Wednesday, April 8, 2009

a commercial fabric ran when my quilt was washed



I started this quilt in 1993. I was in 3 states in 1 month that summer. I bought 4 fabrics at each quilt shop I visited in each state. I ended up with 36 fabrics. I started this quilt the summer of 1993 and was working on it the day my grandpa died. I wasn't able to make myself finish the quilt until 2004. A few weeks ago our grandson was sick and he threw up on the edge of the quilt. I had prewashed all my fabrics, I had no concerns about washing this quilt. I put it in the washer for a warm water wash with my regular detergent. I was shocked to see the quilt after it came out of the dryer. The turquoise dye ran everywhere on the quilt. The binding was pieced from the same fabrics as the top and there was also bleeding on the border. It was very disappointing to me and I felt like the quilt was ruined. I asked my fabric dyeing friends (the dyehards) what went wrong and they had an idea of how to fix it. In the process of this discussion I found out that I didn't have my hot water heater set high enough. I did a test and had my husband set it up 1 notch and I did another test. Today I took the time to wash the quilt again. You will find my result below.

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