will definitely have to try out the home-made version - i seem to use packets and packets of these... of course as i put them in every wash of new fabrics - in every wash of a quilt - in many of my clothing loads (i wear a lot of black - and often just mix the colored stuff and sometime even a white shirt or two in the same load - with the color catchers that is absolutely no problem)...

thank you for your reminder norma - forgot all about your email - yup - was a bit very busy lately - that too shall pass - and i do truly love my job
sent you an email by return

Clever

lotti wrote: Just checked your link out - WOW! a whole new source of random hand-dye fabrics for piecing with!

Lotti, I'm so glad you posted this. We dyers have the stuff in the house. A real moneysaver.

Another thing: I sent you a message some time ago via TQS. It seems that you have been too busy to read it. Hint: we are near Nov. 28

And remember, whenever a new quilt goes into the washer: those color catchers ( whatever brand, or even homemade : http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/08/make-your-own-laundry-color-catchers.html ), are your Best Friend!

That's a great tutorial, I liked her tip about how to block when you don't have a carpet to pin into!
The only thing I would make a comment on, is if I use the blue washout marking pen on the quilt, I would only use plain water in the
first soaking, because soap would cause problems with removing the blue marks.
I see that she has other tutorials also. I've bookmarked this one so i can find it again easily.
Margo, thanks for trolling the internet to find us this info!
Kathy

Thanks Margo

Very nice instructions, Margo. Thanks for the link!

Nancy

I just ran across this excellent tutorial about blocking a quilt for competition:

http://www.traceypereira.com/2010/08/how-to-block-quilt.html

Wendy, when I wet my quilts it is usually in the washing machine. I use the spin cycle to get a lot of the water out. sometimes I dry the quilt in the dryer so it's nearly dry. sometimes I lay out the quilt on a plastic tarpaulin and thick towels on the living room floor, patting it into place.

The wrinkles that appear in the quilt are from shrinkage, which I actually like the look of. If you want a crisp, unwrinkled surface on your quilt probably the best thing to do is keep it away from water.

I've never ironed a quilted quilt, so don't have any info on how that would turn out.I don't have a carpet to pin a quilt into, can't make any comments on how that goes either

Kathy

twiglet wrote:
"Luckily" my cats are fairly destructive, so I have several rooms where nobody is allowed.

Nancy

In the process of laying it out to dry, you are using pins to pull out all those wrinkles (although I like the wrinkles so unless it is going in a show, I don't worry about them). REMEMBER: use pins that will not rust!!!!!

Must be why I made it smaller. No Nowhere in our house that doesn't get walked on by 16 furry feet.

Wendy, if you follow the directions from Nancy, particularly the laying out (nice & smoothly) & leaving it to dry, I think that you will be very pleased with the results. The only problem is finding a large enough space to leave it out flat to dry, that won't get walked on