Originally Posted by
squiggie
I have been quilting for many years and I made a dumb mistake. A friend asked me to make a quilt for her new grandchild due in January. She brought nice fabric at a good quilt shop. After I cut all the pieces, I remembered that I should have washed the fabric first. I put the quilt together and it looked fine and for some strange reason I decided to wash the top and back before quiliting. I used a gentel cycle. What a mistake. There was so much lint that I thought the seams would not hold. I checked all the seams and they looked fine but it upset me, hoping that it will hold up after I machine quilt it. When I quilt it I plan to do some extra quilting at all the seams to insure that it holds together. I know I will never make that mistake again.
Does nobody in America line dry fabric. I always wash first but if I had a situation like this I would gentle wash in the laundry tub then hang on the line. I know a lot of you ladies get snow and other bad weather but surely everyone has some fine weather.
I know I'm lucky where I live because we get lots of sunshine (Queensland is known as the Sunshine State) but I haven't owned a dryer in almost 20 years. The only fabric that gets washed in the washing machine is muslin in multiple meters. Every thing else is hand washed, squeezed gently then line dried. After it's dry it is folded or put on boards. I don't iron until I'm ready to use fabric.