Originally Posted by Prism99

Yikes!!! You ***never*** want to use Retayne on a finished quilt! If anything bleeds, Retayne will permanently set the bleed! Retayne should only be used on fabric yardage, not on a finished quilt.

Most likely what you want to use is Synthrapol, which suspends unset dye particles in the water so they can be rinsed away instead of settling into other fabric.

Ordinarily, to wash a queen-size quilt, I would take it to the laundromat and use their largest front-loading washing machine. However, when you are using Synthrapol, you really need as much water as possible in order for all of the unset dye particles to stay in the water. For that you need a top-loader. However, you also need to be able to skip the agitation cycles; I'm not sure you can do that in a laundromat. You might need to find a friend or relative with a top-loader.

With a top-loader, what you want to do is half-fill the tub with water, add the Synthrapol and mix it in, then add your quilt and the rest of the water. Stop the machine so it does not agitate (hard on the quilt), and hand agitate instead by pushing down on the quilt. (Because Synthrapol requires hot water, you may need rubber gloves for this.) After you have hand agitated, skip forward to the spin cycle and spin out the wash water. Fill with rinse water, again stop the machine and hand agitate, then skip ahead to the spin cycle. You want two rinses and spins.

An important thing to remember is that you do not want damp fabric sitting on damp fabric for any length of time, as this will encourage "crocking" (movement of dye from one fabric to another). It's important not to let the wet or damp quilt sit in the washing machine. When done, immediately spread it out to dry (or tumble dry, preferably in a large laundromat dryer).

That is how I would do it, anyway.

Do you have any scraps of the original fabric to test? If so, I would do a test wash on the fabrics all together to get an idea of how much bleeding there may or may not be. You could have anything from a combo that does not bleed at all to a never-ending-bleeding red. A test would give you a lot of information about how careful you need to be. The more bleeding there is, the more water you need with the Synthrapol (and the more Synthrapol you need).

Originally Posted by Barb44

That is why I prewash all my fabric. No surprises later.

Originally Posted by charlotte37830

I used one called Carbona. It is good for 30 washed and yes I used it in my front load HE washing machine.

Originally Posted by Qwiltylady

Just add 1 cup of white vinegar to your wash load and nothing will run. Why pay $$$$ for chemicals that require so much attention. I put it in with the soap and downey and nothing has ever run and I get it by the gallon at the grocery store for just over a dollar!