Tag: Color bleed

Help….my fabrics bled!

Well, it happened again!!

Unless the quilt is an art quilt, I always wash it when finished. I love the feel of the washed fabric and the gorgeous texture that the quilting provides.

But, far too often I have had this happen…..

It has happened so often that I honestly don’t get flustered by it but turn to my trusty system.

Let me tell you about it.

First step is to remove the roll of batting from the bathtub…..

Isn’t that where you store it??

Next, I grab my bottle of “Dawn Clear”

….and mix up a bathtub of soapy, slightly warmish water, and put the quilt in to soak….

Depending on the amount of bleed, I set a timer for approximately 30 minutes (more if the bleed is bigger)…..

….and go do something else and try NOT to worry about it!!

After the time is up, I roll the quilt up to squeeze as much water as possible out…..

…..dump it in a laundry basket….

….and head back to the washer.

I ran it thru the wash cycle again, with NO soap, and also added a number of “Color Catchers”.

And VOILA…..

The bleed is gone……

I highly encourage you to keep a bottle of Dawn Clear on your shelf. It is sometimes hard to find in stores, but you can find it on Amazon.

These are the color catchers that I prefer…..

You can normally find them in local stores but they can also be purchased on Amazon.

I hope that this helps you when the unthinkable happens and something BLEEDS!!

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Quilters advice!!

If you remember, last week I had a disaster occur with my Color wheel quilt…..

Fortunately, I was able to use Dawn detergent and a good bathtub soaking to get the stains out!! You can read more about it here…..

How NOT to wash a quilt!

When I sent out the SOS to quilters around the world, I received several potentially good ideas so I thought that I would share them here….

Remember that I haven’t tried ANY OF THESE so am not advocating them.

The number one suggestion was that I add more circles!! While it was a good idea, it would have definitely interrupted the symmetry that I had worked so hard to achieve!!

There were several suggestions specifically for wool batting

Deb said that it had happened to her as well with wool batting. She had used Dawn, rubbed gently, and then rewashed. BUT, she had to do it SIX times!!

Sylvia said that she had soaked a wool-batting quilt in a mixture of Synthrapol and hot (as hot as it comes out of the tap) water in a bucket.

Dale said that she had used Synthrapol and had also had decent results with a heavy salt and vinegar soak and wash afterward.

Martina suggested Dawn detergent and HOT water. Her most important reminder was that you have to be REALLY patient because some fabrics won’t release until many hours later.

Judy reminded me that I MUST use detergent as it is the agent that will start shifting the spot.

Kate said that she uses “Shout”.

Mary suggested one of the OxyClean sprays.

Avon said that she had READ that Shaving cream would also work but had never used it herself.

Louise (in Australia) suggested that Rit has a run-remover.

And finally, both Barbara and Sylvia reminded me that threads can bleed as well. GREAT ….something ELSE to worry about.

The bottom line here is that I was going to keep trying things until either the spots came out, or I ruined it trying!!!

Thankfully, I didn’t ruin it!!

There is one other little place that I found and I can’t figure out exactly what it is. See that pinkish stain next to the circle……

It doesn’t look like a bleed but looks like a bleach mark. There was never ANY bleach around so I have no idea where it came from.

It is small and I probably won’t do anything with it, however…..

Donna had mentioned using Intense Pencils and a fabric medium, so I MIGHT try that to fill in that small area. But then again, I may just leave it!!

The quilt is now awaiting a sleeve so I can hang it and take photos, but here is the photo from show-and-tell at my guild meeting…..

I AM …..

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