kimv44

Hello Ladies..

I've been having two different issues that have really been causing some disappointment in the final result of some of my quilts. I am assuming that they are related to fabric preparation and wanted to get some ideas of what you think..

First issue is around the finished appearance of my quilt projects. Even if I wash my quilt fabrics before a project I like to do a final wash of a quilt once it is complete. Do you all do that? When I do, the quilt tends to come out of the drier all bunched up.. hard to describe, but just not smooth. Sometimes I can run an iron over it but most times it is just the way it is.. I'm wondering if it is the thread I use.. cotton vs poly or would I maybe have better luck with monofilament?

Second issue I am having is some fabrics bleed color into my lighter fabrics even if I pre-wash them. For example, I just put a quilt together this week with a sold red back. I washed the red fabric before I used it but didn't realize that washing it only once wouldn't do the trick. My project was together and long-arm quilted and then I washed it and was heartbroken. Luckily I didn't dry it and re-washed it with color safe bleach and those color catchers and was able to rescue it... but I'll tell ya.. it took about 6 washes to get the color catchers to stop coming out pink and before I dared dry it.

What am I missing here? What process do you all use to pre-treat your darker fabrics? and why all the bunching do ya think?

Thanks!
Kim