Color Catchers

Yesterday I finished another quilt and decided I needed to wash both of the red and black quilts to see how much bleeding I got from the unwashed black strips.  If you know me or follow me closely you will know I pre-wash everything… everything… Well everything except pre-cut strips from Jelly Rolls, Tonga Treats, Bali Pops, etc… it’s not smart washing those.  And it really really bothered me using unwashed fabrics, I’ve had some horrible experiences from unwashed fabrics …. Which is why I pre-wash everything.

So I was really worried about the blacks.... the reds were from my stash and were prewashed, probably many times, to get the red dye out.  I tossed both quilts in the washer with a Color Catcher,  between cycles I took the first one out and added a clean one, and before the final rinse the same.  Here are the three Color Catchers after…

Red?  Not a trace of black?  Just red?  I KNOW those reds were all pre-washed.  I pondered on that for quite a while, it just didn’t make any sense to me.

Then… oh yea… the backing fabric was red and I didn’t pre-wash it… DUH again.