Originally Posted by
Tartan
Unless a top is filthy, I quilt it before washing. Since you already have the problem, I would recommend trimming all the strings around your white sections so they don’t show through the quilt after quilting. The strings in the dark sections I would leave. Be careful not to pull and strings while trimming in case you completely fray out the seam allowance.
I washed it because I got a spot wet, and the purple glue stick got purple again, and it freaked me out, lol. Also, its made from plaid shirts, and there were a few pieces that were a bit dodgy, and i was afraid they'd split at a seam when it was washed, and I wanted to know before I did all the work of quilting it. Also, I did a stupid thing when I removed some spots, and i was afraid there may have been a remaining piece of the white fabric that was still affected by the stupidity which would have made a hole after washing. So, it was mostly to check that the patchwork was in good enough shape to go on to the next step.
OK, I know you're all going to ask, so here's the doltish maneuver: I has some rust spots I wanted to see if I could get out, so I used some CLR bathroom cleaner. It's an acid, what could go wrong, right? Also, I'm sure I didn't rinse it out well enough, and when I pressed one of those spots, which had indeed disappeared, by the way, the was a scorched spot. Uh, oh... And when I scratched the spot, it disintegrated. Yeah, that's definitely gonna leave a mark, right?
Well, you know they say we learn our best lessons from our mistakes. It seems to be working for me...