newestnana

I am inspired by a post in Pictures (double sliced layer cake) to use one of the layer cakes I have in my stash. In the Jenny Doan video she completed the quilt with a light border, followed my a narrow multicolored border, then another light border. I really like the look but am concerned that if I use my bright colored batiks the dye will run into the light solid.

They are Bali batiks...not thrilled about the idea of per washing layer cake squares.

Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks for your suggestions.

crafty pat

I have found that most batiks will run, you never know until they get wet. Take one and wet it, lay it out on a white paper towel and blot it with another paper towel and see what comes out of it.

PaperPrincess

I swish them in the sink, using a drop of detergent and warm water, rinse in cool water, then spin in a salad spinner. Any that bleed can be treated with retayne.

NikkiLu

I recently washed over 200 pieces of batik and I am sure that almost all of them bled - some more than others. I have pieces from fat quarters to 4 yards. I put a drop or two of liquid soap in my pure white dish pan and just laid the pieces in the water, still folded, and gently swished them around. Then drained the water and used clear cool water for the rinse and had to rinse and rinse many of them until the water was clear. I then put big thristy towels on my kitchen counter and unfolded the pieces and rolled them up in the towels and kept them rolled up for 30 minutes or so. Then, unrolled them and hung them up on clotheslines that I had my DH put up in our family room - nice and warm in there. When dry, I just folded them back up and put in piles of 25 on a table and was shocked that I had over 200 pieces. They did not get very wrinkled at all - but when I use them, I will iron them then. I had to throw away at least two pieces as they never did stop bleeding. HTH

Scissor Queen

If the other fabrics don't pick that dye up it's not a problem. And if another fabric does pick up excess dye it will eventually wash out since you haven't done anything that would set the dye. Wash a completed quilt with Synthrapol. It suspends any loose dyes in the wash water. The key is to not use a front loader that doesn't use enough water.

Prism99

If you do not prewash, it's probably safe to wash the finished quilt in a *large* washing machine (one that uses lots of water) with Synthrapol. The bleeds are kept suspended in the water (and diluted because there is lots of water) so the loose dye particles are rinsed away instead of settling into other fabrics. I would probably use the largest front loader at a laundromat for this (as I have a domestic front loader, which doesn't use enough water for Synthrapol to work well).