I have always had issues washing my fat quarters before using them, because there was so much raveling and loss of useful fabric. I always ended up zigzagging the edges to preserve as much as possible. Well, I found a way that seems to be better.
I recently got a new washer & dryer. There is a handwash setting on the washer, so I used that instead of the regular cycle. And the dryer has a rack for drying sweaters. So I put a couple of f4s on it, and in 5 minutes they were ready to iron. And there was very little raveling. Hooray! I had everything dry before a regular load of clothes was finished washing.
Thought I'd share in case others have the same problem...