Originally Posted by gypsylady5
Why do you do that to yourself? Fabrics are pre-treated for colorfastness and shrinkage, so why do you spend all your time washing and ironing fabrics? I've never understood that need. If I had to do that, I wouldn't be quilting!
They may say colorfast and won't shrink.....but with 100% cottons, you might get some bleeding and shrinkage. I don't usually have issues with lighter colored fabrics, but the darker ones such as reds and blues are notorious for bleeding. Batiks are the same way. I found red fleece blankets on clearance just after Christmas one year and didn't prewash, just used them to back lapquilts. When I washed after finishing the quilt construction, I found out that the red fleece ran like crazy and the white squares in the quilt top were now pink! So now I always wash reds, darks and batiks.
The fabrics are also manufactured with lots of chemicals like formaldehyde and insecticides. Who wants that next to your skin while piecing the top? And I always wash quilt when finished to get any remaining chemicals out. It also shows me if I have any oops to fix.