Salijo,
I'm interested to see the answers too because I may not be doing this the way others do. But I wash everything, including batiks and fat quarters, in hot water and dry it on hot too. I haven't used dye catchers because I didn't know about them until I read the posts on this forum. I'm always confident that no matter how the finished quilt is treated, it won't shrink!

Kate

I agree with Kate. I wash everything in hot water with Tide and dry in a hot dryer. I've never used the dye catchers but I don't put really different colors together. Some expensive fabrics I zigzag the cut edges so they don't ravel so bad. If I wash scraps I put them in mesh bags.
Pat

If you're going to prewash fat quarters or small lengths of fabric, you can do it in the sink.

Use very hot water, a small amount of your favorite detergent. Soak them for a while, then rinse until you're sure the water is running clean. Hang or lay flat until almost dry, and then iron them.

Personally, I don't prewash anymore. (I do test fabrics with hot water and a bit of muslin to see if it actually bleeds.) I just use dye-catchers in the first wash. I enjoy the differential shrinkage that give me the puffiness I expect in a quilt.

"Personally, I don't prewash anymore. (I do test fabrics with hot water and a bit of muslin to see if it actually bleeds.) I just use dye-catchers in the first wash. I enjoy the differential shrinkage that give me the puffiness I expect in a quilt."

I don't either, unless it's a prerequisite for sharing and is specified that is how it has to be done. I also like the differential shrinkage, as it adds some character to the quilts if you are striving for antique looking. Of course, if I expect trouble, like with blacks or think the material looks cheaply made or smell of the dying process, and I do prewash flannels because they sometimes shrink like crazy.

Color catchers are formulated to catch "loose" molecules of dye left in fabric from the manufacturing. So pre wash of fabrics is really more about those extra dye molecules than the shrinking. When I hand dye, I use color catchers and wash three times and still might get some bleeding. So I'm a firm believer in pre-wash with color catchers. You can tell from the color catcher sheet if it picked up anything. If it is almost white, you're successful and it won't bleed on the white fabric sewn next to it.

I would wash smaller pieces in the sink as described; machine agitation with bigger pieces of fabrics could cause them to ravel badly.

You can "wash" quilts and fabrics in the machine - by hand! Run water (hot, warm, or cold) in the washing machine, add detergent, agitate machine just briefly to get the detergent completely dissolved and mixed into the water. Stop the action, add your fabrics (or quilt) and agitate with your hands and arms to move the fabric vigorously in the water/detergent. Let the fabrics sit for about 10 minutes and manually agitate again for 1-2 minutes. Let sit again for 5-10 minutes then drain out the wash water and fill with clean water. Agitate with your hands in the clean water, let sit, then drain out water and spin to extract as much water as possible.

Now you can air dry on racks or tumble briefly in a warm dryer. I like to iron the fabrics while they are still just a little bit damp.

I know this sounds like a lot of work....but you won't have the raveling that often occurs when you machine wash fabrics.

Teresa

I always wash my fabric. With the sizes you have (and laundry in the basement), I'd do them in the sink. I especially throw in a color catcher when doing dark fabrics and it always comes out yucky grey.

Sharon/geezermom

I don't pre-wash most things, but if it's a requirement for a swap or a certain quilt, then I will wash fatquarters in the washer on hot with color catcher and in a hot dryer. If you clip the corners and clip along the sides some or use pinking shears or a pinking rotary blade it does help some with raveling, but you're going to get lots of strings and some shrinkage when you throw them in the washer. You could also put them in a lingerie bag or pillowcase to help with fraying. And I don't think anyone's mentioned, don't put in fabric softener in washer or dryer.

The quilt I posted this week was all batik I never washed the fabric first, washed it after I put the binding on, used 4 color catchers on a normal cycle in the washer and high spin, put it in the dryer and it came out just fine no running of the colors at all.
Gillian.

I always pre-wash with color catchers. Smaller pieces I wash in the sink, hot water, small amount of detergent, and rinse several times. I roll them in a microfiber towel that gets most of the water out, then iron dry. If you decide to machine wash them, clip the corners and they will ravel much less. Mesh bags are handy if all the pieces are the same color, but I have found if you fill the bag they may not rinse well.

beverly

I prewash pieces small enough in my white kitchen sink. I got a bottle of Synthrapol and Retayne from my quilt shop. If it's dark red, pinks, brown, or navy I do Retayne, and then Synthrapol. Otherwise I just do Synthrapol. I do all my like colors one piece at a time, but one after the other in the same water so I can judge how much it darkens the water.

These pieces could have chosen for a totally hand pieced GFG with a white border around each flower, or for my own scrappy apple core that has white pieces scattered throughout. Bleeding fabric on one her blocks already pushed my mom to the brink of insanity. I couldn't take a the tiniest risk of that happening again!

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. Please keep posting if anyone has anything to add!
Salijo

I hate to tell you this, but washing is no guarantee that fabrics won't bleed later. I have no idea why, but even fabric from the same bolt might act differently. Just yesterday, I had a small scrap of RJR panel print to make a label for a quilt. Spritzed it a bit first with cold water to press first, and very soon, the reds ran. All the fabrics were rinsed in cold water before I used them, and nothing ran.
So, I got another idential scrap, and rinsed it in cold water first, to check. No running. Huh? So I got another and spritzed it. No running. It was all from the same bolt. Hmmmm. I guess I will just use one that didn't run. Go figure. I'm left to wonder what will happen if the quilt itself ever gets washed. It would not be the first time I've had this happen.
BlueBars

What is the brand name(s) for dye catchers or color catchers?

Bluebars--and that's why all my fabrics get washed in HOT water with Orvus and rewashed and rewashed until they completely stop leaching dye into the sink. I wash them in a white enamel sink so that I can see any color in the water. Better safe than sorry.

Carole--Shout makes color catcher sheets. I get mine in the laundry section at Walmart. They look like dryer sheets.

Annie

Yes, I recently used the Shout Color Catcher, having read abt them here.

I'd mentioned on another thread, abt having bought an Indigo & white batik cotton shirt w/ a Ralph Lauren label which was labeled tho' I rcognized it as Indonesian made batik. The intensity & darkness of the look of the Indigo suggested it'd bleed in the wash. When I ran them in the wash together, the color catcher ended up a mottled lavendar/gray, you can see it's residual dyestuff.

I'll probably run it again in a load of dark wash just in case.

I prewash most fabrics the minute I come home with them, and I use hot water, detergent, and a Shout Color Catcher. That way, no unpleasant surprises later! If I had to wash FQs or smaller, I would do them by hand in the kitchen sink.

I can remember more than one fabric that I rinsed in cold water, and saw the water change color. If it runs now, it will run later. Cut off a 1-inch square first and set it aside. You can rinse the fabric so many times that the fabric is no longer the same color. Compare it with the little square you set aside, and you might be very surprised.
If I MUST use that fabric, I will treat it first with Retayne. But my first choice would be to use a different fabric, because I prefer to avoid such chemicals.
If a fabric runs AFTER a quilt is made, Synthrapol can sometimes remove excess dye.
RETAYNE is used to set dye. SYNTHRAPOL is used to suspend and carry excess dye away.
BlueBars

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.quiltbus.com/retayne.htm