Iamquilter

Whenever I buy fabric I surge the ends and wash it before it goes in my stash room, then when I am ready to use it I know it is ready to go.

Tartan

I would first check to see how the panels are for straightness. If everything measures square before washing, I would slap on the borders and quilt. If the panels are off kilter, I would hand wash and block them square before adding borders. I have found that a lot of panels are printed off or are stretched when put on the bolt. I have even had to cut off printed borders from panels to get them square enough to add borders.

grammysharon

I am one of those people that pre-wash everything before it is used in a project. In fact I wash my fabric when it comes home from the fabric shop, that way I know everything has been pre-washed.

quiltlady1941

Thank you to all for your good advice on to wash or not to wash..

I always wash my fabric before I put it in my stash but when I got the panels I didn't, I really didn't know what to do with them.. The panels were given to me by the ladies from our church to make the baby quilts for the center...some are old and some new but all pretty cute. I just had to provide the backing and sew and quilt them, it was a big help to get the panels for free.

I will take your advice and finish one and try and wash it to see what it does.. I would hate to rip off all the boarders that I have on already. I'm trying to do them all together like cut all the boarders sq all of them up and so on, it makes the making of the quilts a little faster.

Thanks all for your help...I can always count on you ladies for good advice .

Prism99

I wouldn't wash the panels. If they are straight now, they could go wonky with washing. Fabric shrinkage is not an issue if the quilt is moderately quilted (not tied, and not quilted in lines 12" apart). Once quilted, the batting controls shrinkage of the fabric; mixing washed and unwashed fabric in this kind of quilt is fine.

I would wash only fabrics that I suspect could bleed profusely. Moderate bleeding is not a problem if you wash a quilt in a large machine (that uses a lot of water; not a domestic front-loader) in Synthrapol.