I did a red and white quilt twice a couple of years ago. The first one I did bled badly when I washed it. I used Synthropol and hot water and it removed almost all of the red bleed on the white fabric. I decided to do it one more time to try and remove what little bleed was left. The whole quilt came out looking sort of like it was tea stained. Then I read the directions and it said to only do the hot water with Synthropol once. I know - I should have read the directions before I did the second wash - but I didn't. So, I threw that quilt away and made another (same pattern). I washed all the fabrics and the rick rack (which I think was the main culprit in my bleed) prior to making the quilt, and washed the quilt the first time with lots of color catcher. Worked great!