dflynn

I brought fat quarter batik [red white and blue]. I going to use white background [kona]. I am worry about the color running on the white when washed when finished. Should I wash the fabric before cutting it. I have heard that Batik runs a lot. It you think I should wash before cutting, should I also wash the Kona for shrinkage. I appreciate any help you can give me.

Faintly Artistic

Couldn't hurt, if you're wondering, it's better to be safe than sorry. I am (finally) starting to listen to those little nagging feelings....

Watson

With batiks, I run them under water and then squeeze them to see if they are going to run. If they do, I continue to do that until they stop running, THEN I wash them. Even if they don't run, I'd still wash them.
I would also wash the white (separately of course).
Then I'd use a colour catcher when you wash the finished quilt.
(Can you tell I've had a problem with this before?)

Watson

quiltingshorttimer

take a piece of white paper and rub HARD on the batik--if you don't get any color at all, then go ahead and cut & sew, and just make sure to wash the quilt with color catchers. If you get any color on that paper--then wash away!

Prism99

You can test with a small scrap of each fabric. Drop both in water, let soak for awhile, then smooth then out on top of each other on a paper towel to dry. If there is no dye in the water and if no dye transfers to the white, you do not need to prewash.

If there is some slight dye bleed, you can still skip prewashing if you plan to do the first wash of the quilt with Synthrapol in either a domestic top loader or large laundromat front loader. Synthrapol works best with hot water and lots of it; domestic front loaders often do not use enough water for this.

Kitsie

I've found that some batiks bleed horribly and others, not at all. The fabrics I buy (good brand names) have never bled but I was gifted with a lovely bunch from the island of Bali.

I'm SO glad that I tested one piece by soaking in hot water. With mine, the bleeding was almost instant and it bled a lot! I machine washed following directions on the bottle of Retayne and just last night finished ironing them!

Normally I do not pre-wash fabrics but this time with the intense colors I did.

Boston1954

I would wash them separately with color catchers.

MarionsQuilts

I love batiks!!!!! BUT, I only buy the expensive ones because .... they don't run! I never wash my fabric before I quilt. And I always wash my quilts when I am finished, I have never had any run!

juliea9967

I always wash all of my fabrics before using them. I always wash them with color catchers. Not only does this eliminate shrinking and bleeding problems, it removes all chemicals used, and this has made a big difference in my hands/skin problems.

Treasureit

I would use retayne to fix the dye.