Jeanette Frantz

The first bed-sized quilt I made was a whole cloth with red borders. I did everything to that fabric (and it was a good quality fabric) and it still bled -- I used vinegar, epsom salts -- it still bled. I was about to consign the fabric to the trash, but before doing that I did some searching on the internet. I had a cousin who lived in Northwest Oklahoma, had her own quilt shop, and was more or less my mentor when it came to making quilts. My cousin had advised me of some of the methods of treating fabric to stop the bleeding -- but I found a Laundry Treatment Dye Fixative, which I ordered. It arrived within a couple of days, so I treated the red fabric that had bled profusely, and after the treatment, washing and drying, I re-tested the same fabric and it bled no more. I've since made a red and white log cabin quilt, but I make it a practice -- that I wash every piece of fabric that comes in this house because I have asthma and I just won't risk having a serious attack over fabric -- it's not worth it. I generally test a strip about 3/4" wide by 6" long by putting the strips in hot water and soak for about 10 minutes. If it bleeds, the fabric gets treated with the dye fixative product, washed, dried and ironed. Reds are particularly bad about bleeding, but I've seen it happen with lots of different colors -- so, I don't risk it, I test the fabric to determine if it bleeds -- if it does, I treat it, then wash, dry and iron. I've never had a failure with the product I use -- that's why I continue to use it. Discretion is the better part of valor -- I use color catchers when I wash a quilt, whether it's small enough that I can wash it at home, or, if it's queen size or larger, I take it to the laundromat which has the giant-size machines and wash it there. JMHO. I don't wash precuts because they're a pain in the neck -- but then I don't buy them either -- that's just my choice.