I would think that if the fabric was going to do whatever it was going to do - that it would do it evenly through the entire piece.

I can see using sizing or starch to stabilize it before cutting a lot of pieces on the bias, but the not washing truly puzzles me.

I'll bet they say not to pre-wash the fabric because it makes it nearly impossible to line it up perfectly. The washer will twist the fabric and pull it out of perfect alignment.

that's my guess too! :thumbup:

I think SQ hit it right on the head, the washer can do odd things to fabric

The Maxine Rosenthal book does say to use it unwashed.

I had washed my fabric long before I read the book!!!! When the LQS told me unwashed for the course, I went *gasp*.

The teacher said, oh not to worry .... just starch it up good ... that it was the slippery-ness we needed to allow the layers to shift easily when putting them together.

And bonus ... with all the starch there was barely any fraying throughout the whole process. When I took it to hte LAQ, she commented on how clean and tidy it was. Kind of sold me on the reasons why so many starch/size as they go.

Though I hate the starch ..... for the white flakes that come as you iron it. Would never spray it on the right side of the fabric.

And for those who are wondering about this OBW ... here's the link ...
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-141548-1.htm

I don't know - I did fussy cut my pieces - but I could achieve a perfect line up - so I don't get it.

I did cut my pieces one by one - but it still seems logical to me that if the fabric pattern would "distort" - that it would do it over the whole piece.

Are you doing a OBW? or what are you working on?

Fabric won't get twisted and pulled perfectly evenly over the whole length in the washer.

So how come some fabric is pulled waaaaay off grain when it's still in the store? Hasn't been near a washer or dryer yet as far as I can tell.

Because whoever wound it on the bolt didn't get it started straight. I tried to find a video of how that's done but I couldn't find it. I don't remember where I saw it either.

A person takes the two selvedge edges and hold them together and starts it on a reel and a machine turns the reel however many times the person has set it for for the number of yards they want on the reel.