Awesome quilt and kitty. :thumbup:

cute pictures, determined cat.

. However after the recent post I started thinking how bad I would feel if someone washed and something happened to it I could have prevented.

I quilted a king size rail fence for my mom. She pieced it & I added the borders & finished it. Well I washed it & found where she had sewed too close to edge & it frayed out on a few of the squares. Lucklily I was able to fix it so washing in my book is a good ideal.

Could any of you fill me in on these color catchers? What are they and where can they be purchased? I assume they stop colors form bleeding into others?
Also, what is the best way to remove dressmakers chalk pencil lines? Do they pretty much need to be washed out?

Funny story and photos about your kitty Vicky. Not sure I would let my pet have such a pretty quilt though... I'd bribe it away from her with a heated cat pad or something else more tempting.

Wow, there is a woman that never gives up hope! LOL

I always wash mine before I gift them to make sure nothing comes apart and I like the look of them once they are washed.

I think that when you wash quilts before giving that unless you tell them it makes people think you are giving them something used. I washed a quilt for a craft sale and people said they wouldn't buy it as looked used and It wasn't.

I wash my fabric and will wash the quilts. made my first one for me and after washing had two small repairs tomake. would hate to have it happen to someone else. It is so soft afterwards too. ( I only use muslin for most of my quilts. love the feel) :D :D

you should have asked if they would rather have the pet hair, snippits, dust etc. in it since it does get handled a lot in the process. non quilters just do not understand..... :? :?

I do not wash quilts that are special presentations, such as raffle quilts. I have discovered that the less quilting you do, the less the quilt looks used after washing. If they are going to kids, I definately wash them. It is a personal choice and you need to think about who is receiving this. So, I think I agree with everyone who has posted prior to me. And the stories explaining why folks wash were eye-opening.

Exactlly how I think, well said. :D

a non-washed quilt has the crisp new feel to it and looks great....until you have to wash it....then it is snuggly and comfy and just the way I like them!

How do you preshrink the batting? Thanks.

How do you soak the batting? Thanks.

I pre-washed the fabrics, then washed the quilt when it was done. I wanted to make sure everything held together. Also, washing helps the batting do what it is supposed to. Plumps up the whole thing and helps stitching blend in.

I know this because I saw an error on my binding. The repair I hope holds does show the thread.

[quote=jljack None of us has a perfectly clean house!! Certainly not me!! :-)[/quote]

Oh my Goodness we don't??????? LOL
Well please don't tell my hubby!

I wash before quilting but not before giving.

Well Janice - my house is perfectly clean with quilts that is lol. I never enjoyed having to clean house and even less so, now that I've retired and have more time for quilting - house cleaning gets put on the to do later long list. Sorry just had to throw this in.

Another reason to wash before gifting -- imagine how surprised the recipient will be when a flat, smooth quilt pops out of the dryer with the crinkled look if they aren't experienced with quilts and don't know what to expect!

I wash before gifting. I like how they puff up, and that can hide small imperfections in my newbie FMQ attempts. Also, once washed, I go over them to see if any stitches or seams need repair.

I'm a wash and then give person only because of the stiffness from the new fabric. I also like wrinkly quilts so I tend not to prewash the fabric unless I think it will bleed. I also worry I may have a spot that I missed that needs to be sewn down or repaired.

Even if you use polyester batting, a quilt can be ironed LIGHTLY after washing. Set the iron to the coolest temperature required by the quilt sandwich and use a light hand to smooth, rather than squish the wrinkles out.

If there are any big wrinkles that don't want to come out with a warm iron and light pressure, I use a rolled up rag like a sponge. Dip it in water and then lightly brush along the wrinkle. Let it set in for a few minutes, then come back and use the warm iron again. I suppose you could use a mister bottle; I was taught to use the rolled up rag before mister bottles were common and just never got around to updating my technique (it gives me total control over where the water goes).

When I want my Mennonite quilt (over 40 years old now) to look new, I wash it, air dry, then fluff in the dryer and finally go over it with a warm iron. It comes out looking brand new again.

One picture ... Worth a thousand words! Love that cat! Sure she knows no one will appreciate it as MUCH as she does. We have Suzie who claims one of our four kitchen chairs. I have to promise I will only sit in it for a few moments and even then she has a concerned look. Your quilt is lovely. I'd appreciate it even MORE than Itty Bitty :)

What are color catcher sheets?

Both wash and don't wash sides sound reasonable. For my opinion, I'm clean but dust snd cat hair are not toxic so if you want to give me a hand made beautiful quilt with dust and cat hair, i am all for it. Even if you washed it, I'd probably wash it myself too. Just the way I am. But the dust and cat hair ... No Problem! I read somewhere that all the cleaning products that kill germs are causing people to not build up resistance to germs. True or not?

I always pre-wash my fabric, so never thought about washing a quilt before giving it. We don't smoke, so there's no odor to get out of the fabric. Also, all of our friends have pets, too, so we do put the quilts in the dryer on air dry to remove any cat/dog fur that might have gotten on the quilt.

I went on vacation to my nephew's house when I was working on my very first quilt, which I finished while there (I had the entire house to myself for 5 days!). I didn't know until I took my quilt there that he was a quilter too! He showed me how to do a Fat Quarter quilt, an example of which is below. I was fretting over some mistakes I had made on it and he told me, "Trust me, it will all come out in the wash.....literally!" He was right. After washing, mistakes I had made weren't even visible without doing a search for them. People who wouldn't know they were there would never even notice them! And as my nephew explained, "Even if a mistake IS noticed, it doesn't matter. Mistakes are what makes a quilt unique, and they also show how very much you love the person you gave it to. It means you worked really hard to make that quilt especially for them!" My nephew is a VERY smart man! :c)

Vicky, If it were me I'd simply include a card that stated the quilts have been pre washed to remove any residue from the manufacturing of the fabrics and to pre shrink the batting. Explain that some people have allergies to fabric residue and you wouldn't want anyone to affected by them. It also leaves the quilt with a soft cuddly feeling ready for snuggling.

I am curious too...how you pre-shrink batting for your quilts. In a machine, or bath tub? Thanks for any insight!

I'm sure it hs been posted a hundred times but how do you pre-shrink your batting? I pre-wash/shrink all my fabric. I recently made another Baby Genius quilt that my quilter used a thin polyester that she felt had the same feel as cotton. I didn't think so. So I should start pre-shrinking batting also.

I use a batik quilt that has lots of piecing/quilting and just luv it when it comes out of the dryer. It's kinda like my security blankee!

Color catcher sheets are designed to attract any dye molecules floating around in the wash water, in theory.

The germs and resistance theory is one theory.

I spent over three months on a burn unit, so I am not an expert but I was taught a lot about germs in the environment.

Another theory, the one the burn unit nurses taught me, is that using antibacterial products helps breed resistant strains of bacteria by killing off the weaker bacteria and leaving only the strongest to reproduce.

Additionally, the vast majority of bacteria in the average home are either neutral for humans or actually good for humans. These neutral and good bacteria compete with the bad (for humans) bacteria and help crowd them out. If you kill off all the bacteria in the environment, you are creating a risk that what re-colonises the area will be mostly bad bacteria.

Exactly!

Well, I'm allergic to cats and dust mites, so I guess if someone gave me a quilt I would prefer the dander off it. I'm still sticking with my theory that washing it after it's done makes it nice, puffy, and soft.

I wash. The Quilts of Valor that I make are required to be washed owing they are often going into a hospital setting. I prefer the crinkled look myself.

I wash bed quilts and baby quilts. I don't wash wall hangings. To me, baby quilts look best all soft and cuddly and it also makes the quilting more obvious.

I always wash first. It gets more of the sizing out of the fabrics, and also removes and dust, lint, animal hairs, etc. accumulated during the making process. None of us has a perfectly clean house!! Certainly not me!! :-)[/quote]

You peeked!

I'm sure this has been answered already, but just in case, my preferred method is to use the wool setting on my front-loader washing machine and no washing detergent. This is a very gentle approach. I hate hand-washing, so that's just not gonna happen.

I dry the batting on an indoor clothes airing rack. I wouldn't dare use the drier.

Where do you find the color catchers? Is this something you have to get at the quilting shops, or can you find them somewhere like Wal-Mart?

You can buy them at Walmart or most grocery stores. At my WalMart they are around the fabric softener sheets. The ones I get here are Shout Color Catcher in a small red box about 1 1/2" thick by 6" long with the Shout logo and a multi colored bullseye target on it. There are 24 to a box. I know there are other brands, but this is what I was able to get. They certaintly seem to work for me.

Thank you! I appreciate your help! :c)

Donna