So many people have said they "have no problem" with using unwashed fabrics.

I measure most of mine "before" and "after" washing - I would guess that most of them shrink "some" and some shrink "a lot"

"A lot" to me is more than one inch in width (40-45 inch width) or 1/2 inch in a 36 inch length.

You're not the only one. That's one of the reasons I prewash just about every fabric I buy. I sure don't want put in all kinds of effort and time only to realize that my project got ruined because it shrunk in the wash.

I've never measured but can certainly tell the difference, that's why I prewash everything. I did not before I started quilting, sewed for years for my girls and grands, never crossed my mind to wash first!

Oh, yes, I prewash in hot and dry hot. Then I iron them with a lot of starch. Then I can cut and sew and pretty much expect them to stay that same size over the years.

Okay i must admit that before being in this group, i did not prewash. Now i prewash Every piece of fabric :lol:

I guess it just doesn't bother me, but then again my quilts aren't so intricate that it would matter.

Yup. Lots of folks don't prewash, but I always do for this reason! That and bleeding. I know people always claim, "I've never had a problem..." But all it take is once to ruin months or YEARS of work.

Washing before quilting and washing after quilting makes a difference in shrinkage. If fabric is closely quilted to a batt, the amount of shrinkage will be determined by the batting instead of the fabric.

Harriet Hargrave made a quilt to prove this. She used unwashed *flannel* in a quilt, then machine quilted it and washed it. The flannel did not shrink as I would have expected; she had used a batting with max 3% shrinkage (I think it was Hobbs 80/20).

Fabric shrinkage will be much more noticeable in quilts that are tied or do not have quilting lines close together.

I do not prewash fabrics and use Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon 100% cotton batting, which is a very traditional batting. My quilts come out looking like antique quilts -- evenly crinkled because the batting shrinks, but not distorted by uneven or excessive fabric shrinkage.

I'm thinking that the true test of fabric shrinkage in a quilt is washing after quilting rather than before quilting.

Since you're not going to wear the quilt shrinkage isn't that big of a deal. Even if you preshrink your fabric, cotton batting still shrinks. They might as well shrink together.

I agree!