Bleeding is not the only problem when washing cottons. They shrink at different amounts. Once I washed ALL the colors of the Kona cottons, measuring before and after ( worked for a quilt store and we were testing). They not only shrunk in length in different amounts, but I was stunned to discover they shrunk different amounts in the widths. You simply cannot predetermine how much shrink is in any fabric. If made into a quilt with fabric that is not washed, you can expect that the different patches will pull up different amounts. My question is: After putting so much work into a project, why would you risk that?
SandyQuilter