To Pre- Wash or Not to Pre-Wash?

That is the question.
Whether you bring home  a few fat quarters or a big bag of new fabrics, you have a decision to make before you take that fabric to your sewing room.

You have just two choices:

1. Leave it in the laundry room until you have time to pre-wash and dry it all. (Then to the ironing board to press, fold and store in whatever system you have developed that enables some possibility of finding it again.)

 Or

 2. Skip all but the last step. Bring it straight to your sewing area, put it away and use it as needed.

We can all see why #2 is the choice for many quilters. But. I am not one of them.  I pre-wash everything.

Technically, I should say pre-soak since I don't use soap. I use cold water and a big pure white plastic bowl from the $1 store. (A white dish washing tub will work, too.)
This allows me to see any dye creeping out into the water. Sometimes it is immediate. If so I drain and refill with cold water.
(Investigate the product Retayne if something keeps bleeding and re-think using the piece in your project)

Even if nothing shows up at first, leave it there for maybe 20 minutes. Most fabrics hold excess dye. It can come out now, or after the first time water hits it. After spending months or years making a quilt for yourself or for a gift that is a risk you take.


The photos you see are of high quality batik scraps given to me by friends contributing to a quilt I'm making. All told me the fabric was not pre-washed so I grouped the scraps by color and these photos are typical of the results.

There are varying opinions on this issue. Some say blues and reds may bleed (see the gold/yellow above). Others say today's fabrics really don't "bleed much". Not true.



If you make bed quilts and want them to be used as such, they will be washed at some point. To me, it makes sense to minimize the possibility of ruining a quilt the first time it's washed.
Wall hangings may be an exception as they are rarely washed but it makes sense to be consistent.  If you have not previously pre-washed and believe you should start, you can usually tell pre-washed pieces by the somewhat frayed edges. When in doubt, just soak the questionable fabric before using to be sure. Then from now on, pre-wash any new fabrics you acquire.
Besides the risk of dye bleeding, other benefits of pre-washing include shrinking the fabric and removing sizing chemicals.

There is no guarantee that pre-washing will prevent all bleeding. The first time or two I wash a quilt I am cautious. I used cool water and mild detergent. I toss in several dye catcher sheets and examine the quilt when it comes out of the washer. I use medium heat in the dryer and watch it carefully. I find the quicker it dries the less chance of darker colors seeping into the light areas.
For me, part of the pleasure of textiles is handling and admiring them so I relax and enjoy the process and I sleep well knowing that I've done what I can to minimize 'bleeding' later.

To read a past post about my quilt washing experience with details about my process click here.

Born Again - The Journey of a Cherished Quilt

My wedding quilt
Made by Aunt Agnes

     Sometime last fall I tackled the storage room in our lower level. “Something has to be done about all this stuff,” I moaned in despair, not for the first time. But for some reason I was in the mood and who knew how long it would last.

In one very large moving box I found blankets and several quilts made by my Aunt Agnes. One had been mine when I was a young girl. I'll tell you about that one later. 

     The others were in her favorite design, the log cabin. She made them entirely with available scraps, in about the 1960’s. She had to make do with lights that were not all very light and darks that were not always so dark. The photo of my wedding quilt is a good example. (click here for the wedding quilt story)

The overall design, therefore, is more casual than those 'perfect' ones that had plenty of fabrics to give the best contrast. . . like this one:

My collection
c. 1890

 Or these two - enough fabric to create truly striking textiles.

Now this quilt maker had the idea but something happened. Either she had an artistic inspiration or she was ready to be done with cutting strips!

So. . .  back to my salvage project.

   
     All of this quilts in this box had seen heavy use and were badly worn but one in particular was worn within an inch of its life. To me, throwing away a quilt is akin to heresy; especially one made by my aunt, but the fact is, quilts have a life as do all textiles and storage  areas have finite space. Quilts that are made to be used, as the majority were, are going to wear out. Repeated washing, handling, bodily oils, spills, stains, accidents - there just comes a time, and that time comes even more quickly when some the fabrics in it have already served for some years - perhaps as a dress, blouse, apron or curtains.

    I studied this beat up quilt trying to find at least a few adjoining blocks that were not a complete loss. I wanted so badly to salvage at least part of it. That would make me feel better about what I had to do with the rest of it.

     I was able to isolate nine blocks, set three by three, that were less disintegrated than others.  “This could be a baby quilt or a lap quilt for someone, couldn’t it?” I asked myself

     I picked up  my dressmaking shears and -GULP - cut around those nine blocks through all layers leaving a generous edge.
    As I began the repairs, I found more that needed to be patched than I thought. I cut out the approximate shape to cover each worn log, folded back the edges and zig-zagged (that's right) a patch over the worn out piece through all layers. My mother had previously attempted to do this by hand in a few places. I remember her asking me for some fabrics strips.
Finally, I felt I had taken care of the worst of it. I basted it onto a new backing to hide the unsightly mending stitches and freshen it up. The original quilt was hand quilted in the ditch. Now it was four layers. 

     It sat in a pile for several months. I surely was not interested in hand quilting it or taking the time and thread to machine quilt it. My enthusiasm for the project waned. 

     Fast forward to last week when I got motivated to move some things OUT of my pile of UFO's.  My word for this year is EXPERIMENT and with half the year gone I had to admit that I had not been very experimental. 

      I remembered reading something that I wanted to try sometime; tying a quilt with your sewing machine – and yarn. This would be an experiment and a quick finish! I spent some time looking for the notebook in which I saved that article to no avail. Then remembered that I was living in the 21^st century and Googled it. I quickly found several videos of machine ‘tying’. None used the yarn technique but I remembered the general idea.

Here is the cut down quilt at the machine, pin basted and ready to go

What to use for yarn?

   
Years ago I had taken apart an old hand knit sweater of thick blue wool yarn. I cut segments of about 1”, and used a wide zigzag to secure them to the quilt.

Here is the original yellow quilt back showing the hand quilting. You see the wrong side of the new blue and white backing. I've applied a few ties.  

I did not cut the thread - just moved on to the next yarn tie

     I love how wool yarn ties “ball up” when washed so after completing that process and applying, by machine, an acceptable binding, the reborn quilt was ready for the wash. I discovered by pre-soaking that it was quite dirty. Who knows when it had last been washed. Then I tossed it in the washing machine with soap and agitation followed by the dryer, on hot.

Success! The hoped for results. 

Before and after washing

 THE NEW QUILT

36" square

     By now you may be thinking, is she NUTS?  I’ve asked myself that question more than once. But I have to tell you, I feel good about doing this. Remember, this is not "restoration". This is not a museum quality piece. This is repair. Good old mending. It's what woman over hundreds of years have done to extend the life of clothing, quilts and other textiles. That's all it is -  but this little quilt is going to Goodwill and who knows where from there? I believe someone will find a use for it. Maybe it will end up overseas helping someone in a disaster area. Maybe it will warm the knees and heart of a wheelchair patient at the care facility down the road. I don’t know. But I believe and  I take comfort in knowing that a part of Agnes’s quilt, and thus Agnes, lives on, ready to serve; ready for new adventures.

Embroidered Crib Quilts Part II

hand quilted

Here are a few more of my embroidered crib quilts along with one recent purchase that I assume to be for a doll.
Of the quilts shown in this and the previous post, you can probably tell which ones were kits; certainly those with pre-quilted backgrounds would have been and the central motif styles as well.
The individual blocks such as the previous Scottie and the others with miscellaneous animal images were probably available commercial motifs which were set in various ways by individual makers.

The Maypole

Applique combined with embroidery

35 x 48

Here is one that stands out as different from the other examples in a couple of ways. It's a bit larger in size and many of the blocks include a name or initials indicating that several ladies contributed to the work. 

51" x 70"

Unusual, too, is the setting which groups the bigger motifs in the central portion with the blocks on three edges quite different; all with small motifs that are unsigned. Maybe the maker wanted the quilt to be bigger but in the interest of time, those simpler blocks served to extend the size.


The elaborate lettering style of the names and initials lends a personal and decorative  touch but sadly, no one thought to add a date. Redwork embroidery was popular around the turn of the 20th century so I would date this c. 1910.

And last but not least is this little single layer of plain white cotton embroidered with the adorable Teddy Bear images produced by Willliam Pinch and the Rainbow Quilt Block Company in the 1930's 

 It is bound with what appears to be a commercial bias tape. 

17" x 20"

and....

Click Here

to see my blog on an embroidered top that I took apart and the

 'new' projects I made with the rescued blocks

Embroidered Crib Quilts Part I

hand quilted in simple grid

As promised in my last post, here are some embroidered vintage crib quilts from my collection. You'll recall that my sister noticed the cross-stitched outline of  the images in the little quilt I showed in my last blog.  She thought that was unusual and she was right. The stem or outline stitch is the most common technique used in thirteen examples in my collection. Most use two or more strands of six strand embroidery thread but some use a single twist, probably perle cotton, which has a different look.


 Here's part one. Click on any image for a closer look.
 You'll notice a theme.

30 x 34

Outline stitch in black

More animals:

33 x 40

tiny motifs!

simple grid hand quilted overall

 A prayer - with animals

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep  33 x 53

machine quilted through motifs

Bambi ...with  -you guessed it, animal friends

Pre-quilted background

Bambi  35 x 55

Hot Air Balloon with ..... bear and  bunny

 32 x 43
Pre-quilted back. The maker applied a fleece backing - probably to cover the embroidery threads.

No outlining - all cross-stitch



Celestial Bears

Motifs defined with short straight stitches
Hand quilted with gold thread

41 x 54


Early to Bed

 Cross-stitched except for outline stitches for the face and hands
Done on prequilted back

36 x 57


Scotties

35 x 51

Each with a different comment. This one, " Wake up"
Hand Quilted


Ring Around A Rosy

 33 x 44

Again all cross-stitching


I have a few more embroidered examples that are not animal themed. I'll post them at the end of the week and then move on to share with you a couple of recent "salvage" projects

and

someday, I'll feature my pieced and appliqued crib quilts....

One Two Buckle my Shoe

      I recently attended a week long Writer's Conference in Green Lake, Wisconsin. I was tired as I set out for the six hour drive home, alone. My book on tape was putting me to sleep.  I had to stop often to stay awake. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I pulled over to stretch my legs near any antique shop or book store.
     Some time ago I decided not to add any more vintage quilts to my collection. Avoiding antique stores makes that easier but you guessed it. I found a quilt I had to buy. My 'rule' has a few exceptions - one being finding something I like that is so inexpensive that I can't pass it up.
       A dusty, cluttered little shop inhabited by an elderly lady reading a book in the middle of the floor, her little dog beside her, didn't look too promising. I scanned the room and wondered if I could politely make a quick exit. But then I thought, "As long as I'm here... you never know"....
       Up a rickety flight of stairs, the ceiling so low I had to crouch, I found a little crib quilt, not too clean, binding gone on one side and the rest faded and frayed. A tiny blank piece of paper about 1" x 1/2" was attached to the bottom of one corner with a straight pin.

 I couldn't read the price; she couldn't either. I waited.

"How about four dollars?" she said looking up at me.

I brought it home, worked on a couple of spots, and pushed it into the washing machine. Much better!

Binding Removed 

I took off the binding and found a good blue in my stash of solids. I trimmed the rough edges a bit and applied the new binding.










     My sister noticed that the animals were outlined in cross-stitch and thought that was unusual. That detail had escaped me and when I checked my other embroidered crib quilts I found she was right. None are outlined with cross-stitch. (I'll talk more about that and show my other examples in my next post)

The embroidery is done on a pre-quilted white cotton background as were many kits. Some work at hiding the threads in the batting layer.
This maker just left the ends of the threads showing on the back.







Here it is, rebound and refreshed ....

33" X 44"

Very sweet, don't you think?

ETC.

Here's a pair of pillowcases I also was unable to pass up on a different road trip. I do have a lot - I swore I would buy no more - but kitties? I didn't have kitties!

Rules are made to be broken.

Agreed?