Originally Posted by Prism99

Pre-shrunk perm-press cotton fabric?

I personally like the look of antique quilts, which were made with 100% cotton batting and 100% cotton fabrics. I like the way they crinkle up and get softer with every washing. These battings are thin to start with, so really don't need to be flattened by ironing (although you could safely do it).

I don't pre-wash fabrics, but rather just let everything shrink up together (3% shrinkage is typical). Most fabrics these days shrink up at about the same amount but, if you get one that shrinks more, it really doesn't matter if you have done a lot of machine quilting; quilting keeps fabric from shrinking excessively. Most fabrics these days are also colorfast; however, I do test suspicious fabrics before using in a quilt. If they fail my tests, then I do a treatment with Retayne to set color. Even if they don't shrink as much as the unwashed fabric in the quilt, they will still be crinkled up by the batting shrinkage. It all seems to work out in the end.

Using pre-shrunk fabric and unshrinkable batting (polyester) results in a quilt that looks very different. Nothing crinkles up and the look is very much more modern.