a laundry lesson

I had one of those 'I can't believe this happened' moments recently after I washed this quilt.

It had been on our bed for awhile and was due for some cleaning. I don't wash my quilts very much, and I don't often pre-wash the fabrics before cutting and sewing. It was made of good quality fabrics that came from Bear Patch, designed by Kaye England and used for a class I taught. I should have taken a close-up picture of it after that first wash so you could understand my dismay. There were reddish dye splotches all over the light colored areas. Horrors! I was so disgusted that I just folded it up and put it out of sight.

Last time I was out running errands, I stopped at a WalMart to look for Shout Color Catcher sheets (our local grocery store, Soderquist's, doesn't stock them).

That purplish blob in front of the box is what happened to the plain white color catcher sheet after it went through another wash with my poor quilt. I also threw in that cloth just to the left which is another 'dye magnet' cloth that had been sort of off-white before it went in this load. It is a re-useable cloth, as opposed to the Shout product that is intended as one-time use. The Shout sheet is more like a paper towel/softener sheet.

Well, I couldn't be happier with the result--

No trace of excess dyes running where they aren't supposed to be! I really had not expected this to work as well as it did, but I am now a True Believer! If you want to give it a try, I even found this offer for a free sample. I have no idea how these products work, especially since the dye magnet cloth seems just like a piece of ordinary terry cloth, so maybe that's really all it is and I could just save a few cents and toss in a wash cloth. I was pretty amazed at the dark color that showed up on the Shout sheet, so I think that probably makes the expense justifiable!