Monday, March 27, 2017

When to Say "When"

How many?

Convinced a navy batik would be the "ideal" background for Rainbow Radiance, I stopped at Twisted Sisters Quilt Shop in Maryville on my way to Pigeon Forge last week and found this:


I washed it once in the hotel laundry with two Color Catchers and they came out just about as blue as the fabric.  So I decided to go with my original plan of a gray background.

Rainbow Radiance - Donna Lynn Thomas design
I certainly didn't want all the effort of those tiny HSTs to be ruined by a bleeding blue background!

Now home, I have washed it twice more, each time with two Color Catchers.


There's still blue coming out of the fabric.  So here's my question:  Would it be better to use more Color Catchers at one time?  I've heard people say they use as many as 5 or 6. I don't understand the science of how they work at all.  Or should I use another product?



8 comments:

  1. I might be tempted to try Retayne on the fabric.

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    1. I was thinking that, but don't understand the science of that, either. Plus I confuse the purposes of Retayne and Synthropol ...

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    2. A friend of my dyes all of his own fabrics and here's the info he gave me: Synthropol is used when you are dying your own fabrics. Retayne is used on fabrics that have been commercially dyed that are bleeding (which is your situation). When I had red fabric that was bleeding on my holiday wreath quilt, I used Retayne on it. It definitely helped. If you decide to try it, just make sure that you have a washer that is a top loader that you can over-fill and you want to fill it with HOT water - as hot as your machine will allow. The hot water pulls out the excess color and the Retayne attaches itself to the color in the water and rinses away. I hope that makes sense.

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  2. (That blue would have been amazing as a background!)
    I've seen a great tutorial on using Dawn to rescue a quilt that has had a fabric bleed, but I don't know if it works as a preventative.
    http://www.colorwaysbyvicki.com/save-my-bleeding-quilt.html
    Good luck!

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  3. I've been told to use a lot of color catchers when I wash darker fabrics. Haven't tried it since my one and only problem with bleeding in a finished quilt.

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  4. I have no idea baout the blue - but that block!!! I love it!

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  5. Yep, Retayne. You can remember because it helps retain the color! I hope you get it stabilized so you can use it because it is a pretty fabric. The block is great with the gray, though.

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  6. I don't know about the colour catchers, though you see to have that covered in the comments here. I'm not surprised you went back to the grey though, it's such a pretty design it would be awful to see it ruined.

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