scifihippie

Thanks for all the replies. I hate prewashing and having to iron it before I cut anyway. This will save me a bit of time.

And thanks for the tip on the flannel. I have some character flannel to make something for my son. I'll definitely wash it.

mlaceruby

never prewash either
like the slight pucker when finished
just too much work to wash and Iron all that fabric!

BRenea

I usually don't prewash my cotton fabrics, too much extra work straightening them out again! I also think fabric that isn't prewashed has more body and is easier to rotary cut. I do steam out my fabrics, and I test very dark colors and reds for colorfastness.

littlehud

I don't prewash jelly rolls. I might lose a lot of fabric.

CarrieAnne

I prewash mine, but I have never washed a jelly roll, I think it might become a tangled mess!

weezie

I pre-wash everything except pre-cut strips/squares. When I use those, I don't wash any part of the quilt top until it's finished. Then I baste muslin on the back to cover the seam allowances to catch loose threads and wash with color catchers. I'm nearly finished another top that has unwashed Bali Pops 2-1/2" strips in it, so it will get the muslin backing/color catcher/wash in the next few days.

pieces

I always pre wash my fabrics. I am allergic to formaldhyde and need to wash the excess dye from the fabrics.
I have never purchased the 'jelly roll' so I am not sure about washing them. It seems they would become a tangled mess with a lot of raveling. Maybe placing them in a lingerie bag would solve these problems. (?)

bearisgray

I disagree. Unless you mean less than three months ago.

Quiltbaby

I am totally confused. I prewash because I puchased some Kona cotton which was orange and I purchased some navy blue Kona. The bleed on the orange in places. So I had to get that out and then wash the blue two times before it would not bleed. All of this is 100% cotton.

I do not know what to do about the jelly rolls. I am like the ladies above, I would not wash it either.

Butterflyblue

Me too! And I waited the whole time for the quilt police to show up, but they never did. The only problem I've had (and it was pretty slight, barely noticeable to anyone but me) was if my backing wasn't prewashed and most of the blocks were, so that the backing shrank more overall than the top.

I did a test doll quilt with unwashed and washed fabrics, just to make sure before I tried it on a bigger quilt, and you couldn't tell a difference.

You might pre-test some of the deeper colors to make sure they aren't going to bleed, though.

A lot of my scraps are from clothing projects, which I always prewash for, but then if I buy a FQ or charm pack, I usually don't prewash, which I why I have a mixture of washed and not washed fabrics, plus of course scraps others have given me, and I never know if they've been washed or not.