Are you spring cleaning? I am. Room by room. Drawer by drawer. Dust bunny by dust bunny.
And….I’m catching up on pre-washing my fabric.
Do you prewash? Some quilters do; some don’t. I won’t argue about it. However, I have found that some fabrics of saturated color do release color in the wash, and I, for one, would not like that excess color to turn up as stains on lighter colors. Believe me; it happens.
Also, I even wash the lighter colors if the fabric seems a little stiff or managed to get itself wrinkled.
What I do is separate the piles of my stash into similar colors. Today is St. Patrick’s Day, so I did green!! I serge the raw edges to prevent raveling. Then I put them in the washer with a “Color Catcher,” warm water and laundry detergent. You can use special soap if you like or omit the soap, but I like to see how the fabric does in “real” use.
If there’s a lot of color caught, I wash it again and again until not much comes out on a new white color catcher sheet. I’ve never used vinegar, but if you want to, it supposedly sets the color. Ask an expert, not me.
Then I dry the load in the dryer and pull it out when freshly dried to fold before it gets wrinkled!
I myself have another step. I make a little tag that gives the date, price, and yardage and staple it on the edge. It coincides with my spreadsheets, but doing spreadsheets is more for business purposes. Still, it IS nice to be able to glance to see how much fabric there is without having to remeasure. After using some of the fabric, I change the measurement to the amount left.
So part of MY spring cleaning is playing with fabric! That’s the fun part. I get to look at it, think about it, caress it, and maybe even make a plan to use it! Hey, we’re “collectors,” right?
No new pattern this week, but I renewed an old coupon. If you read all the way down to here, you deserve a little treat. Use TULO19 for $3.00 off any sale. That’ll make some of the patterns just .50! So it’s a great time to try one!
Happy green day!