QuiltingHaven

I wash everything!!! Gently on the jelly rolls and charms in the bathroom sink and everything else gets the washing machine. I have the nylon bags that I put fat quarters and everything else is on its own. I put them in the dryer for 10 minutes on low with the woolie balls and take them out and hang them to finish drying. I also, wash the backing. The batting gets 5 wet wash clothes, spritz water on the batting and put in 6 woolie balls to move things about. Now on that one, I check it every ten minutes and re-arrange the batting - total of 30 minutes on warm dryer. I am always astonished as how much some fabric shrinks. However, on all my qulit labels, it says: Wash: warm/cold & Dry: Low or hang. So hopefully my finished quilts won't shrink.

mac

I, too, would wash anything that is a red or a dark fabric in a mesh bag. I know you are taking a chance with shrinkage; better safe than sorry. If the fabric is really dark or you have a lot of them, I would use more than one color catcher. I have used as many as 4 at a time and found all four to be really dark when the wash finished.

When I was young and had a lot of energy, I made and machine quilted a king-sized quilt in the garage for a Christmas present for my brother. It was freezing cold and I was wearing gloves without the fingers so I could maneuver the quilt under the sewing foot. I finished at 12:15 a.m. on Christmas morning. I washed it so it would be nice a soft and all wrinkly for him to snuggle under. When I took it out of the washing machine, I noticed that the light colored turquoise fabric ran onto the white fabric. Who would have thought that this very light color would run and bleed onto the white fabric? Fortunately, it bled in such a way, it almost looked like the fabric was made that way. I dried it and my brother never noticed the difference. Back then they didn't have color catchers.

I will never forget the comment he made about the quilt after thanking me for it. He said, "Why would you cut all those pieces of fabric apart only to sew them back together again?" After all of these years, there are times when I ask myself the same question when I am having a problem with sewing a block that doesn't come out the dimension it is supposed to be.

By the way, Salad Spinners...Who would of thought? Great idea for the extra one I have in my garage.

caspharm

Same here. The only fabric I ever wash first is flannel. All other fabrics are washed after the quilt is finished.

feline fanatic

That is a beautiful quilt. I am a pre-washer but in this case I would not. The craftsy site even advises against it on the link you provided. Bernatex is a reputable manufacturer and they make beautiful quality fabric in my experience. I would bet these gradation fabrics are colorfast. Make the quilt then wash in cold water with color catchers and synthrapol or blue dawn dish detergent in a top loader washing machine where you can control how much water, use lots, wash as though this was an extra large load.

Jane Quilter

i would wash in warm water, spin, then hang dry. If I lost yardage to make quilt I would contact Craftsy for a replacement. Don't wait too long to do this step after purchasing.

quilterchibb

I wash all my fabric. I got a kit from craftsy and was worried about it to, but I figured out what I needed to cut from each fabric and since there was plenty of extra fabric I washed it. I ended up with lots of leftover fabric.