#1piecemaker

One day it will probably jump up and bite me, but so far, I never pre-wash anything.

valleyquiltermo

I had a lady bring a beautiful hand embroidered quilt top to me and a beautiful batik for me to add the borders to it,
Well since her quilt was all hand done and on white, I decided to wash the batik first and it really bled so I call her and told her and she brought me another fabric but this time a light purple bella solid thenks went well from there.
So I would never use a batik without washing it first. JMHO

Havplenty

yes batiks can be some of the worst bleeders. i handwash (in very hot water) any small pieces of fabric such as fq's. the wash agitator can surely distort them.

ghostrider

As far as mixing prewashed and not prewashed batiks, it's not a problem. Other than the bleeding tendency, it doesn't matter if they're prewashed or not (unless you're going to fuse them) so you wouldn't really need to keep them separate. The 'don't mix' rule applies to regular cottons because the unwashed will shrink and the washed will not, making the quilt pucker unevenly when washed.

LynnVT

I sink wash any fabrics less than a few yards or so. I don't want to put possible bleeders in with anything else, and can't see doing such small amounts of fabric in the machine. That way you can clearly see when the water runs clear, so I just keep filling, soaking, and rinsing until I feel safe about the colors. Batiks vary so much, from brand to brand, and color to color. Best to wash them all just to be sure.

NikkiLu

Absolutely NOT!!!!! I started buying batik fat quarters about a year ago for a pattern - then found another pattern, so decided to buy 1/2 yards - then decided that I really liked the batiks - so graduated to yards. I read so much on here about the batiks bleeding that I decided to see if they did - and boy, did they. I have a pure white dish pan in my kitchen sink and one day it was empty and clean - so I put a drop or two of liquid detergent in the pan with just a little bit of water and gently swished around some fabric - I would then rinse until the water was clear - sometimes it took many, many rinses to become clear. I laid them on big thick towels and rolled them up and then put the fabric over a clothes line that I had my DH to put up in my living room. It did not take them very long to air dry and they did not wrinkle very much either. I would say that a good 1/2 of them did bleed. I actually had to throw away two of them as they never did stop bleeding. I put them in piles of 25 when dry and wound up with more than 200 pieces. I would NEVER use a piece of batik without washing/rinsing it. Like a poster already said - I think that the blues were the worst - along with browns and golds and greens.

NJ Quilter

Interesting comments on batiks bleeding. Maybe I'm lucky. I'm a prewasher anyway and I've only used Hoffman batiks to my knowledge and NEVER had a problem. I couldn't possibly tell you how much they may shrink but I think a small amount as most batiks are more finely woven then regular cottons. But being a tried & true prewasher, I'd always do that.

Maggiem

I've only used Hoffman and Island batiks, but use them all the time, and I've never had any of them bleed into anything, even the blues. I do not pre-wash fabric, and do wash (cool to warm water, gentle cycle, air dry) every quilt that I finish before I give it away.
This works for me!

BKrenning

Purple dye is notoriously unstable--that is why it is harder to find purple fabric. Red is also risky. How many folks are wearing pink underwear & athletic socks right now? I pre-wash all fabric whether it was from the $1 table at Wal-Mart or $11 per yard at the LQS.

Definitely color test each & every batik. Some fabric that looks like a batik is really a print with an over dye. It will shrink a lot more than the true batik. True batiks are boiled to get the wax off so there's not much chance they will shrink but some dyes just don't "take". I love hand-dyes, tie-dyes & most batiks but mixing them with light colors without first testing them is a disaster waiting to happen. Oh, and test in both hot & cold water. I've had a few weird ones over the years that appeared to set in the hot water but when cold water was splashed on them after they were washed, dried & pressed--they ran a little bit.

GrannieAnnie

My preference is that any fabric used in a quilt be prewashed. I will wash fat quarters. I don't jellyrolls however.