…………..that is the question.
So, you’ve got your fabric and you’re ready to make your quilt. Are you in the ‘wash it first’ camp, or the ‘just get on with it’ camp?
I would think of myself as the ‘Just get on with it’ camp.
But, maybe not in all circumstances.
This is what happened to me recently. I’d nearly finished a quilt top (3 years ago) but wasn’t happy with it. In August this year I decided to unpick it. It was a simple enough pattern, and used 10” squares which came precut. I just got on with the making, but I should have measured the squares, they weren’t square and didn’t measure up – another lesson learned. And you wouldn’t wash ‘pre-cuts’ would you. So here we go, I’ve unpicked the quilt top, squared up the squares and resewn and added the border. So now I just have to layer, quilt and bind. I decide I’ll quilt with rulers (never done that before). I have left over fabric and can make an extra block to practice the quilt design on. As I’m using rulers I mark a few dots on my fabric with a water removeable pen (just spritz it with water and the pen marks disappear). Practice square done, I spritz it with water, flip it over and find the cornerstone fabric (red) has bled through.
Now I have 5 yards of this red fabric to use on the back so I decide to wash it. I put colour catchers in with it, 2 from the end of a pack (ultra colour absorber), and another 2 from a new pack (Dr. Beckmann Colour & Dirt Collector).
Just look at the difference, and the colour that the Dr. Beckmann catchers have soaked up.
Now that I’ve seen the amount of colour that’s come out, I decide to wash the fabric again, and back in the washer it goes. This time I use 5 Dr. Beckmann catchers and here’s the result.
Now I have some backing fabric for another quilt top which I have no intention of washing. It’s a lovely fabric but I think well I’ll just wash it to see in the interest of the experiment.
On the first wash lots of colour came out, and I had been so sure it would be fine, so again, I washed it a second time. And here’s a photo of the colour catchers.
Now after this little experiment I think I will be pre-washing more fabric in my future. I know that fabric brands vary, and I won’t pre-wash everything. And Dr Beckmann will be my preferred colour catchers, and I’ve just restocked, buying the big 50 sheet pack.
What do you think?
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