In the past couple of weeks I was with a group of quilters where the conversation turned to bleeding colours in quilts when they are washed. It immediately brought to mind this article I read on Vicki Welsh’s Blog Field Trips in Fiber. Vicki is an incredibly gifted quilter, and she also sells her own hand dyed fabric. She has researched the topic in depth and has found the best way of saving a bleeding quilt. I don’t have any affiliation with her. But I have had occasion to use her method. I had a quilt ruined, or so I thought, by the blue dye in the backing fabric running. It turned all the creams and whites in the quilt an ugly shade of blueish grey. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose, so I tried her method, and was amazed at how well it worked, and at how much dye was released into the water. There are a few links here all to Vicki’s blog. The first couple of links are examples of quilts that she owns that have had issues with fabric colours bleeding that her method has fixed. The third is a detailed explanation of the research she put into finding the fix. The fourth link is the printable instructions.
The Fabric Burped
Catastrophe Averted
Bleeding Quilts, the Fix is in
Save My Bleeding Quilt
I hope you never have to use this, but I can speak from experience, it works.