Originally Posted by
joe'smom
I always get a fair amount of bleeding from batiks, judging by the look of the color catchers. I wouldn't risk using a batik unwashed (but I wash everything before using).
Same here. The very first quilt that I made, I used two batik layer cakes and pre-washed all of it in the washer, because I also have some chemical sensitivities. I'm pretty sure they shrunk a bit and probably bled a bit too, but I didn't know about color catchers at the time.
But they were such a tight weave that I had next to no raveling with them, and I squared them all up to 9 1/2" so the shrinkage wasn't a problem for me.
I wouldn't hesitate to pre-wash those fat quarters.