you can use a mesh laundry bag to wash your strips- you should wash them with detergent- can toss in a couple 'color catchers' ---and wash them until there is no more color coming off- most batiks, hand dyes (can) be bleeders- you can also put synthropol in the water after the quilt is done (as a just in case) to keep any dye from getting on your whites---it keeps the dye suspended in the water. vinegar freshens & softens laundry---has no effect of setting colors---way back in the 70's dyes were changed (by law) and vinegar has nothing to do with setting the color- it only works on acid dyes that are no longer used on cotton fabrics.- so although it may help with smells & freshen the fabric- it is just a (wasted step) when it comes to any bleeders. sometimes one wash will take care of the problem- sometimes it is necessary to wash 2 or 3 times- (normally) it is excess dyes that were not adequately rinsed during the dyeing process-