Three years ago my niece was getting married, and I started a quilt using fabrics in the colors they had selected for their wedding. By "started," I mean I bought the fabric! Well, life got in the way, and I just didn't get around to working on it until about a year ago.
Our guild is having its biennial (is that every two years?) quilt show this week, and my goal was to finish the quilt, enter it in the show, and actually have it judged. I've never entered anything into a show before, so I was getting pretty excited.
Finished the quilting, had some blue marks to get out, decided to toss it into a cold-water wash. The backing fabric was a bleeder, but I had washed it multiple times and felt comfortable that the dye was pretty much out of it. To be on the safe side, I tossed in a couple of Color Catchers and some Synthrapol (reminder to self: Buy More Synthrapol!).
When the wash was done, I took a look and just about cried. The back hadn't bled, but two of the fabrics in the top had! I know I had prewashed them, but I guess I hadn't actually verified that they were not bleeders. I ran it through another wash that night, then laid it on the floor so I could take a look at it in the morning (the day the quilt had to be taken to the show). There was still some bleed. I did another cold-water wash and two warm-water washes, each time using Color Catchers and Synthrapol (which is why I need to buy more!). The areas where it had bled were better, but not what I wanted.
I did one final wash in warm water using Oxyclean and YESSSSSSS! It worked! At that point, I didn't have time to let it air dry, so I threw it in the dryer on low (I was using wool batting). It came out a little crinkly, so I pressed it, tossed it back in the dryer to fluff it, and I actually came out with a presentable quilt.
It's been delivered to the show, and all is well. I'm just glad it happened while I had it and not after I had given it to my niece and her husband. I planned to give her a box of Color Catchers, as I always was my quilts with them if they have dark colors in them, but I know she would have taken it out of the wash and tossed it immediately into the dryer. That probably would have set the bleed, and she would have felt as though she'd ruined the quilt. I don't know if she ever would have told me about it!
Sorry this is so long, but it really feels good to get it all out!Thanks for listening/reading!