I have a friend working on an I Spy quilt - a group of people had gone together and joined resources to split the bounty so all had a good selection of prints. She purchased the fabric for the sashing and corner stones and since it was dark blue and red, she prewashed it to prevent future bleeding........none of the prints used for the swap have been prewashed - what should she do? Will the quilt shrink unevenly and cause problems with viewing the image in the I Spy squares? What should she do? How big would you cut the initial square if she just wants to wash "her" squares out of the fabrics?

I know I'm rambling but I've been bragging all of you up on how much I can learn from this board so I'm hoping to recruit her with sharing your wisdom on this.

Thanks in advance for all your help!!

You can wash the squares and then they will shrink and stop the bleeding. hopefully they don't shrink much but it would put your minds at ease. As for the size of the squares that would depend on the size of them after the shrinkage has occured, if you prewash them and the size of the pattern on the squares. You can't really cut something off in there, it makes it harder to know what they are. So I would take the largest pattern, measure it and then make all my squares the same size.
Thats just my thoughts though. Good luck with your I spy!

If the quilt is heavily quilted, it will probably be okay.

just make the quilt= when it's done (quilted and bound) put it in the washer with cold water and a color catcher- the fabrics will be fine- you would be amazed by the THOUSANDS of quilts with a few fabs pre=washed- many not-
the quilts turn out fine-
if you are worried about any of the eye spy squares bleeding you could dampen the square and press a white paper towel on it- if color comes off- it should be washed.

Cut her squares 1 1/2" larger and she should be fine :D:D:D

ditto.

I. Agree, make the quilt then wash with color catchers, if lots of dark colors then toss in two color catchers.

I've made over 8 I-Spy using poly-cotton and 100% cotton novelties that reflected the person for whom I was making the quilt.
None of the novelties had been washed prior to making the quilts.
All the quilts have been washed since with no problems