vicki reno

Just finished quilting a baby quilt that was embroidered. When I went to wash stabilizer off of the top (I stitched through it in some blank squares with no embroidery), the thread from one of the embroidered blocks bled on 2 plain blocks. I am beside myself! This thing took forever to finish and now what should be cute is very ugly! Any suggestions short of burning it in the BBQ pt?

Lori S

Try washing with Synthropol, if you don't wait too long , you have a good chance of having it remove the thread dye.

Prism99

I agree with washing in Synthrapol. It may take several washings to get all of the bleeds out.

Synthrapol requires hot water, but I would not agitate. If you do it in a top-loading washing machine, stop the machine so it does not agitate and simply press down with your hands to agitate (wearing rubber gloves to protect your hands from the hot water!). Spin, add rinse water, stop machine agitation and do manual agitation, spin out the rinse water, and take a look at the quilt. You can also do this in a large sink or a bathtub. Just be aware that you want a *lot* of water for the loose dye particles to stay suspended in.

Deborahlees

I have been doing machine embroidery for 15 years and have never had my thread bleed....for the record what brand was it so we can all be warned not to use it. Wash it polyester or rayon thread ???

IAmCatOwned

Wow, I've never heard of machine embroidery thread bleeding. Hand embroidery thread can bleed, although I personally have never experienced it.

Tartan

Was it machine thread or embroidery floss? I second the advice on Synthrapol for most colour bleeds if done quickly. If the bleed has set, you may need to get a bit more creative. Can you incorporate the bleeds into some shading with Pigma pens or fabric paint? Hope you can find a solution but don't throw it out. It may not be perfect but it will still fulfill a quilts main function which is to keep someone warm.