more harm than good, or is it not likely to help at all?

Pictures aren't the best because I took them with my phone. First picture has the original light fabric laid next to part of the quilt with bleeding (above the bottom triangle, not that you wouldn't spot it without directions). Second picture shows more bleeding below the blue dotted fabric square. That particular fabric seems to be the one that bled the worst, if not the only fabric that bled. Lucky me it's the one I used for the 6" wide border. :(