Saturday, June 06, 2015

why I wash fabric...


I've written before about the donation quilts my guild makes to raise money for a camp that serves children with cancer.

Well we were so close to having the next quilt-top finished when I got the "knock on the door."  The quilter with the last block had used a steam iron on it and the blue batik ran...spreading blue into the pink and then as we tried to fix that the blue ran into the orange.

After checking that there was enough fabric to make another if needed...I said a quick prayer to St. Teresa, patron saint of seamstresses, and dunked the entire block into a sink full of soapy warm water....

and then waited...

good news...
it is blue where it is supposed to be blue...pink where it is supposed to be pink and mottled where it is supposed to be mottled.  Phew...

Now to get this top finished and out of my sewing room!  (and back to working on some quilts for the show!)

3 comments:

Sherrill said...

Oh MAN! Another simply GORGEOUS raffle quilt. You guys are winners in making the most beautiful raffle quilts. Hope it raises a ton of money.

Sewing Junkie said...

I have a quilt made with expensive quilting fabric, name brand and I washed it for about the 20th time and it still bleeds. I always wash ahead and still use Color Guard Sheets everytime I was it and I am so surprised when I take it out of the washer as to how much color is on the sheet. I never trust any fabric because of this. When I gift a quilt I gift a box of the Color Guard Sheets also. Saves a lot of frustration. Your work is beautiful. Chris

Judy in Michigan said...

Batiks are notorious for running and yet sometimes it adds to the charm. But not when you want pink to stay pink and beige to stay beige! Glad you could fix the problem. I always put a box of Color Guard in with a gifted quilt as well as a sheet of washing instructions (for the young women especially - no offense). There is a product Retayne? that you use to wash fabrics but I don't know much about it. The raffle quilt is a beauty (as are all your guild quilts!!)