I personally don't pre-wash anything. But I do wash all finished quilts with Shout Color Catchers (and if it were batiks, I'd use multiple ones). I've never had a problem with batiks, reds, black, etc as long as I use Color Catchers.

Shout COlor catchers attract all the excess die in the wash water. You can buy them in the laundry aisle and can use them multiple times before throwing them away.

If you feel you must pre-wash the rest of those batiks, you can soak them in the sink and gently swish them with your hands. Lay them flat to dry, steam iron them dry if you're worried about shrinkage.

Opposite of jennifer, I pre-wash everything, at least a soak in the sink to test if it will run, especially reds and dark colors. I've even had green fabric turn the water green. It all depends on the manufacturer, and every fabric, even different bolts, could have been treated differently when made.
Still, I've had reds run onto white after a cold rinse, but Color Cather will usually fix that (not always though).
BlueBars

I'm the same as above. I prewash EVERYTHING, this way I never have to wonder did I wash it, will it bleed, will it shrink? My main thing is not the wash, but the drier, I put stuff in on the hottest drier setting to force any shrinking to happen NOW, before I sew the project.

Also, I use various fabric sources including for batiks, so am not always confident of their colorfastness.

Example: last wknd at a Church yardsale, I bought a large man's shirt w/ a Ralph Lauren label which I immediately recognized as an all cotton Indonesian batik (done in white on indigo, indigo sometimes bleeds). I paid $4 for what will likely be abt 3/4 yd. of beautiful fabric!

I also prewash everything. I had one client ask me to wash her quilt after I finished handquilting it (she'd gotten it almost done before she had a stroke and couldn't finish it). I put it in the bathtub with cold water and a Color Catcher, but even after TEN washes with a new Color Catcher in every wash, the dark rust dye was still bleeding into the white. The white cotton fabric kept wicking the dye out of the rust fabric along the seam lines. I'd think we were good, hang the thing to dry and sure enough, more dye would be migrating into the white. I think it took a total of 15 washes and rinses before all the excess dye was removed.

Annie

I always wash.

SharonG/FL

Since you already have your pieces cut or are too small to wash, why not just sew it together? Add a few color catchers to the wash. Also, with batiks the fabrics are already varied in color throughout, so some color bleeding might just make it more interesting. --Amy

wash, rinse, repeat and hot dry ... iron ...hot and steamy (maybe now i see why hubby likes it when i quilt ;-) )

yet still i get a kind of 'crinkly' olde feel when i wash the final product (not that i am complaining) but i never have colour transfer problems.

Is the crinkly olde feel occurring before or after you wash your projects the first time? If it's after, it's because your batting's shrinking just a bit. I like that look and I think it makes for a softer quilt, but for wallhangings and table toppers, I preshrink my batting.

Annie

after washing the final product... i figure the batting shrinks just a bit and give the soft crinkly feel. since i have never (yet) made a wall hanging or table topper it works just fine for me.

The batik dyeing process usually involves boiling the fabric (to remove the wax resist). Depending on how complex the batik design, it may have been boiled several times. So I wouldn't worry about fabric shrinkage too much.

I've read that some quilters who favor batiks like to prewash them to remove any minute amounts of excess wax that might be left in the fabric. They claim that the pre-washed batik is softer and easier to work with.

I'd just stitch up that project you have planned and wash it with a color catcher.

CMC

Thanks everyone. I'll certainly try the color catchers. I appreciate all the help.

Original batik will not shrink or bleed easily, because the fabrics made from woven, either its silk or cotton! if your batik bleed and the color fade, most likely its fake batik, you can tell from the price and fabrics, fake batik usually under $100 original batik above $100 because to made batik you need 1-3 month depend on pattern complexity