Wishy, Washy

Last week I showed the steps I took to turn this cross-stitched daisy on linen into a non-conforming sized pillow. At the end of the article, I questioned, pensively how this might survive a washing.

This week, I decided to put my speculation to a test.

Several years ago, I made a wall-hanging quilt from a cross-stitched piece that featured tulips. I finished the stitchin, added quilting cotton borders, quilted the piece by hand and hung it up.

About a year ago, two gregarious conures (birds) joined our household, and their cage was placed nearby.

Woodstock and Doodle (the conures) have lots of chew-toys to keep them busy, but hey prefer to chew things other than their toys, sometimes, like quilts.  That little nibble on the back of the quilt is their handiwork.

I took the quilt down, and laid it nearby where it got dirty. but I've been afraid to wash it because (1) the chew spot, and (2) since this was made from linen/quilting fabrics, I wasn't sure how it would survive a toss in the drink! 

With the pillow raising similar questions, I decided that I found my test case.

First, I washed the quilt as I would one of my hand-made wool sweaters. Filled the basin with cold water and mild detergent (I used Soak Wash, in this case). Let the quilt sit in the cold water for a bit, to let the Soak Wash do its thing, rinsed a couple times with clear, cold water, then threw it in the washer for the spin cycle.

Hmm. Pretty good!

The quilt crumpled a little, but I was really expecting the linen to react differently, more specifically, to shrink at a significantly different rate than the rest of the quilt.

That didn't happen.

Excellent!

But not done.

What if this was high-traffic quilt like a child's quilt that would get used a lot. Nobody wants to hand wash a kid-quilt, even if it's a special one, I'd guess.

With wild abandon, I threw the quilt straight in the washing machine for Test #2.

I treated this like I would treat any other hand-quilted quilt that I've made. Added regular laundry detergent. Set the machine to the delicate cycle and one rinse.

For its first washing, for almost any quilt, I add a color-catching cloth. I was pretty confident that the DMC threads used for the stitching was colorfast, but I threw in the cloth anyway for this inaugural wash.

And then I hit 'go'

When I came back, to my delighted surprise, the quilt was in just as good condition as after the hand-washing.

Better in fact, because some of the dirt didn't come completely off with the hand washing and it did with the machine bath.

It laid flat with a little reshaping, but, it was still wet, It went through the spin cycle, but not the dryer. . .

As long as I was on a roll, if this was going to be a true test, the quilt had to go in the dryer.

Again, I used settings that wouldn't be unusual for me to use on any of my quilts. Low temperature, and about 20 minutes for this size. If it was a larger quilt, I'd probably set the timer for a longer amount of time, 30-45 minute intervals, checking the quilt in between.

And this is where things fell apart. . . . sorta. 

Although not 100% crispy dry, the quilt was still just a hair damp, but it was really wrinkly.

However, on closer inspection, the linen really didn't shrink. The quilt did have that crinkly texture that is pretty typical of a just-washed quilt.

Since this is a small piece, I put it face down on my big board ironing surface and gave it a quick, lightly steamed pressing.

And it was just like new. Maybe a little bit out of shape, but not noticeably so. Certainly not unevenly 'shrunk.'

The chewed spot frayed a little, but since it's on the back, no one would ever see it hanging on the wall.

A couple additional observations/recommendations:

• I enjoy doing stitching sometimes, but I really enjoy when I can turn those stitcheries into something besides framed work. As a quilter, turning the stitchery into quilts is a really nice option for me, and I like that it seemed to survive washing quite well.
• Granted, I didn't put this to a rigorous test, like hot water wash and dry. But then, I would never hot water wash and dry any quilt. So this felt like a reasonable test, but not a rigorous one. If I were to gift this to someone, I might include washing instructions on the label to ensure a better chance for laundering success if this piece were to leave my hands.
• DMC thread has a reputation to be colorfast, however, I think I would still take the precaution of adding a color catching sheet in the washer. I'd be much more leery about washing a piece that incorporates hand-dyed threads without testing the thread for colorfast-ness.
• Linen is a lower thread count than quilting cotton, so I take a couple of extra precautions when I make a quilt with stitchery in the mix. First, if I'm piecing the linen into the quilt (like the tulips), I trim the stitchery anticipating using a regular 1/4" seam, but each seam involving the stitching has a zig-zag stitch added to the seam allowance before the seam is pressed. In the case of the pillow, since the quilting cotton was appliqued onto the linen, I left the entire linen fabric in tact including the zigzag I placed around the perimeter of the linen at the beginning of the stitching to keep it (the linen) from fraying. Additionally, especially if this quilt has higher use potential, I add another layer of a neutral fabric (matching the linen color) between the stitchery later and the batting to keep the batting from migrating/bearding over use and multiple washing.

I like that this test gives me a bit more confidence and few more options when incorporating stitching on linen into quilts.

 . . . And I was entirely prepared that my tulip quilt would be ruined as a result of this test. I'm glad it wasn't. I consider that a bonus!

Happy Stitching!
Joan