I use red in all of my Quilts of Valor and one quilts had a lot of bleeding. The last thing done to these quilts is to wash and dry same as they are going into a hospital setting and must go to them clean. I purchased the Color Catcher at the local supermarket, put two in the wash then I rewashed. The Color Catchers were red and the red bleed was out of the quilt.
Now, two Catchers go into every wash as a matter of procedure to prevent the bleeding.
I no longer prewash my fabrics for the QOVs as the pieces are sometimes 6 yards and hard to handle, thus the Catcher treatment when the quilt is completed.