Washing & Drying
 

What do you presas your fabrics with? Then once washed at what temp do you set your dryer? I'm always worried about not having that "new" look to fabric or color loss since I don't necessarily care for the wrinkly look when I quilt, but completely respect the process. Thank you for your guidance

I don't prewash, never have.

With the questions you have asked,
you may find the following thread an interesting one to follow .....
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...g-t285648.html

If I prewash, I just run the fabric through the quick wash cycle with a little laundry detergent. I dry on hot then press on hot. As soon as you wash, the "new shiny" look and feel goes out the window. You can recover some of it by reintroducing spray sizing. The wrinkly look depends on the batting you use, how tightly/loosely it's quilted, and if all parts have been prewashed or not.

My washer has an express cycle. I use little soap, but if I have some lightly soiled regular laundry, I throw that in too. I wash in warm and just do the default dryer setting. If you pay attention and take the fabric out as soon as it's dry, very little ironing is needed.
I know people say that the quilting will stabilize fabric that's not been pre shrunk, I'm still very uncomfortable with that. Do an experiment. Take a piece of quilting cotton. Measure both its length and width. Wash & dry. Now re-measure. You will probably find that it has shrunk an inch or two selvedge to selvedge.
Batiks will not shrink, but they sure can bleed!

I wash on a full permanent press cycle with detergent. Dry on a permanent press cycle. My dryer has a 'humidistat' so only dries until 'dry' not 'hot'. I iron with my iron set on the hottest setting (linen/wool) and use starch.

I do exactly what NJ Quilter does, though I don't use starch as often as I used to. Haven't had a problem so far.

I do not have problems with fabrics getting duller with washing. I have found that with Moda Bella fabrics, that the fabric does look quite different after it's washed the first time. This is due to removing the chemical treatment that gives the fabric a bright, shiny look in the store. I now mostly stick to RK Kona solids. I haven't had any issues with LQS quality prints or batiks fading. Batiks, hand-dyed fabrics & some solids will occasionally bleed -- but that doesn't change the color.

I wash everything in Cold water, on the gentlest cycle available, with a small amount of Tide Free (or another dye-free, fragrance-free detergent; dyes & fragrances can negatively impact the fabric dye and/or fiber strength). No bleach, no fabric softener (same reason as the detergent). I usually will dry most of the way on Low heat in the dryer. Then I will either block flat or sometimes if it's just a family quilt, I'll hang over the shower rod to finish drying, repositioning frequently.

For ironing (top only), I iron on Cotton setting, with lots of steam & starch.

As for the crinkling, there are ways to reduce how much that happens, but anytime you get a quilt wet & then "de-wet" (whether tumble dried or air dried), the cotton will crinkle. It's a bit of work, but you can un-crinkle it by blocking it dry. You can either wet block or steam block. I prefer wet-blocking. It's easier & cheaper.

You can reduce how much it will crinkle by quilting farther apart & limiting curvy lines. For example, a 2" spaced crosshatch pattern will crinkle less than a 1.5" meander. You will also get very little crinkling if you add synthetic fibers or wool. These might include synthetic/wool batting, poly thread, interfacing (except Bosal 100% cotton), or even your fabrics.

I wash on cold (to reduce bleeding), and dry on hot to get maximum shrinkage. Then, depending on the sized of the pieces in the quilt , I starch. In other words, if the pieces are cut small and stitched together, I starch heavy. If the pieces are large in the quilt, I lightly size or just iron.

I pre-wash my fabrics in a Quick cycle, warm water, and white vinegar as a natural fabric softener. Dry on normal. I use Magic brand spray Sizing.

I ALWAYS test my fabrics for bleeding, particularly reds, blacks, deep blues, etc. Everything that I use in a quilt is tested for bleeding. Fortunately, I have discovered the "bleeding" BEFORE I cut the pattern pieces. Perhaps I'm being overly cautious, but I cannot afford to ignore caution. It's a whole lot easier to test the fabrics than it is to clean up a problem later. It matters little what brand your fabrics are -- whether they're $25/yard or whatever. Dyes today are NOT organic -- they're chemical and some will bleed and when they do, it's a disaster as far as that particular quilt is concerned.

I learned the hard way.....red.....sigh. I wash everything when it comes in the door and it is washed in warm water with detergent with 4-5 color catchers. I usually wash it with regular clothes that are in the same color family. Reds, blues, blacks, are usually the ones that bleed. However, washing with the color catchers, you know immediately if there are bleeding fabrics. Do another warm rinse with the color catchers. I put everything in the dryer for 10 minutes on low, gently lay out the still wettish fabrics and then hang everything up and fold up when dried. When I am ready to use the fabric, I iron with spray starch and steam iron. Anymore, almost all fabrics shrink, some a little and some a lot so I am hoping that all my quilts won't shrink or bleed.

I do not pre-wash fabric but I do use color catchers any time I wash a quilt. (Just in case!) But I know that when I wash a quilt the batting will shrink some and draw the surface fabric in as well. I think the crinkly look is minimized when you allow them to shrink together. When you wash (shrink) fabric first and attach it to unshrunk batting, the fabric will be pulled in but not shrunk.

Exactly. Especially cotton or wool batting

Not checking for bleeding is asking for trouble so I pretest for that but don't prewash. If a fabric bleeds I don't use it in a quilt. Not worth my time or money to see if I can stop the bleeding with several washes.

Do you realize that sometimes that bleed you are finding, is only there until after the first wash?
Or that, most times, the most effort it takes is a Retayne treatment/soak, and all is stabilized?

Gosh, to just eliminate a fabric so quickly,
that seems to be a waste of time (shopping!) and money ..... Yes, JIMHO!

The use of Retayne, use of water, use of power, use of my time, and it takes a second wash to see if the bleeding stops and then third if it doesn't and on and on....I've read where some wash it four or five times. Not worth the effort to me. Bleeding fabric gets passed on to someone that wants to deal with it and I'm back to quilting and not messing with it. The "have to make it work because I bought it" is not my way of thinking.

I am a pre-washer. If I even think a fabric will bleed, I soak in HOT water with Retayne, for about 4 hours, rinse, then I wash with a little detergent and a color catcher on mild cycle, for a couple of minutes, rinse, dry on hot, take out of dryer, when almost dry, fold until ready to use. I don't press anymore, until I am ready to use. This is when I have looked all over for the perfect fabrics for a certain pattern.

My worst bleed was a couple weeks ago. I bought a dark green fabric that actually turned the inside of my washer and dryer green. I rewashed and it still bled. I used color catchers (3 of them) and white cotton terry towels to help absorb the color. So I did the unthinkable, I filled up the washer with warm water and bleach, It lightened some but still bled. Am so glad I choose to pre-wash. I used Chlorox Kitchen Clean-up to wipe out my dryer. Had to borrow the hubs knee pads. That fabric is still a dark green. Needless to say it will go against other darks.

If your main concern is the crinkly look that happens after a new quilt is washed, you might want to try pre-shrinking the batting before using it. (Soak in bath tub, drip dry, then finish in dryer) I think the batting shrinks a lot more than the quilt top or backing, so that causes most of the crinkle if the quilt is first washed after quilting it. I keep thinking I am going to do this, but I have begun to value the crinkled look more, so...

For what it is worth, in my experience, the modern (brand name) fabrics bleed very little, and it is easily captured by a color catcher or two. (can't say this about batiks, as I have almost no experience with them, nor with hand dyed anything)

If I'm making a quilt that will be used and washed a lot, like a children's quilt, I prewash using the harshest treatment that I think the quilt will receive. The last thing a mom needs to worry about is whether or not the quilt will survive the wash.

Question...do you also pre-wash your batting for children's quilts?

[QUOTE=Garden Gnome;7753777]If your main concern is the crinkly look that happens after a new quilt is washed, you might want to try pre-shrinking the batting before using it. (Soak in bath tub, drip dry, then finish in dryer) I think the batting shrinks a lot more than the quilt top or backing, so that causes most of the crinkle if the quilt is first washed after quilting it. I keep thinking I am going to do this, but I have begun to value the crinkled look more, so...

Regarding the shrinkage, you may want to check out this batting which came out a while back... Quilter's Dream Blend for Machines, 70% cotton and 30% polyester. There is no crinkling and it shows the quilting very nicely.

I wash using unscented soap just in case the person I am gifting the quilt to has any kind of sensitivity but usually I don't dry. I don't like the wrinkles that sometimes have set in, so I just put everything in a plastic bag and then iron it!

Perhaps I'm looking at this issue wrong -- but I'm financially limited, as most folks are, to some extent. If I purchase a specific fabric for a specific quilt, and that fabric bleeds -- I've already paid out my money -- so my method is that I use a product I found on-line -- Rit Dye Laundry Treatment. It is a dye-setter, and it works. I first test all fabric, then treat the bleeding fabric with the Rit product, rinse it, wash it, dry it and iron it. It is much less expensive than throwing the fabric away, or whatever one would do with a bleeding fabric otherwise. I've learned to pre-test my fabric for bleeding (particularly reds, but any vibrant or deep-colored fabric can be a bleeder, and price does not guarantee that your fabric won't bleed. The product I use is inexpensive, so discretion is the better part of valor (emphasis added), I also add a color catcher to my wash when I'm washing a quilt. I know they work.

And, please, I feel I must add this: I have no financial interest in the company that makes or distributes the product mentioned above, nor do I have any ownership interest in the company.

Thank you for the great idea Jeanette!