I am astounded at the work so many of you do! And I thought my routine was long.
1) I run all new fabrics thru very hot water, keeping like colors together (I use plastic tubs, like those pink things you get from hospitals). If something runs (and yes, about one in 5 or 10 does) I pull it out and redo it with salt in cold water, and since I wash all my quilts when they are done I know that there is no "running" problems. Early in my quilting experience I used color grabbers (when my quilt ran terribly) and I put the quilt through the wash, with grabbers several times before the color bleeding was really low, so I don't think color grabbers are the best answer. I still keep some handy for emergencies, but not for new material ones.
2) My new front loading GE has a rinse and spin cycle (must be for quilters!) which takes 12 minutes.
3) Then the fabrics go into the hottest setting of my dryer (to make them shrink if they are going to), but I get them out before they are dryed out of their minds, fold and put away in my stash.
4) I never have any problem with fraying!!! Why would anyone put new cut fabric into an agitating washer??? Even finished quilts should not be treated this way unless you have a gentle or hand-washng setting, and even that's iffy. The thought of presewing edges just to prewash them is weird to me. It has to be more time consuming than simply pushing them up and down in very hot water with your hands for a minute and then letting them soak.
5) Am I missing something here? In rereading this it looks a bit rude, and that's not what I meant to be.