Red/Neutral Quilts

You would think with all the red/neutral quilts that I have made over the years, that I would have experienced bleed out problems with the reds .... but no .... I've been lucky and I will share what I do to omit that issue.  This is my method and it works for me.

All my fabrics are washed once they get home from the fabric store, quilt guild, thrift shops.  They are washed in cold water using Tide soap.  I cut up a colour catcher sheet in strips and spread them out in the washing machine (I prefer a top load washer).  If there is a lot of red/pink in the colour catcher strips, I do a wash again with new colour catcher strips.  The second time in the wash, the strips usually are a light pink.  At this point, the fabric is good to go into the dryer.

After my quilts are quilted, they are washed.  Cold water and Tide soap and another colour catcher sheet that has been cut into strips and distributed in the washer.  If the strips come out a medium pink, the quilt is washed again using new colour catcher strips.  At the end of the second wash, if the strips are barely pink, then into the dryer the quilt goes.

Now, some of my quilts (along with all of the colour catcher strips) are totally dried in the dryer and some are dried on a clothes rack.   If a quilt will be dried on a clothes rack, the quilt goes into the dryer for about 10 mins. (along with all the colour catcher strips) and then onto the rack. Below is how this quilt is drying on the clothes rack.  Do I get nervous that there might still be some bleed out when drying on a rack?  Heck, YES.   Some of the backings that are lighter in colour have splotches of pink that shouldn't be there.  Am I worried about them?  Nope .... it is on the back.

By the way, the above is how all my fabrics and quilts are washed and dried.  We can also have bleed outs from other fabric colours.

Now, sit back and enjoy seeing all of my red/neutral quilts that have been made so far.  I still have oodles of red fabrics ..... so more red quilts will be coming.

This quilt below had blocks that were swapped between three people and I know that there are some fabrics in those blocks that were not washed before sending to me.  I just went with my washing the quilt method and no bleed outs.

So, now you know ....

I have a tab at the top of my blog for all my red/neutral quilts along with the washing instructions.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!