Can I mix batiks and non-batiks without prewashing?
 

I am planning a block of the month/ free style Dear Jane type quilt with various blue batiks (virtually all of them Hoffman) and Moda Bella Solid white as my background fabric.

I am going to color bleed test the darker pieces but otherwise don't plan on prewashing (they are mostly fat quarters). I've read that batiks are made using very hot water so they don't ever shrink once we purchase them (not sure this is true--I would only wash this quilt in warm water with cold rinse). I haven't worked with any Moda bella solids yet so I don't have a point of reference on whether it will shrink or not. Can batiks and non-batik fabrics be mixed together in a quilt if they are not prewashed? Any advice or experiences you can share would be very helpful.

I mix all the time and find that it is just fine. as long as you color test them you should be fine. as for batiks shrinking? I can't tell you one way or another if they do because I have never noticed any shrinking in washed quilts.

If you read some of the recent posts about pre-washing....you should have your answer. I would never put an unwashed fabric with white. There have been many reports of batik bleeding.

Ditto especially with batiks they are notorius for bleeding.

I am a pre-washer, a trait inherited from my mother. I have noticed that ALL my fabrics (with the exception of batiks) have shrunk WOF (selvedge to selvedge). Some more than 2". These were mostly LQS purchases, well known manufacturers. The cut length didn't shrink at all. I wonder how my quilts would look after washing when the shrinkage was all in one direction?

Many batiks need pretreating with retayne to stop the bleeding/running. I had one batik that ran every time I washed it for 10 years. I would NEVER trust a batik not to run/bleed. On a Dear Jane .... way to much work to risk it! It really does not take long ... and I would be devasted if I did a Dear Jane and had my fabrics bleed.

Here is a thread I wrote about my experience with shrinking fabric http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...e-t174883.html
I don't have experience with batiks, however.

QuiltnNan, that thread you posted may be the tipping information for me to start prewashing everything. However, I have tons of fat quarters and wonder if those wash okay (I'm just wondering if they get distorted in shape). I have an expensive front loading LG washer and I HATE it. It is only 1 1/2 years old and I can't wait to get a new one. The clothes come out of it all tangled up. My daughters PJ pants get wrapped together (she usually has 5 to 6 pairs in the laundry a week) with other items and I have to untangle everthing before putting it in the dryer. Plus, the wash cycle washes everything in the equivalent of a shallow puddle.

So, if you prewash some of your fabric, you really have to prewash all of it. If I use a large portion of the fabric left over after washing and cutting for my current quilt, how do you keep track of what has been washed and what hasn't. I have way, way too much fabric to prewash it all now.

I think you'd be quite heartbroken if you didn't prewash your fabrics. Blue batiks are some of the worst as far as bleeding is concerned...at least in my experience, and I use batiks almost exclusively these days.

You say yours are mostly fat quarters and you hate what your washing machine does to what's inside. How about filling up your kitchen sink with hot water, a bit of liquid soap and a couple Color Catchers to check for loose dyes and wash the batiks by hand? No need to scrub (they're not dirty), you're just freeing up any loose dye and letting any shrinkage take place...tiny little bit that there might be. Swishing them around for a couple minutes ought to tell you all you need to know. I've never had batiks distort in any way, even in the washer (but I wash fabrics on gentle in my 31 year old energy guzzling top loader).

Hand washing is a quick, easy way to check for bleeding and you can rewash any bleeders until they stop (the Color Catchers will remain white). Toss the white fabric in the washer as Moda Bella does shrink. After that, your colors should all be safe as long as the quilt lasts and you'll never have to worry about it.

Perhaps you could attach a safety pin through several folds of whatever fabric you wash (after it is washed and dried and ironed, of course!) so that when you stash it you'll know which has been washed and which has not. If it is your scraps you are thinking about, perhaps two bins - washed scraps and unwashed scraps.

I have had batik FQs distort after washing, but I am a ruthless washer - the hottest wash and rinse cycles my machine has! I don't have a dryer, so all of my stuff is line dried - it is the washing that has done the distorting.

Good luck! I'd love to see your Dear Jane when it is finished - I love blue and white quilts.

Alison