Friday 30 March 2012

Recovery

OxyClean, I think I love you. 

Yesterday I washed a quilt - and this is what came out of the dryer. I was so upset.  I spent hours on this quilt, working out the sizes for all the star points.  Cutting and piecing and making sure it lay flat.  Plus, it's the most intricate quilting design I've ever attempted.  And it was ruined on the first washing.

I didn't know what to do, but I headed out to the grocery store to scour the laundry aisle.  I was hoping to find colour catchers, as I've heard people have good luck with those.  But apparently none of the grocers around here carry them.  And Amazon won't ship them to my (Canadian) address.   So in desperation I picked up some Oxy Clean, and decided to try that.  I figured it couldn't hurt, given the state of the poor quilt.  I put the quilt through twice.  First in cold water with Oxy Clean and my detergent. It seemed to have helped a lot, although I could still see some bleeding.  So I took a deep breath, and washed it again - this time in warm water, which is recommended on the Oxy Clean packaging.

It was really hard to tell, while the quilt was wet (because all the seam allowances looked like they bled through the white, when it was soaking wet).  But I figured it was the best I was going to get, and I tossed the quilt back into the dryer.  And low and behold, this is what came out!

It's not perfect.  I can still see that the whites are a bit bluer than they should be.  But there are no more big blue stains across the quilt.  I am so happy!



Here is the finished quilt, pre-washing.  This was a design of my own, and something I'd always wanted to try out.  I gave up early on figuring exact sizes for all the star points, and ended up with a "cut, sew, trim" method which worked out well.


And a close up of some of the quilting, post washing.  I picked a quilting design I found online, and adjusted it slightly to handle the graduated sizes of the white squares.  The original shape when here.  One size down, I pulled the center bit only.  And one size up, I put 4 of these together to make a larger square.

I echo quilted in the blue areas, to highlight the star points.  And did a diagonal cross-hatch in the diamond border.  This is one of my more intricate quilting patterns - both in the design and in the quilting.  I'm very glad I was able to recover it, after the washing disaster last night.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday today.  Drop by see all the fabulous projects.

15 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness!! I would have cried if that GORGEOUS quilt came out of the wash with bleeding!! :-( I'm so glad, for you, that OxyClean mostly fixed it. Whew! I've heard that Canadians can't get color catchers, but some people have found them. Color magnets? There has to be something!
    That quilt is really, really, really beautiful, though. And I love the quilting, too. :)

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  2. WOW! what a quilt! it looks amazing!!! I'm so impressed that you came up with that pattern. it's wonderful. and a big HURRAY for oxi clean! yippee!!!

    thanks for linking up to finish it up Friday!

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  3. I love your Blue and White quilt it is beautiful. The quilting is lovely also.....good job oxi-clean

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  4. You can't get color catchers in Canada? We must work out a way to get them to you! They are wonderful. Saved me quite a few times, even with pre-washed flannel.

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  5. I think you are supposed to use salt (and lots of it) if you think something is going to run.

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  6. We can't buy colour catchers here in Australia! My best dread is this happening to my quilts too! I am so glad it worked out in the end. It is such a pretty quilt!

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  7. So glad that you were able to save your beautiful quilt!! It's absolutely gorgeous! I live in Canada too and finally found some colour catchers in Zellers of all places.

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  8. I have been there right with you and I pre-wash all my reds and dark blues. The color catchers work to a point but I have had things still bleed with them.

    Thankfully it worked out and with time the blueing in the white will fade. It is certainly a work of art, so beautiful.

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  9. Oh my goodness I'm so glad the running dye came out! It's a fabulous quilt!

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  10. Glad everything turned out OK. It's a beautiful quilt. If something like that happens again you might try this process that I use for my hand dyed fabric. Several people have used it on finished quilts and have gotten out all of the migrating color.
    http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/2012/02/an-update-on-my-colorfastness-post.html

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  11. With a quilt that gorgeous, it must have been devastating. Thanks for the advice.

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  12. They sell a product at Fabricland that removes dye. It did a decent job on my white sweater that turned blue; the sweater still has a bit of a blue cast to it, but I was ready to throw it away before I washed it with the dye remover. I think it's called Dylon Colour Run Remover.

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  13. Thanks for this. I have Oxy Clean on hand. Your quilt is beautiful so glad you were able to save it.

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  14. it is a beautiful quilt. I learned long ago that denture cleanser tablets take out most any stains and brighten. soak in a couple of tablets and resoak until clean. its very gentle which is why antique people use it on linens, doll clothes, etc. hope this works...curious to know if you prewashed with anything.

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  15. Beautiful quilt. I buy Dr. Beckmann sheets in my Real Canadian SuperStore and they work great. http://en.dr-beckmann.ca/products/colour-protection-products/colour-dirt-collector/

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