After searching through Google, I came up with: Washing soda dissolved into a cup of water, poured onto cotton fabric, dried, then toss a sheet of the cloth with soda into the laundry.

I live in a small town in Ontario and I buy my freezer paper at the local Home Hardware of all places! It comes on a roll like wax paper and, if I remember correctly, was in the aisle with the canning prodcts. Colour catchers I bought on my last x-mas shopping trip to Buffalo -since it seems to be another thing we can't get here

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/...-catchers.html

here's another link for home made ones. I haven't tried it, but it sounds interesting. I stock up when I'm in the U S :)

I'll have to look for those locally. Thanks!

If you type "DIY color catcher sheets" in the google search bar there are a lot of sites. This is one which describes the general process ...
The color catcher is a piece of white something with soda ash solution dried onto it. You can make your own with soda ash, usually sold in swimming pool supply areas of hardware stores. (Grandma called it washing soda.) Just put a tablespoon of the dry soda into a cup of hot water until it dissolves. Put in a yard of white junk fabric, or ratty toweling, and let it become saturated. Let it dry. Cut off a piece and wash it with your bleedable fabric. The soda ash grabs and holds the dye. You can make a lifetime supply of color catchers with a buck or two of soda ash. For those of you who tie dye, this is exactly the technique for pre-treating fabric before applying dye. Soda plus cotton grabs loose dye molecules.

This is for 12 boxes of 24. It's the case price.

Susan

I think if you look on here someone had a recipe to make your own. Be aware for the ones who use color catchers or anything else that you use the "dryer" type fabric to throw in your washer. Because they are so thin and light weight they can get caught in you pump and washer won't drain. I heard about this about 2 wks too late. Thank goodness it was still under the warranty so it didn't cost me anything. You can put them in a mesh bag or pin to a washcloth, etc to make sure they make it back out of washer the right way.

DOUBLE THE GOING PRICE. Keep looking.

Color catcher
 

I took the challenge and you're right they are a little pricey. In our stores they're about $4 per box. Unfortunately our walmart doesn't ship to Canada, but your WM should have them :(. Here are a couple of suggestions: Plan a trip to Niagara Falls and stock up, Get a US friend to ship you some, finally I saw this link to make your own http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/...-catchers.html. I read it. Super easy and definitely worth a try. I'm too busy/lazy to do this, but it looks like a winner. They last quite awhile if you only use them in mixed loads.

Remember, you will not need these for every quilt. Only the ones that gave you pause. It is possible, unless you quilt a lot, you would only use a box a year. There are 24 sheets in a box. Usually you would use one sheet per wash load. I used 2 on a red and white quilt (I had pre-washed the fabric before cutting) and was shocked how red the sheets were at the finish. Good luck. Could someone in the US, send you some?? Would the cost be effective??