Follow-up

Forgot to mention in previous post that I put 2 color-catcher sheets in the bathtub with the quilt and of course they turned red, red, red! NancyH

Help - my quilt faded!

I'm hoping someone can help me out here.....about 7 years ago I made a queen-size stack&whack quilt using dark reds as background and a floral print with a cream background for the stars. I pre-washed all my fabric. Now, 7 years later, I decided I needed to wash this quilt, which has been living on my bed. (I've tossed it in the dryer on "air" numerous times but never really washed it). So I put it in the bathtub and used a mild shampoo with cold water. The water looked like a scene from Psycho! But I didn't realize until I hung it outside to dry that the red bled into the cream background................and not, mysteriously, onto the bleached muslin I used for backing! It's not hideous, but I sure would like to have that light background in my stars back again. Right now it's kind of a light-medium pinkish color. Is there any way that I could only work with these stars (there are 12 of them, 12" square) to get some of that color out? Thanks! I haven't posted in a while on this board, but I read it all the time and enjoy seeing all the pictures and reading your stories! NancyH

Why you'll want to prewash those fabrics

I don't post on this page often, but I need to remind everyone about prewashing.
I recently bought some 1/2 yd. cuts of Benartex and Moda Xmas theme fabrics from a local (independent) shop for a project. In the past few years I've recently gone back to pre-washing my quilt fabrics, and here's a good reason why:

I tossed all the fabrics into the same Warm wash/ Low dry cycle. One of the Benartex fabrics came out 39" wide. Back at the store, on the bolt, the difference is not very noticeable. When I took the fabric back to compare it to the unwashed on the bolt, the fabric had shrunk up two inches in the width.

Most quilters buy X amount of fabric for specific projects. If this had been my case, I would have had to buy more fabric, and hope it wasn't sold out by the time I returned. Fortunately for me, I had "bought long" and won't be hurt by this. Benartex will be hearing from me, though.

It really does pay to prewash.