I never did the prewashing before joining this board, but now I do. I have really bad allergies but never thought about chemicals in the fabrics might be causing me to have headaches until I read a post on the board. Since I have been prewashing, I don't have the headaches from the fabrics anymore. I also have an air purifier in the room that really keeps a lot of the small particles out ot the air. I grew up with my mom sewing and never knew her to prewash anything, but she was not a quilter either. Most of the clothes she made were poly or poly blend which does not shrink or bleed like cottons. So for me, thank you ladies for the wealth of knowledge you are all so willing to share. I have been washing loads of fabrics in the same color family. For those really small loads, I purchased a portable washing several years ago from EBAY for about $40. I love it especially when I have on 1 or 2 piece of fabric to wash.