Old 03-12-2015, 05:49 AM
  #26  
Sewnoma
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Sonoma County, CA
Posts: 4,299
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I made a black & white & red scrappy quilt as one of my first projects. I pre-washed and I'm glad I did because one of the reds bled. Interestingly, the bleeder was in the wash with a mix of white fabrics and only ONE of the white fabrics picked up the red, and I couldn't get it back out. The other whites, in the same load, didn't pick up any color at all!

So it seems like bleeding is like dancing and it takes two to tango. One fabric to do the bleeding, and the second fabric to accept the bled-over dye.

This was before I knew about color catchers, I think if I'd had one of those in the wash it might have all turned out OK.

I've never had bleeding problems from a black fabric (knock on wood). I've had color catchers come out grey, but never had it bleed onto another fabric. I think you're PROBABLY safe not pre-washing if you use color catchers, but I don't know how you'll be sure until you try it!

I don't pre-wash pre-cuts, and I did a quilt with Hoffman batik strips and used Kona black for sashing, none of it pre-washed, and zero problems.
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