Prewashing fabric
 

I am going to make my GS a baseball quilt. I will use navy, red, and gray prints and solid white fabric. I was going to wash the red, but now I am concerned with the dark blue. Should I just prewash all of the fabrics?

Dark blue is one that frequently runs and even fades in the wash. I would definitely pre-wash it, but I pre-wash everything (except pre-cuts and fabrics destined for a OBW or S&W).

Are you worried about bleeding? If so, may I suggest doing a bleed test? Take a white cotton towel, dampen a corner, and rub it on the fabric for a few seconds. If the towel shows any color, you will need to treat it to prevent bleeding. This method has always worked for me - it's written by a quilter who is a professional hand-dyer.

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

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Including the gray and white fabrics.

I recommend soaking each of the fabrics (only like colors together) in hot water for a couple of hours and then washing them - gentle cycle, cool to warm water. Dry until "barely done".

Imagine the worst case scenario for how that finished quilt might be washed. I would wash the fabrics, and batting (if it can be washed before it is quilted - not all battings can/should be washed.)before cutting them so there are no unpleasant surprises later.

Your fabrics may all be perfectly "fine" - and you might wonder why you bothered with the fussing.

Or you might find that you have a bleeder - and be grateful that you learned that before you made the quilt instead of after it was washed.

Others will probably give you different advice.

Yes, wash the blue fabric and the others too.

I had to wash the last quilt with blue fabric about 3 times.

I always prewash fabrics with several colorcatchers, finished quilts also. I only use coldwater Tide. Never lets me down.

As you can tell, yes to all of the above. Especially that navy or dark blue. It may have to be washed more than once. I keep washing till the color catcher is light white. I make many Ole Miss quilts in red and blue. It's not pretty when they run together.

Pre-wash it all. Not only will you be safe from colors running after you've completed it but you save yourself from handling fabric with chemicals in it and ensure that it doesn't shrink unevenly from pre-washing some fabrics and not others.

I prewash everything because of chemicals, insects, shrinkage, color fading, etc. One fabric (a RJR) got past me. When I pressed the blocks, the steam shrunk that fabric and distorted the block. It took some fancy pressing to get it large enough to sew to the next block. Lesson learned.

I've always been a prewasher. Except now, folks know me as the scrap saver and donate a lot. These can't be prewashed easily. I do wash those quilts before donating to the cancer center, though.