quiltlady1941

I was asked to make a quilt for a young boy, his love is Dinosaurs. I found some great fabric at JoAnn's and it was on sale so that was good. I bought all the fabric to go with the quilt at that time. I took it home and washed all the fabric for the quilt.

I decided to make Warm Wishes Quilt as after looking up here different ones said it was a good quilt to focus on a fabric. (the dinosaurs) After making all the blocks, I laid out the blocks on my bed, and really didn't like how it looked for some reason the green fabric didn't make the dinosaur fabric pop. So I laid out some brown fabric also from JoAnn's. it was country classic in a dark brown. I liked that much better so I ripped out all the green strips and sewed in the brown fabric, I really like how this look much better.

Ok here is my problem, after going to bed and laying there thinking about the quilt, I realized that the brown fabric WASN'T washed! Oh no! so seeing that the quilt is all sewed together already all but the boarders, I really didn't know what to do.. So I wash a piece of the brown fabric and I measured it before , it was only a strip of 3x7, I was safe as far as the bleeding goes, but the fabric shrunk about 1/4 inch all-around. So is this going to distort the quilt after it Is quilted and finish then washed.Is there anything I could do to stop this, I sure hate to rip it all out and then buy more brown fabric and wash it and resew the quilt, I'm ready to toss this top and start over, but I would have to buy more fabric and that would double my cost of the quilt, which I can't pass on to the lady that asked me to make the quilt. She is just paying for the fabric and not my time, which is fine with me.

So can anyone tell me a solution to this problem? What would you do? Help! Please!

sewbizgirl

Don't worry about it! That little bit of brown not being washed will not matter at all in the grand scheme of things. Just quilt it and finish it. Once the fabric is sewn into the quilt, all the other fabric, batting and quilting stitches will control shrinkage. It will be one unit then.

Honestly, it will not make a difference!

Don't you hate those "OH NO" thoughts you get lying in bed?!

Very pretty quilt, BTW...

Dolphyngyrl

The quilting and batting will control the shrinkage. I wouldn't stress over it

nativetexan

yes, just quilt those colors well and it will be fine. quilts are supposed to be cuddly and crinkled. nothing wrong with that.

bearisgray

1/4 inch shrinkage each way on a piece that small seems to be a lot to me.

Depending on which way it was shrinking - on a 42 x 36 inch piece of fabric

that uncut piece would end up being (36 x .916) x (42 x .964) = 32.976 x 40.488

or (36 x 0.964) x (42 x 0.916) = 34.704 x 38.472

I arrived at those decimals by this method:

(3 - 0.25)/3 = 0.9166...
(7 - 0.25)/7 = 0.9642....

The dark brown as compared to the green really does brighten up the quilt.

quiltlady1941

I just post asking what to do with the quilt top that is done.. all fabric washed but forgot to wash the brown, this is what happened when I washed one of the extra blocks. You can see how much the brown fabric shrunk in comparison to the other fabric in the block..

sewbizgirl will this still be ok after it is quilted being it shrunk this much?? I am ready to do some serious ripping !!

QuiltE

You do have a nice quilt in the works.
And I agree, the brown really makes those blocks pop, far better than the green did.

Unfortunate that you have now realized the non-washing.

I saw your photo on the other thread.
While it may cause problems, I think if you heavy quilt it, you can get it stabilized.
I wouldn't go with SITD, as that would leave the open areas more apt to show the shrinkage.
Instead head towards some sort of an all over pattern, where the stitching will cross the seam lines as well as stabilize the fabric.

However, nothing is guaranteed ..... you could do up a small sample piece and see what happens.
I'm thinking placemat or table topper size would let you see what happens with washing/drying.

Another consideration ... choose your batting accordingly.

Onebyone

The smaller the piece the more shrinkage. The finished quilt the fabric will be fine.

MadQuilter

A lot depends on how much quilting you plan to do. If you go with an overall design, I think it will still be OK. There will be more puckering in some areas after washing, but personally, I like that look.

bearisgray

I would take it out - and use washed fabric - but as others have said - it is your project.

But I actively dislike the snirped/unevenly puckered look - so - - - -