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Old 03-22-2013, 10:06 AM
  #4  
Prism99
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Western Wisconsin
Posts: 12,930
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Because this top has red fabric in it, I ***really, really, really*** strongly recommend that you quilt and bind it before washing. Trying to take the stains out of the top before quilting is extremely risky. The reds could bleed on you (especially because Retro Clean and Vintage Soak require long soaking periods) and the different fabrics might well shrink in different amounts and create distortion in the quilt top that will not iron out. Also, seams are likely to fray.

Once a reasonable amount of quilting is done, variations in fabric shrinkage are not a problem because shrinkage becomes controlled by the batting.

After quilting and binding, I would do the first wash of this quilt in Synthrapol in a large machine that uses a *lot* of water. If you read up on Synthrapol, you will find that I am recommending this in order to get rid of any bleeding dyes so they do not stain the other fabrics in the top. You need a machine that uses a lot of water to ensure that any bleeds are sufficiently diluted.

Once the quilt no longer bleeds with Synthrapol, I would use Retro Clean (Vintage Soak is probably a very similar product) to take the stains out.

In other words, taking the stains out is the last step in the process.

Edit: I want to emphasize that when you use the machine with Synthrapol, you *never* allow the quilt to be machine agitated. You stop the machine and hand agitate, then move to spin cycle.
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