Blue fabric soaking in water with a little dish detergent, to leach out blue dye that might stain other fabrics in the quilt. I don't know if necessary, but I want to be careful. I'll do the same for the red fabrics. After soaking (three changes of cold water) , I squeeze (not wring) excess water, then soak the fabrics in a home made corn starch solution before pressing out excess starch solution and allowing to dry on a towel.

I decided to pre-soak some deep blue fabrics before starching them. I don't know if necessary. A lot of blue came out. These will go into my first quilt of valor. There will be reds, also pre-soaked, & creams. Three of each. #quiltofvalor #quilting #menwhoquilt #veterans #quiltstar