Quilter 65

Beautiful quilt. Good luck and use lots of color catchers. Also see Jane Quilter's lengthy post about washing with Dawn.

DJ

I think there is some good advice re washing ... just coming in to say what a beautiful quilt this is!

kat13

I always use at least two color catchers when using red fabric, or any fabric that bleeds! Works for me! Lovely quilt!!

barny

Oh, this is a beautiful quilt. I use color catchers a lot.

maryellen2u

No suggestions but your quilt top is just fabulous. I love red and you've done such a wonderful job piecing it. Look at all those points! Good for you! I love your color choice. Red is the new neutral!

Barb_MO

This is what you might end up with if you wash before quilting it.
Why not to wash top before quilting.[/QUOTE]

QUOTE=Sewdust;7868565]I would like to wash this king-sized quilt top before I send it to my long arm lady. The red fabric was washed three times before I started piecing with it; however, a scrap that I test-washed today still bleeds red dye. What would be the best way to wash this quilt without having the red dye bleed into the white background? Thank you for your help.

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RuthiesRetreat3

fabulous piecing! You are definitely a master at this skill. I'd give my eye teeth (and my molars) to have that level of skill.

Peckish

I think you've been given good advice about how to fix the bleeding fabric after it's been assembled into a quilt top.

My advice is for fixing bleeders before you cut into the fabric.

A lot of today's washers (especially the front loaders) simply do not use enough water to rinse dye completely out of fabrics. This is why many quilters will wash their fabric over and over and over again, a process I find both wasteful and slow. I fix my bleeders by putting about 4" of hot water in the bathtub and adding a drop of Dawn. (The amount of water varies with the amount of fabric - for instance, if I had 4 yards of fabric, I'd use more water.) Swish the fabric around and let it sit 10-12 hours, or overnight. Then toss it into the washer for a rinse-and-spin cycle. I've never had a fabric bleed after this process.

By the way, this is how dyers process their hand-dyed fabrics before using.

gmcsewer

I made a double wedding ring quilt with some reds and washed the quilt. They did bleed. So after searcing the Internet, I tried a method several suggested. Fill the washing machine with cold water and 1/4 cup of Dawn platinum agitate it some to distribute the detergent. Put in the quilt and let it soak at least 12 hours. Spin the water out and I dried mine in the dryer to prevent as much bleeding as I could. This did take out the first bleeding. But there are few spots where it did bleed thru to the back along the stitching from the quilting. I would be tempted to make it a display quilt and never wash it. I called the dry cleaners and they said it could even bleed in dry cleaning. Sorry for your distress.

Claire123

You have created a very beautiful quilt top!! I'd wash it with one or two Shout color catchers.