sewingpup

I mainly make quilts that hopefully will be used well. So, I just wash them on my regular laundry setting with my regular detergent. This means I wash them on the "warm" setting as my cold water is very cold. Then, gasp....I throw them in my dryer which now is on the "cotton" setting, I do have a cool down feature and find I do not get many wrinkles. Then I press with a hot iron. I do "sort of" separate my colors into roughly Darks and Lights, although if I am using red or very dark fabrics, I will try and just wash them with like colors, I do use color catchers and if they come out a light color, I don't worry about it, If the color catchers come out very dark, I do and will rewash the fabric again. If the color catcher is still dark...umm...I begin to consider if I want to keep washing the fabric until the color catcher is light or do I just want to not use the fabric at all. I had a large amount of a dark red that I washed four times and still had a significant amount of color on the catcher I ended up using something else for the backing and putting that fabric in a garage sale for something like $4 for all 6 yards of fabric and a note that said "warning, not colorfast". As to what I wash the fabric with...well, if it is a small amount, I will wash it with my regular cloths. I do try and wash more than one thing in the washer, it is a top loader and I like to sort of balance the amount of material around the agitator. I do not always wash my fabrics before using if I know they are good quality fabrics and not likely to bleed or shrink much. But I do like to wash the ones I am not sure of as I do want the fabric to shrink, or bleed, or whatever before I spend the time making a quilt. Oh, and I do use unsented laudry detergent and no fabric softners.