Washed and ironed every piece of fabric I own, do you think they will still be okay to use? Or have I stretched them? Please tell me I haven't wrecked them - I have 5 years worth :( I was having nightmares about it last night!!

I have done this and never had problems so you should be fine :)

I agree -- go for it -- I did same thing before I "learned". :)

Phew - thanks ladies....I was dreaming that I would have to chuck out all my lovely moda fabrics!

Pressing is more important when you have seams.

yardage is fine. It's the smaller pieces and the small, pieced pieces. LOL

Yup. Iron yardage. Press seams.

there is no way in HE double hockey sticks I'm going to "press" yardage. Can you say HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

:)

You're probably okay; the difference is most important with smaller pieces of fabric (like patches) and with bias or off grain edges.

If you're really worried, take an average piece of fabric from your stash. Draw around it on a sheet of paper. Then let it rest in a nice lukewarm bath for a while, take it out and let it dry. When it is dry, *PRESS* it.

Then lay it down in the original outline and see if it has changed in any significant way. If it hasn't, then you are probably fine. If it has changed significantly, well, then you will have some decisions to make.

Not all distortion is a disaster. If you rarely to never use bias cuts, if you tend to quilt fairly closely, if most of your fabrics don't have strong vertical or horizontal lines (stripes, plaids, border prints), then some distortion won't make one bit of difference.

If you do have lots of stripes, plaids and border prints that look wiggly when they shouldn't, if you like to do a lot with triangles and/or off grain cuts, if you don't quilt fairly closely, then it might be worth it to wet and press your fabrics. Might be easier to do if you do it by project rather than tackling your whole stash at once.

There are no quilt police. Small pieces of cut fabric are important to keep the size when pressing. ANYTHING with a bias edge will stretch. If your in doubt which is the bias edge, hold the fabric selvage to selvage and try to stretch. Then try to stretch the other direction at a 90 degree angle. It will stretch more. Now try to stretch it from corner to corner - there is your bias. This is the most important sewn seam to PRESS never iron. As others have said, as long as you square you fabric and cut correctly you should be ok. I also use 'sizing' when using the iron. It gives a little more stability. Good luck.

The only time I would worry is if I have stretched the printed design out of alignment on the fabric. If the stripes are wavy, outlines on the blocks are distorted, then I know I was to aggressive with the iron :D:D:D

it is generally fine to pre-wash and iron your fabrics-
the pressing part is dependant on piecing your blocks- pushing the iron around on your pieced blocks can distort them

Don't worry about it.

Thanks everyone, I have distorted a few moda charms, but the big pieces seem to be ok. I will try the luke warm water idea and see if I can save the charms - its such a beautiful fabric it would be a shame to waste it:)

Chuck it my way .... I don't mind stretched fabrics !! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Oh, those would be easy to fix!

Get them wet to relax, let them dry and they may go back all on their own.

If they don't, then measure (or eyeball) the two diagonals. If the square is distorted, one of the diagonals will be shorter than the other. Take the corners of the shorter diagonal and give it a gentle pull. Let go and see if it has gone back to square. If not, try another gentle pull.

Once you have it square again, you might consider sizing or starching it to help it hold to the proper shape.

Don't worry about it.