question about a scrap quilt
 

I just bought 8 yards of bone kona to use as the background on a scrap quilt. I have oodles of scraps and finally found the pattern I want to us. My one concern is the scraps bleeding. They would be impossible to wash or check each one... I need 750 units.... any suggestions....
thanks.

when done, wash only in cold water. if gifting, include a box of color catchers with the quilt and an explanation of why

I always use color catcher in the washer with cold water when I finish any quilt. Have never had a problem, but if you have a lot of older fabrics (especially red or purple) where there may be an excessive amount of dye, then just test those in a cup of hot water. I make a lot of scrap quilts and do not prewash or pretest, but if its got a lot of deep colored scraps I put in two or three color catchers when its done.

I would actually take a different approach and wash it in hot water with blue dawn dish detergent with a LOT of water. If you only have a front loading washer then do it in the bathtub. You can toss in the color catchers too. Dawn acts like Synthropol in that it suspends excess dye particles in the water so they don't bleed onto your other fabrics.

But this will only work for excess dye, if you have a true bleeder it will have the ability to bleed any time you wash the quilt so subsequent washes, even in cold water with color catchers could still result in a bleed onto the cream solid.

However the dawn treatment could effectively remove the bleed. Personally, if you have that many scraps of questionable trustworthyness, I would simply proceed and hope for the best. I would not gift the quilt though because the giftee will think they ruined it and feel horrible if it does bleed. Keep it for yourself and enjoy it and use it.

I use color catchers and a warm/cold wash cycle on my completed quilts. When I gift a quilt it comes with color catchers and instructions. No problems so far. I use a lot of bright colors

My approach is similar to feline fanatic's. I typically do not prewash my fabrics. For the first wash I use Synthrapol and ***lots*** of hot water. I have a front-loader at home (these do not use enough water to adequately dilute dye bleeds), so I take the quilt to the local laundromat and choose a very large commercial front-loader to be sure that there is enough water to dilute any bleeds. Synthrapol suspends dye bleeds in the water so they don't have a chance to settle in other fabrics (but ***only*** if there is enough water to adequately dilute the dye bleeds). Synthrapol requires hot water to do its job.

Another thing you can do is simply soak a stack of scraps in hot water in your sink *along with* a piece of the Kona fabric. Even if the fabric bleeds, if the Kona does not pick up the color you will be safe to continue. Bleeding dyes will bleed into hot water; you don't need any soap or lots of agitation to spot a bleeder.

It is really only certain colors that you need to be concerned about. I only had a navy blue Dimples bled and nothing happened because I had a Color Catcher in with the wash.

Maybe I'm just lucky?? But I've made many scrap and not-scrap quilts for years without prewashing and have not had any problems. I make quilts to use not to save. I machine wash gentle (usually) and machine dry low. I always tell anyone who gets one it can be machine washed and dried. I've never had a complaint.