What a beautiful quilt! I would leave it. I know it's distracting to you. But there are so many rich colors against white, I wouldn't risk it. You are the only one who will know.

Congratulations on your beautiful quilt. Those are some amazingly vibrant colors. Best of luck with the bleed removal!

That is a beautiful DJ! I love the colorful narrow border followed by the scalloped border! It is spectacular! Not much help from me, just best wishes for the color to come out..I’m sure it will!

I agree with following the instructions on Vicki Welsh's site. She is a hand-dyer and did a LOT of experimenting and testing to find the best way of setting bleeding fabrics. I have used her method successfully several times for bleeding tops, it really works.
Here is a link to her helpful instructions:

https://www.colorwaysbyvicki.com/upl...edingquilt.pdf

Please note she specifically says to NOT use Retayne or Synthropol.

I'd like to try to get the dye out as described in Vicki Welsh's site. Two questions: can it make it worse, somehow, and does the dye go to the top of the water in the bathtub and have to be skimmed out? How do you keep it from going back onto the quilt as you take it out of the water?

This quilt is exquisite! Such beauty that is hard to find. You should be so proud. I would wash it again using blue Dawn liquid. Add the color catcher too. No harm in doubling up.

As I said before, I've used Vicki's technique several times. I've never had a project get worse, it always gets better. And no, the dye does not float to the top and you can't skim it out. It's dissolved in the water, like Kool-Aid.
As far as the dye not being reabsorbed into the quilt - this is why Vicki recommends you use lots and lots of hot water. Imagine you make a pitcher of Kool-Aid. Now take that pitcher and dump it into a backyard swimming pool. After mixing, you wouldn't even notice a color change.

Thank you all for your reassurances and understanding. I went for it this morning--I said to myself "I believe in science, and I believe that the soap molecules will grab the dye molecules, and float off of my quilt as Vicki Welsh said they would." So I filled up the bathtub with too much Dawn and water as hot as I could get. The result was a bathroom full of suds, which I bucketed out to the shower stall. Then blue dye emerged, I emptied the water and refilled the tub...less blue dye. I left it for a couple of hours, and lo and behold, the bad spots were gone from the quilt! I rinsed it in the washing machine, and my quilt is beautiful. This list always helps!! Really so great!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

So happy to hear that it worked!

Good to hear!