origamigoldfish

A couple of years ago I bought a christmas quilt kit and put it on the shelf and finally dug it out to celebrate christmas in july. This was my first true quilt kit and not just a collection of fabrics selected for a pattern, most of the pieces were already precut into small rectangles. I decided not to prewash, because I was worried about how much of a mess that many small pieces would make in my washer, even in lingerie bags, and I didn't want to spent months untangling them to discover that I'd lost enough fabric to fraying that I couldn't make the kit. (the kit did not call for prewashing anything, btw)


The issue I am having is that this quilt has a large panel appliqued to the front of the quilt, and the panel has a significant amount of red in it. When I starched it, the red ran. Not very much, and the way i hung the fabric to dry after starching honestly makes it look like a deliberate shadow. My dilemma is this...do I prewash the panel and risk it shrinking at a different rate than the quilt when it is finally washed to remove the little bit of loose dye? Or do I go ahead and press my panel flat and set the dye into the fabric and live with it? Is there a product that can take that color out even after setting?


advice please, and thank you!