I have never used special quilt soap and don't know many who do. I use Tide or All Free and Clear pods for all my laundry including quilts. Use Shout Color Catchers the first time you wash your quilt. I pretest for bleeding by putting a snip of the fabric in a cup of hot water. I then rub it on a piece of white cotton fabric. If no color is present then it's fine. If color rubs off on the white fabric I don't use it and I don't try to wash it a dozen times to get it from bleeding.