This reflection of my laundry tub tap, my friends, is perfectly clean drinking water (in an old orange bucket) after I hand-rinsed a few pieces of dark coloured fabric!
I used to pre-wash all my fabric on the advice of a friend who has been quilting for many years.
Then I started taking classes and my new teacher said it was better to sew with the sizing in the fabric. Plus I think I just got lazy!
But when my sewing machine looked like this after attaching the binding,
I decided I should pre-wash; at least all my homespun (made somewhere in Asia) fabrics.
So, on Thursday, I emptied several buckets of water that looked like that, and washed dozens of metres of fabric. I have yet to iron all of them but my DD (who has returned home to prepare their house for the move and the rental market) did iron some of them – eight half-metre pieces (thanks DD).
My washing line looked like this pretty much all day (the temperature here was 30°C (86°F) with a constant breeze so it was a good day for me to get a whole lot washed and dried.
This was the first load (of light colours) and, although it may not look like it, there are fourteen pieces of fabric hanging there in the sunshine!
And this, my friends, is what the two-and-a-half seater lounge in our family room looks like at the moment.
Anyone want to do some ironing in return for food and a comfortable bed? LOL
No thanks to the ironing. At least it's plain ironing, no tucks or pleats or buttons.
ReplyDeleteThe only fabrics that I don't wash are precuts like charms, layer cakes, jelly rolls, and the fabrics I use to back and bind those quilt tops. I don't buy many precuts.
ReplyDeleteI've gotten lazy about that too. I always wash reds, but othwise, it's hit or miss.
ReplyDeleteI washed all my fabrics when I started quilting but I don't bother any more. I couldn't stand ironing the long lengths or even the small bits. I have been lucky so far.
ReplyDeleteI don't usually wash quality quilt fabrics. I want the fabric and batting to shrink together. But I have gotten some badly dyed fabric like that before.What a mess it makes.
ReplyDeleteYou never do things by halves, do you?! Once these are finished, when you do them as you need them, it will not be so overwhelming!
ReplyDeleteMy a Mum quilter and she always washes the reds and darker colours too.
ReplyDeleteI don't fancy all the ironing Lynne LOL :)
Oh my goodness! It's a good reminder...I've been awfully lazy about pre-washing :(
ReplyDeleteI always prewash, don't always get it ironed. That's been my weekend job in between stitching.
ReplyDeletethere are just some fabrics I am always going to wash. Blues, reds, and purples. Had to many of those colors bleed later.
ReplyDelete